Animated Adshel Advertising Experiment

To gain a better perspective of how the animated campaign advertisement would appear in context, I did a mock up of my latest ad as adshel advertising. 

The image is from a secondary source: http://blog.smithdesignagency.co.uk/portfolio/belfast-central-mission-belfast-charity/

As the original gif file could not be stretched to the size of the Adshel dimensions, I chose to solve this issue by placing static text above and below the moving advertisement. This allows the viewer to understand the animation but also enables them to gain more information through the use of a QR code which directs them to the RSPCA website appealing against badger culling.

As an experiment I believe this has been the most successful in conveying a message against badger culling. It is the most informative for the viewer and provides a link to more information. The animation turned out to be quite slow although I think this is due to creating the gif in Photoshop and the quantity of frames being too large. Finding a more suitable program should raise the quality of the advertisement and allow me to experiment further with even longer ad campaigns and a smoother, refined result.

Animated Ad Campaign Test

With a grand total of 298 frames (!) here is my latest animated badger culling ad campaign. Although it doesn't look much, a lot of technical skills went into this.

Created in Photoshop and saved as a low resolution gif.

Due to the number of frames, I was unable to save the file at a higher resolution. Therefore, I will need to find a program which can take much larger files and perhaps a quicker way to make the animation.

Even so, I do think that animation has a positive effect on the ad campaigns by simply keeping the viewer interested until the end. Movement has a greater ability to capture the eye, and with stronger imagery and colour the ad could become very effective.

Development of Gif Animations for Campaign Advertising

After my initial experiment with Gifs in an earlier post (see here) I decided to explore this further in Photoshop as opposed to using an online generator to create my gifs:

I chose to use  a simple slogan 'stop the cull' which I have previously included in previous campaign poster designs about badger culling. Keeping the font and colours the same for simplicity works well and gets straight to the point. 

As I felt the previous gif wasn't smooth as an animation, I wanted to break the text down so it flowed better.

To create this animation, I saved each frame at different points adding one letter per frame giving the illusion that the text is being written. In total 11 frames were used to make this gif.

The same technique in Photoshop was used here though I added more frames (71 in total!) by including some experimental artwork that I had created. Changing the opacity allows a smooth transition into the next image. 

Photoshop screenshot of frames used to create gif animation

Although this implies that it is advertising against the cull, it would not work in a realistic advertising scenario as more information needs to be included. This gif explores the techniques which may be used in the animation to portray numerous images simultaneously. 

Personally I believe these techniques have worked effectively and make the illustrations more aesthetically appealing to the audience. Movement in the animation will capture the attention of the viewer for much longer than a still illustration as the changing images make it more interesting. More professional elements could be added for an advertisement against badger culling and perhaps a narrative of the badger cull could be portrayed to demonstrate the effects of the cull and why the audience should appeal against it.

Experimenting with Advertising and Gifs

Original charcoal sketch

Using an original charcoal sketch I developed the initial idea into an ad campaign designed for billboards. This was based on the fact that during the cull, the aim is the cull 70% of badgers. Therefore I chose a simple idea to get straight to the point and convey the message to the audience.

Animated Gif

I believe is effective for showing the capability of what I could achieve through using a gif format. It instantly brings my illustration to life and makes it visually more appealing. More frames should be used to create a smoother animation and the text could be gradually written rather than appear as one block.