Tech firm Giphy this morning tweeted that it had launched a Facebook GIFs product, and the digerati immediately buzzed with interest. Within a couple of hours, The Gap posted one of the first branded GIFs on the hugely popular social media platform and a handful of other brands are readying theirs for release shortly, according to sources. Gap's GIF highlights its Tumblr-based "What's Blue To You" contest while utilizing Facebook's months-old hashtag feature with "#Backtoblue" copy. And a Giphy rep said via email that the social startup is "actively developing partnerships with brands and publishers." The Web-based company built the product on Facebook's API and is the first marketer to author code that enables GIFs on the platform in many years. CEO Mark Zuckerberg & Co. put the kibosh on GIFs at some point last decade. But the Giphy rep said that Facebook is OK "with our embed strategy, which works within their guidelines, but they don't support GIFs in general." So for right now at least, Giphy is in the unusual position of being the sole service provider for a Facebook marketing feature. If the company were a GIF, it'd have to currently include the text "Cha-Ching!" Continue reading at 'AdWeek'
[ AdWeek | 2013-08-29 00:00:00 UTC ]