KiK Kickstarts The Branded GIF Trend

Since GIFs starting getting lots of attention on social media, many – if not all – social media and messaging apps have added dedicated buttons that let users share GIFs with a tap or two.

Facebook Messenger has GIFs, Twitter is about to launch a GIF button, but Kik – the chat app with over 275 million registered users worldwide – is about to revolutionise the GIF game, by letting brands use them as advertising supports.

Also Read: Coca-Cola Gets Trolled By Its Own GIFs

Since Kik launched its GIF emoji keyboard back in November, users have shared millions of GIFs with their friends.

Probably because it is extremely easy to do so. For example, a tap on the 🔑 emoji will send this to your friends:

But now Kik is taking it to the next level. When other platforms are still struggling with monetisation strategies, Kik has found a new way to make brands invest on its platform: branded GIFs!

.@Kik has found a new way to make brands invest on its platform: branded GIFs!

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People love to share GIFs that have a meaning, because they are linked with fun and specific events, or because they represent a cause. So, Kik thought this was a great opportunity for brands to be part of it.

Branded GIFs will be tied to custom emoji, that will work in the exact same way all other GIFs work on the GIF Emoji keyboard: tap on an emoji to see a selection of relevant GIFs to share.

The new branded feature is kicking off with GIFs from Paramount Picture’s Zoolander No. 2, and funny animal reaction GIFs from WWF.