Branded Content
Branded Graphics Interchange Format (GIFs) and custom face filters are powerful tools in today’s marketing landscape. They raise brand awareness, delight audiences, make content more shareable, and drive engagement. In 2022, GIF culture—including hyper-immersive augmented reality (AR) filters—has become stronger than ever, especially on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Messenger, TikTok, and Snapchat. This isn’t surprising with 36% of millennials saying that GIFs convey their thoughts more effectively than words.
So let’s dive a little deeper into GIFs and AR filters, and why they’re dominating the social media space.
Our Journey With GIFs & Face Filters
2020 was a notable year for Instagram’s AR filters in particular, with large brands like Coca-Cola, Netflix, Gucci, and Nike Sportswear creating their own custom face filters on the platform. During the same year, Meta acquired GIPHY to further integrate GIFs into the Instagram app.
We quickly realized there was a gap in the digital marketing industry as there were not a lot of third-party resources available for brands to create their own GIFs and face filters. We began developing a new service offering for customized branded GIFs and face filters for our clients—but not without having their own first-hand experience with these assets to begin with.
Since launching the first of our own custom GIFs in March 2020, we have reached over 500+ million views on GIPHY. And with the acquisition of GIPHY by Meta, there is no doubt that GIPHY will continue to be improved. Meanwhile, our branded face filters on Instagram have surpassed 100K+ impressions since they were launched.
After seeing this data, we were confident that we could deliver similar results for our client roster.
How You Can Maximize Branded GIFs & Face Filters
Branded GIFs
Branded GIFs are great for personalizing and growing your brand. They are eye-catching, entertaining, dynamic, and fun. They are also a staple in internet culture. About 700 million people use GIFs on a daily basis through platforms like GIPHY. Some of the most popular GIFs online reach billions of views.
Your business can use customized GIFs to increase organic brand awareness across social channels. Custom branded GIFs can also be used for:
- Branded content collaborations
- Influencer marketing
- Promoting special events
- Creating engaging content for your social media community
The results are incredible. Custom GIFs can reach millions of views soon after launching. And with the acquisition of GIPHY by Meta, there is no doubt that GIPHY performance data will continue to improve.
Branded GIF Examples
The Influence Agency has worked with a variety of businesses, creating branded GIFs that bring the brand to life. These example GIFs were used on different platforms to create memorable and shareable content:
Custom Face Filters
Interactive Custom Face Filters can be used on Meta, Messenger, and Instagram. They are fully customizable and are featured under a ‘Face Filter’ category display on your Instagram Business or Creator Profile.
Face Filters are shared with the entire Facebook and Instagram community for anyone to use. This allows any brand to reach the platform’s monthly user base of over 1 billion through stories.
Custom face filters are effective marketing tools because of the following key strengths:
- Interactive and immersive;
- Able to drive organic traffic to your profile;
- Has the potential to go viral;
- Has trackable analytics; and
- Cutting edge—not too many brands are leveraging these types of assets.
Custom face filters also allow brands to tell richer brand stories while making their audience a part of it. A well-made and insightful custom face filter has the potential to inspire user-generated content.
Face Filter Examples
The Influence Agency has designed customized face filters for a number of brands, bringing fresh insight and out-of-the-box thinking when designing these fun, trendy, and on-brand customized face filters:
If you’ve ever thought about having personalized face filters and GIFs for your brand, now is the time to start!
