Graphic Interactive Format (GIF) has been used by brands for engaging audiences in campaigns that resonate with the Mobile audiences. Brands that have integrated the format in their campaign and found success, appeal to the audiences for  humor and creativity in the campaign while fulfilling a need for belonging, as described in “Understanding the Psychological Impact of GIFs in your Marketing Campaign“.

According to Adweek, Facebook is about to let brands post GIFs, Twitter recently allowed for auto-looped GIFs on its native video player and as mentioned by The Content Strategist, Michael Peggs, CEO of Marccx Media, says, “So many studies have shown that captivating imagery leads to better engagement. If you can interact with those images, even better. Branded GIFs are the perfect combination of content marketing and interactive communication.”

The Format with a looping nature and ability to captivate audiences has been seen to be effective in getting the campaign message across with visuals. Some of the reasons brand campaigns with GIfs seem to be working are:

Humor

Microsoft’s GIF shared by The Verge shows a Ninja Cat riding a T Rex, that places the brand in a cool context by featuring Ninja cat riding the T.Rex in Skype.

Creativity

McDonald’s in promotion for a Contest has created sequel GIFs to get the idea of theme park across in a creative manner.

Expression

Skittles that uses GIfs effectively on Tumblr., communicates ideas that express opinions most likely to resonate with the audience, in a contemporary context.  Ideas that may seem provocative are seen as humorous and in-context with a GIF.

Singular Branded Impression

As seen in the case of Looping videos, GIFs are known to work for brands as they deliver a singular branded impression and the looping nature bind the audience with “Captivating Imagery”.

 

Communication

As visuals are known to communicate the idea across faster than written text, GIFs in a format that is easy to relate to, get the communication idea across in an instant.

 

Instantaneous Messaging

GIFs get the message across instantaneously without much explanation required for the key campaign idea.