Exploring Trends: Motion as a New Norm for Graphics

Why do we love GIFs?

The shortest explanation is because we actually enjoy the humor and especially the sarcasm that is best expressed in a GIF. Although GIFs have  been around for 30 years, in 2018 they’re as relevant as ever, expressing ideas when words aren’t enough.

The looping aspect of GIFs makes them funnier the longer you look at them when used to highlight a point. They might not always be funny, but that’s what we associate them with.

This year, animations in general are morphing and becoming accessible to everyone. Crello is an example of one tool that allows you to easily create your own animated designs which can be turned into GIFs.

6 ways to use animated designs in your marketing strategy

Animated designs are closely associated with GIFs. Whether you’re using an mp4 format, or a GIF, you can incorporate motion into your visuals to further entertain your audience and if you’re lucky, get a chuckle or a laugh out of them.

1. Create a tutorial

Although image tutorials are a safe bet, it’s very expected of you. Give your audience something new and refreshing! Don’t pack your articles with words either, use GIFs or animated designs to create something more compelling.

Many businesses have tutorials that they can share that’s related to their business, goods or services. This how-to visualization using GIFS and animated designs will likely be more fun to follow and result in more shares because it’s also entertaining.

2. Pack your articles with humor

Copywriters know this to be very true – sometimes you write a great article that you’re really passionate about but there are literally no images that will go well with it. You can take the fun/sarcastic route and inject some humor into your articles with GIFs and animated designs.

This is especially easy when you can modify existing animated designs in Crello and add your own text to make the animated designs work with your content.

3. Experiment with GIFs on website

Videos slow down your page’s loading time. Cinemagraphic GIFs are very popular additions to websites because they can feature high quality photography or other visuals that help establish that emotional connection with the viewer.

GIFs don’t always have to be funny, it’s also a very convenient format because it’s size is relatively small to regular videos.

4. Allow GIFs to take over your social media

For the sake of it, you can do a test run with how well GIFs work for your audience on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. All these channels support GIFs and animated designs.

What usually happens is that brands see more engagement because the format increases the changes that your audience will watch and share the GIF or animated design. It’s also quite different from the static content we’re used to seeing, so why not experiment?

5. Promote UGC

If you’re really invested into making this format work for your brand, you can host a brief contest on creating a GIF or animated design that aligns with your marketing goals. If you have a product, you can ask your audience to create a GIF that represents your brand or how the products make them feel.

This can be a fun contest that will involve user generated GIFs which are great for general use and promotion of your brand. Way to get everyone involved and get their creative juices flowing!

To find out how to create GIFs from Crello’s animated designs, visit this page.

Motion graphics going strong in 2018

Based on our findings, more and more brands are integrating GIFs and animated designs into their online marketing strategies. We take cues from big brands such as Starbucks, Pepsi, Skittles, and others. How will you integrate this trend?

It doesn’t take much to get innovative with this trend either. From using ready made GIFs, to creating your own animated designs – it’s all up to you and your imagination. One thing is for sure, stepping away from static images is on everyone’s agenda and for what it’s worth, this is the perfect trend to experiment with in your day to day marketing activities.

Final thoughts

We’ve really highlighted the benefits of injecting humor into your content, but if you’re planning to integrate motion into your visuals, you need to consider carefully just what edge you’re going to go take on with GIFs.

Make GIFs work for your brand – if it’s humor, so be it. But if that’s not really appropriate, you can create any GIFs easily as with our example of converting Crello’s customizable animated designs into GIFs you can easily integrate for your online publications and social media.