5 Tips for Optimising Your Branded GIFs

Branded GIFs have long been overlooked by marketing departments. When GIFs were created, they were often produced cheaply and carelessly, often with little relevance to the brand and no potential to go viral.

Viewed through the lens of performance marketing, however, branded GIFs reveal unexpected strengths!

Here we want to present 5 tips that should be considered for every branded GIF project:

1. Strong Branding

GIFs are often not branded or only minimally branded, as it is assumed that they will then be used more heavily.

The question, however, is: What does the company gain if GIFs go viral from which its own brand does not benefit in any way?

Especially with animated GIFs featuring your own illustration style, the brand can be elegantly integrated without looking overloaded or restricting its usage.

The benchmark should be that GIFs can be identified at least by those familiar with the brand (moderately branded). In the ideal case, and if possible, the brand is even conveyed through the GIF to completely new target groups (strongly branded).

2. High-Quality Production

Branded GIFs do not need to be hand-knitted to appear “authentic”. Nothing could be further from the truth. Through a high-quality illustration style and well-implemented animations, GIFs stand out more in various keyword searches and are consequently used more frequently.

Those who have them produced for cheap money may have GIFs afterwards, but as a rule, they have created zero value for their own brand. Rather, treat GIFs as CI elements and advertising materials and design them accordingly to a high standard.

We therefore advise creating five high-quality GIFs rather than ten of low quality. The rule here also applies: Quality over quantity.

3. Keyword Strategy

Whether a GIF goes viral is not just a matter of luck. The right keywords must be researched before creation.

To do this, we usually first create a list of occasions and situations for which GIFs from the respective brand environment could be used.

Afterwards, we evaluate which search terms offer the most potential for suitable GIFs and where there may be no competition at all.

4. Creative Application Possibilities

GIFs can contribute to marketing success not just if they become a viral sensation: You can use high-quality produced GIFs in your own social media communication, but also as elements on your website or on info screens, etc.

So that the investment in money and resources really pays off, we define a list of application possibilities for the branded GIFs in advance. Here are a few examples:

• as a CI element in stories
• in community management
• as a visual element in videos
• as a visual link in a giveaway/challenge campaign
• in messenger marketing
• as an eye-catcher in e-commerce ads

The more often the GIFs are used, the sooner the investment pays off.

5. Making it Measurable

Although no direct purchase completion can be attributed to GIFs, they can still be compared to a clear equivalent value. We use a formula to calculate the earned media value of a GIF campaign.

For this, we take the current CPM on Instagram (approx. €4) as a starting value. Based on this value, we then calculate the equivalent value of the GIF impressions.

The basic question here is: How much is a GIF impression in a user story worth to you compared to an impression in an advertisement on Instagram? Here is our rule of thumb:

• Strongly branded & core message – €2.50 CPM
• Strongly branded – €1.50 CPM
• Moderately branded & core message – €1.00 CPM
• Moderately branded – €0.50 CPM

This way, the media value of the free impressions can be calculated and, ultimately, the break-even point from which production has refinanced itself.

Once this point is reached, the GIF naturally remains in use and continues to bring constant free impressions for the brand.

Conclusion

‍Branded GIF campaigns have proven to be a highly efficient marketing tool for us. Many of our productions for clients pay for themselves within a few months and then produce stable, additional free impressions.

The advertising value generated in this way (even for local brands, this can be four-figure amounts monthly) does not have to be paid for again and again, unlike in advertising campaigns.

GIFs are naturally not a panacea, but they are definitely more than just an overhyped gimmick. Anyone who does not produce high-quality GIFs with a keyword strategy for their brand is leaving advertising value on the table every month.