At a recent IAB Town Hall gathering supported by the Content Marketing Task Force and Social Media Committee, members met to discuss the rise of visual content marketing as part of the digital communications mix, focusing on the animated GIF.
Animation credit: Tumblr
In an entertaining presentation titled “Moving the Needle: The Power of the Animated GIF for Publishers & Advertisers,” Tumblr’s Creative Technologist Max Sebela presented the history and significance of the GIF as a file formatincluding its decline in popularity and recent resurgence as a prime communication tool, plus best practices and the “secrets” behind a great GIF.
“GIFs were the first file format to give color and personality to the Internet, and they’re experiencing an exciting renaissance as an instrumental force in content creation, consumption and cultivating culture on Tumblr and across the web,” said Sebela. “We’re seeing a pivotal shift in marketers embracing the animation platform to tell compelling brand stories, connect with consumers, and drive engagement and earned media.”
Members were invited to share their perspective on the GIF format as part of their content marketing mix.
Buzzfeed, arguably one of the most prolific GIF users in the publishing world, added:
Animation credit: Will Herring, Buzzfeed
“If a picture is worth a thousand words, a GIF is worth 10,000. GIFs are a mini-vehicle for storytelling, capturing emotions and communicating them in a concise way that words and pictures alone cannot.” -Joe Puglisi, Senior Creative Strategist, Buzzfeed
“People scroll past hundreds of images everyday on the internet without batting an eyelid. An animated element goes a long way towards bringing an idea to life, and turning an ordinary static image into an extraordinary, eye-catching concept. GIFs help us trim the fat and highlight the core emotional truth behind an instance or idea.” -Will Herring, Senior Creative, Buzzfeed
According to Sarah Wood, Co-Founder and COO of Unruly:
“The GIF has been re-energized as a format, likely tied to the success and emergence of “sugar cube” content on Vine and Instagram Video. Portable, postable nearly everywhere, featuring fast load times and quirky, jerky looping “video,” the animated GIF, like Vine, is a content gateway. GIFs and Vines are both low cost forms of content creation that require the barest of tools and enable a new army of content creators to express themselves. The limitations of these formats only add to the creativity required to make awesome content. As short as a couple of seconds, the animated GIF broadens the dimensions of the video content spectrum, followed by Vine at 6 seconds, Instagram Video at 15, all the way to the 2-5 minute social videos we’ve seen trend on the Viral Video Chart. Animated GIFs and Vine require zero budgetand highlight the democratization of online content. Brands of all sizes can easily use these formats to drive their social conversation with custom content to win the hearts and minds of consumers, and get their feet wet before expanding to longer forms of video.”
Ahalogy’s Raman Sehgal, VP of Client Services, was quick to point out that Pinterest now supports GIFs and offered this suggestion to marketers looking to take advantage of this new content on the visual discovery platform, “When pinning, always remember the consumer context. Pinterest is not just a social network, but a content discovery tool. Marketers need to make sure their pinned GIFs add meaningful value for a user, and are in the right brand lens. Many of our brand clients treat GIFs on Pinterest not as ads, but rather as inspiring short-form stories.” See an example here.
Demand Media has a dedicated GIF offering for their clients, says Christine Fleming, Senior Director of Content Strategy and Monetization:
Animation credit: Demand Media
“The intent of our animated GIF offering is to have the best of both worlds: the instructions and the visualization of those instructions, all in one, without having to go back and forth between an article and a video for example. We’ve seen an increase in CTR (as compared to related articles and videos) by adding GIFs to related content alongside articles. We create content that meets the needs of people in their everyday lives, so this it’s a perfect format for step by step tasks that require in motion visual instructions, like cooking or fitness or even making a clothespin earbud holder!”
Lastly, Business Insider shared an example of how they are incorporating GIFs into editorial content to help bring stories to life. Emily Allen, SVP Ad Strategy added, “They’re great for showing short snippets of video and are much more convenient for the reader. GIFs are more dynamic than photographs. They offer the same effect as in the Daily Prophet in Harry Potter – except without the magic.”
From advertising to sponsored content to editorial usage, it is clear that GIFs are an exciting and powerful element in the visual content marketing toolbox for publishers, marketers and agencies alike. IAB will continue to host sessions where members will share their content marketing best practices for industry gain.
