Forefront 8 : Gamasutra - gifs and promotion

For today's post I'd like to talk about something realy important that is often neglected in education, and that is promoting and advertising your game, and how to go about it. Various Facebook-groups exists to showcase your works on for example, Screenshot Saturday, but these only go out to other members of the same group, or unless those same members share the pictures. The case is the same with Twitter.

I saw an interesting article, which coincided with a trend I saw earlier during the summer at E3, and that was about using animated gifs as promotional material - firstly, the clips are small and quick, thus unintrusive. Secondly, they play automatically, and so whomever is watching does not need to sit through ads or even actually do anything.
I saw this very idea at work during E3, when the new Legend of Zelda game, Breath of the Wild, was announced, and someone had made gifs out of some of the most interesting scenes and scenarios, and these gifs were widely shared and liked.
Here are some examples of those gifs - diminutive clips that unobtrusively and without the viewer having to do anything, showcases some key aspects or new eye-catching features from a game.

I am seeing more an more of this kind of promotion appear, and I think the ease of watching them, combined with being able to, in a few seconds, show something flashy or interesting from your game, is going to become very big in the future.
The following article talks about using gifs in promotion, and what to do/what not to do:
http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/BundyKim/20160707/276365/Marketing_in_Motion_A_Year_of_Making_Gifs.php


I am pretty confident that I will use gifs in the near future to bring some focus to myself as a game artist. They are free, easy, and are driven by imagination rather than brand or money.

Sources:

Gamasutra: Matt Mirrorfish's Blog - Promoting Your Game With Animated GIFs. 2016. Gamasutra: Matt Mirrorfish's Blog - Promoting Your Game With Animated GIFs. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/MattMirrorfish/20160105/263028/Promoting_Your_Game_With_Animated_GIFs.php. [Accessed 02 September 2016].

Gamasutra: Bundy Kim's Blog - Marketing in Motion: A Year of Making Gifs. 2016. Gamasutra: Bundy Kim's Blog - Marketing in Motion: A Year of Making Gifs. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/BundyKim/20160707/276365/Marketing_in_Motion_A_Year_of_Making_Gifs.php. [Accessed 02 September 2016].