I think I have a Crush on an Animated GIF
Aug 03 2009
Look… I have not always been a fan of animated Gifs in emails, sometimes they work with a promo or special event, sometimes they just make things look cheap. But this Saturday AM (PS great day to get me thinking about going to drive a new car) I got this email from Lexus that has captured my attention. I think I might have looked at it 30 plus times and shown it to 4-5 people already. Maybe it was the car, but I have really thought that the idea behind the use of this was good.
I mean you run a risk running an animated gif/image as the lead into your email, the whole email in essence could be completely blank if the images are suppressed. You might not find it the biggest deal, but without any content it looks spammy. Is the fun animation worth the risk?
Now it is not because it is an animated GIF as the lead image in the email, but how it was executed. It was different. I mean it loads with basically an empty top half (which is all I could see) with a search box. My honest first impression of it is that it was junk. But then it started the dance. Slowly loading in terms into the search box (storytellling) that kept me engaged. Then the reveal of the brand and the car. It was clever.
It has had my head spinning with new creative ideas to test. And I might even go take that car for a drive too.
Here is the web version of the email so that you can see how it works. I was trying to grab the code from my inbox but could not get it to work perfectly. So enjoy the execution outside the medium here
Have you see animated gifs used well in emails? Do you have any good examples so share?
- Posted by Dylan Boyd
- @dtboyd
- at 9:41 AM
Published in Behavioral Marketing, Best Of Email, Brand Marketing, Email Design, Email News
(4 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
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August 3rd, 2009 at 10:13 am
[...] This post was Twitted by emailexperts [...]
August 3rd, 2009 at 11:56 am
I’ve used animation to great effect as a story teller, or to showcase a small range of images for a travel company – using GIF’s to rotate three images of a destination or hotel. It looks good, and always increases engagement.
I would however, urge caution if you are planning on using an animated GIF to promote your main message. There are very specialist ways around getting this to work though. Get in touch if you are interested in finding out how.
August 3rd, 2009 at 2:08 pm
Bonus points for making the first frame a complete image so the creative would still work in Outlook 2007.
August 4th, 2009 at 2:19 am
The. Best. Animated. Gif. Ever.
http://www.milkfat.com/diddybj.htm
August 4th, 2009 at 10:43 am
Have you checked out http://www.liveclicker.com? They specialize in this space.
August 6th, 2009 at 7:05 am
[...] Video in email is becoming a hot new trend. Alex Madison and Lisa Harmon walk through your options for including video in your marketing messages; and Dylan Boyd shares an example from Lexus that shows off the power of using animated gifs. [...]
August 25th, 2009 at 11:00 pm
[...] I think I have a crush on an animated GIF [...]
September 16th, 2009 at 3:33 am
[...] This post was Twitted by relevance [...]
September 16th, 2009 at 3:39 am
[...] This post was Twitted by ryanbuch [...]