Molly Buccini

Marketers and internet-users alike love a good GIF image. If you’re not wasting time debating how the file type is pronounced (team soft-G here), you can spend hours sifting through hilarious cats, celebrity funny faces and other pop-culture gold. When included in content marketing, GIFs are almost always guaranteed to bring a laugh, provide context or simply give a glimpse into your brand’s personality.

You can generate engagement and show your company is hip to what’s hot by seasoning your content with pop culture GIFs. But another approach is to turn YOUR branded materials into GIFs to really make your company part of the action.

Here are a few examples of ways you can create GIFs that fit your brand’s message:

Turn logos, icons and similar imagery from your brand guidelines into a GIF, like we did for this email campaign:

 emailcampaign

Add custom GIFs to what would otherwise be a static blog image, like IBM did to show how „everything is in design.“ A little animation adds intrigue:

How did Brooklyn’s Peretz Rosenbaum become one of the most influential graphic designers the world has even known? See for yourself at his exhibit on Manhattan’s Museum Mile. Now through July 19.

Create your own take on a trending topic, like Refinery29. It used branded icons to create a simple GIF around the Oscars. This Tweet stood out among a sea of Oscars-related posts, and anyone who knows Refinery29’s branding would recognize it:

 

Show off a product’s variation like Kate Spade: 

 

Play up your people, like we did when we participated in the 2014 Ice Bucket Challenge:

 

Promote your latest and greatest offer or promo – like Sprint did with their “Cut Your Bill in Half” promo GIF:

 

Bring a fun spin to an otherwise classic message – like we did with this holiday card:

 Be Merry & Bright

Are you using GIFs in your content marketing strategy? We’d love to hear your ideas in the comments.