They say ‘a picture says a thousand words’, and with today’s 5-second generation, nothing rings more truer than that.
Milennials have a tendency to browse through most of the content they are bombarded with on a daily basis. And what’s more important than an eye-catching image to make you stop and ‘click’ on an ad or a post?
To a marketing professional that is a dream come-true. It doesn’t take much for anybody to point out how crucial an image may be to this entire process. But is it just images bombarded by marketing professionals that play an important role on social media? Not really.
Consider you were browsing through your facebook, on your cellphone; wouldn’t you have a greater tendency to stop at photos of your friends travelling to exotic lands rather than them pouting in their living rooms? It’s practically the same when it comes to social media marketing.
A great example of an image that went viral is the Dressgate. Something as simple as an image of a dress has the ability to intrigue and create a social wildfire. Till date, people are still bemused by it. Give it a shot yourself.
But images don’t just limit themselves to these. They become our first impressions- they dictate the way the world sees us or sees our instagram handles or tinder, if you like. And it is this abilty and power of an image that brands cling onto to help define themselves.
So if you scroll through Land Rover USA’s instagram handle @SolitudeInSawtooth, you are bombarded by a beautiful adventure storyline of what it could be like to own a Land Rover. This story becomes a part of the brand’s identity.
Another great example being Frooti’s handle @theFrootiLife, which incorporates some magical artoworks by Saggmeister & Walsh into animated GIFs that keep you engaged. Don’t forget to notice the bright colours that set the perfect tonality of the brand.
And whilst Instagram harps on image content, let’s not forget other important mediums like Pinterest, which is soon catching up with brands.
When it comes to brands, there are some industries that thrive on image content. Travel and toursim is one such example. A recent campaign by Wyoming Office of Tourism sends out brilliant messages by focusing a major chunk of its ads by just using images.
So how important is image content to advertising? That’s a stupid question. Very.
In fact, a great ad with a great visual does not require great copy. Which only means it is not bounded by language and can be viewed by absolutely everyone from across the globe.
