How Cinemagraphs Are Changing the Face of Advertising
Video Content is King. It has emerged as the way for agencies, marketers and creators to break through the oversaturation of stagnant still photo content and digital advertisements to capture the limited-attention spans of online audiences. It empowers storytellers to vividly share their brand on social media and entices viewers to engage in the realm of multi-billion views every day on Facebook, click-through and convert. Despite the increasing awareness of the impact of video in content marketing strategies, only 20% of the 4 million advertisers on Facebook use video in their campaigns. This indicates that the high costs, time and resources involved in creating effective long-form video content are significant barriers for most.
With video marketing shifting towards micro-video formats ― short, digestible video content that auto-plays, auto-loops, often requires no audio and captures attention more quickly - leveraging its power to create effective advertisements, gain a competitive advantage and strengthen your brand positioning has never been more accessible for businesses of all sizes.
Cinemagraph by Virgo Haan
Since their debut in 2011, cinemagraphs have evolved into a sophisticated medium that elevate visual storytelling across all social media platforms, captivate the attention of audiences and with the benefits of being a micro-video format, perform incredibly well as Facebook advertisements. Framed like a photo and brought to life with a subtle hint of motion, cinemagraphs are often perceived as complicated to make with an extensive production process; in reality, this thumb-stopping format can be created in just a few minutes.
Flixel’s Apple Design Award-winning cinemagraph tools democratise the advertising landscape by empowering users to create effective content for social media and digital advertising. Using a digital camera or an iOS device, a tripod and Flixel Cinemagraph Pro for macOS or iOS, marketers can bring their creative production to their fingertips with minimal investment, time and resources.
The added integrations with Facebook Profile Video, Facebook Ads Manager and even Adobe Creative Cloud naturalise the place of cinemagraphs in workflows, personal expression and content strategy, making it even easier to flourish online with living photos.
With a rapidly growing global community of marketers, photographers, creators and enthusiasts, an upward rise in micro-video content, and the path Flixel provides to the competitive advertising landscape, let’s explore how cinemagraphs are changing the face of advertising today.
Cinemagraphs are #TRENDING
Top global brands are increasingly harnessing the power of cinemagraphs in their digital campaigns. With reports from Ad Age, Ad Week, Creative Bloq and more identifying the benefits of the subtly disruptive nature of cinemagraphs and the opportunities to host them on platforms like Instagram and Facebook in the era of auto-loop and auto-play, marketers are recognising that cinemagraphs are an ideal medium for brand storytelling and positioning.
Here’s how brands like KFC, Lexus, Puma and more are making cinemagraphs #TRENDING on social media:
With the increase in cinemagraphs on social media and in digital advertising, Flixel wanted to further explore the impact the medium has in content marketing and online campaigns. Over the course of this past year, Flixel partnered on and collected a series of case studies with top brands that provide deeper insights into the effectiveness of cinemagraphs, particularly in comparison to still photos, on Facebook and Instagram.
Each case study unveiled a staggering example of how cinemagraphs are improving several key performance indicators in online campaigns:
- 51x increase in engagement for PepsiCo
- 45% decrease in cost achieved during Microsoft’s campaign tests
- 9pt lift in brand awareness for Holden
- 34% increase in ad recall amongst Mercedes-Benz’s audience
Sometimes, the effect of a mesmerising cinemagraph can be completely unprecedented. When A&E launched their cinemagraph ad campaign for their hit show Bates Motel, no one could have predicted the 1.7 million people organically reached on Facebook. But what we can say with certainty is that still photos are out; and cinemagraphs are the best way to advertise on Facebook.
Learn more about Flixel’s Case Study Series with Top Brands here.
Bringing the Power of Cinemagraphs to 4 million Advertisers
Every business should be able to compete with the advertising power of brands like Nike, Netflix and Mercedes-Benz. Where large-scale companies have the time, teams and financial capacity to produce fully scaled advertisement campaigns, small-medium size businesses (SMBs) operate with comparatively limited resources.
Cinemagraph by Jon Kane Houldsworth for Live Lokai
Micro-video now reigns on social media and digital advertising. 80% of all video on Facebook is consumed without audio, and with auto-play and auto-loop functions, it is the perfect platform to host and maximise the impact of cinemagraph advertisements. Flixel Cinemagraph Pro empowers 4 million advertisers, 3.2 million of whom have never included video in their ads strategy, to take a process that traditionally involves extensive production, professional design skills and high costs and simplify it with three accessible items: a camera or an iOS device, a tripod, and our easy to use software to create sophisticated advertisements in minutes.
Meet Toronto-based SMB, inkbox
SMBs are beginning to see the opportunities available with cinemagraphs. When Toronto-based inkbox, the pioneer of the two-week tattoo, expressed a desire to scale their business on Facebook, Flixel collaborated with the startup to test our theory on how our tools democratise the process of ad creation.
Seeing how the mesmerising nature of cinemagraphs reflected their tattoos, a very visual product, inkbox ran a split A/B test on Facebook comparing the effectiveness of a still photo ad against a cinemagraph ad. The results not only showed a transformation in their audience engagement, but also a complete shift in how the company wanted to approach their Facebook strategy going forward.
Cinemagraph Pro: An Ad Tool in Your Pocket
For a small Italian restaurant like Bugigattolo that values serving authenticity in its product and building connections with patrons from around the neighbourhood, digital advertising meant the occasional still photo of one of their dishes. When they discovered cinemagraphs, they realised that they could share the spirit of community found in their restaurant through their online storytelling, simply by using a device that they already had.
SMBs around the world share Bugigattolo and inkbox’s stories. With small teams and a dedicated passion for their business, SMBs are more than capable of capturing their brand persona; they just need the right tool to streamline their process. The ubiquity of iOS devices, combined with Flixel Cinemagraph Pro for iOS, puts a powerful ad tool within their pockets and without the intimidation of deep costs, design skills or equipment. SMBs can easily unlock the potential of digital advertising for their business by shooting, editing, and uploading a unique cinemagraph ad directly to Facebook Ads Manager within minutes, all from the palm of their hand.
Cinemagraphs Are Changing The Face of Advertising
Digital advertising was perceived as a landscape solely built for big brands that have the budgets, expertise and time to develop elaborate campaigns for a long time. While companies continue to dedicate more resources to it, it is becoming clearer that any size business has ample opportunity to compete, so long as they have access to the right medium and tools.
Cinemagraphs are the most effective way to maximise the potential of your Facebook advertising. A sophisticated medium that has proven to hold the attention of audiences, lower costs, define unique brand positioning and heighten engagement for both big brands and small, they also naturally fit into the micro-video trend dominating content strategy and consumption; they are an ideal ad format to pursue on Facebook. Flixel’s award-winning cinemagraph tools absolve the 4 million businesses of the barriers to creating mesmerising advertisements by centralising the production process with accessible materials, apps and integrations. By democratising the advertising landscape, Flixel empowers every business to change the face of advertising, and bring it to life.
