creating gifs
- Ellie
- Mar 12, 2019
- 3 min read
GIFs are the ideal middle ground between an image and a video - consumers are becoming less receptive to traditional advertising so brands must try to use their creativity to capture their attention and make an impact in their minds.
It has been observed that people only remember 20% of the text they read without visuals, which just proves why visuals are more important than ever. I think GIFs are a really effective way of communicating as they help enhance a brand’s message in just a few seconds, and when the internet is over crowded with so much visual content it's important to have something snappy and to the point.
It was predicted that 84% of communication in 2018 was visual, so understanding how visuals work and are effective are so important! GIFs can quickly tell a brands story in a more authentic and exciting way. Many people refer to, particularly Gen Z, as having a 'goldfish memory' so these quick to the point visuals can be a vital part of their story.
GIFs may be used on many different platforms, from social media to email marketing as a different way of informing the audience about a new product, in a more interesting and appealing way, in just a few seconds.
In a study in 2017 Dell saw impressive results from its first GIF-centered email campaign, as it measured:
6% increase in open rate 42% increase in click rate 103% increase in conversion rate 109% increase in revenue
Showing just how effective GIFs are in marketing.
Today in our seminar we learnt how exactly to make our own little GIFs and I was shocked to learn how easy they really were to make! I absolutely love Graphic Design and Photoshop so I was in my element.
The first GIF I made below I just used a picture I found on Pinterest. I wanted to keep it in line with our Levi's brief but add a girly twist on it. When doing my primary research something I noticed repeatedly was students didn't buy from Levi's because they presumed they didn't make 'trendy' styles such as 'mom' and 'boyfriend' jeans, which definitely isn't the case! I wanted to produce something that reflected their trendy style and portrayed Levi's as a more trendy, 'intsagrammable' brand rather than the heritage brand everyone automatically thinks of when Levi's is mentioned. I kept it fairly simple as I didn't want to over complicate things whilst I was still getting the hang of it. I wanted to keep a girly pastel colour palette within the details to add to this new 'feminine Levi's'. I think this looks really effective, and I love how the extra graphic element adds an idea of fun and playfullness to the visual. Personally, If i saw this GIF on Levi's social media right now, i do think it would change my perspective of how I see the brand.
The second GIF I made in todays session was focused more on the current Levi's branding - red is definitely their staple colour hence why I chose this. I got the image of the girl off of Pinterest and used the colour adjust tools to change the background to red, I then saved the Levi's logo and one by one inserted the letters into different layers. I actually really love this GIF aswell and I feel like it really does fit into their branding, and will be something I want to incorporate into our Levi's video and Pitch presentation.
This task has really opened me up to how important little moving images like GIFs are, and how effective they are in engaging consumers! And this is a Skill I definitely want to start incorporating into more of my work in the future!
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