It’s no secret that images are a boon for publishers and advertisers alike. Publishers love them because they can add value and make website content look more attractive. On the flip side, images provide advertisers with a nice canvas to display their ads on. Since people are naturally drawn to pictures, displaying relevant ads on top of them can greatly increase CTRs.
Now advertisers and publishers typically choose to work with static images such as JPEGs or PNGs mainly because they’re just easier to deal with. That being said though, it looks like that trend is changing. More and more companies are using moving images or GIFs in their marketing campaigns and consumers are loving it.
And we can definitely see why. We all know that moving images (such as videos) are more engaging and attention-grabbing, and with GIFs, people can make their messages more dynamic without the high costs of producing a video. GIF images are also lighter and easier to store, publish, and share. But don’t take our word for it. Below are two case studies of brands successfully using GIFs in their campaigns:
Case #1 Subway
To promote its #januANY ($5 regular footlongs) campaign, Subway is using several dynamic and funny GIFs as creatives for their Promoted Tweets and Facebook posts. The fast food chain deployed a string of entertaining (and often weird) GIFs promoting their sandwiches. Needless to say, the purpose of the stunt is to get people to share the images online, and of course rise their cravings for Subway sandwiches.
And so far, it looks like the stunt is working. Each Subway post has received numerous, favorites and retweets and the campaign has already been covered in top industry websites, such as AdWeek, The Daily Dot, and more.
Case #2 Dell
Marketing Sherpa recently published a case study about how Dell increased its revenue by 109% thanks to its GIF-centric email marketing campaign.
Dell wanted to promote the XPS 12, a convertible tablet and Ultrabook with touch-screen features. The company knew that they would need more than just a static image to convey the product’s full range of features so it instead chose to create a GIF of the product for its email marketing campaign.
The result? According to the case study, when Dell compared the campaign data with its quarterly campaign benchmarks, the GIF campaign gave them an 6% increase in open rate, a 42% increase in click rate, as well as a 103% and 109% increase in conversion and revenue respectively.
The takeaway
Consider using GIFs for your next advertising or marketing campaigns. You may find that not only will they engage and entertain your audience, but you might even save money in the process, considering that GIF images are easier and cheaper to produce.