If you’re into photography you’ve probably heard about cinemagraphs. If you haven’t, allow me to introduce you to ‘living photos’ and the ways that they can work for you in the modern age of digital marketing.

• What is it? A cinemagraph is somewhere between a photo and a video. It is a photograph in which the subject is moving, also referred to as a ‘living photograph’.
• How do you create them? Cinemagraphs are commonly produced by taking a series of photographs or a video and, using image editing software, making them into a seamless loop and saving as an animated GIF file.
• What are the benefits? The appeal lies in the contrast of the movement with the stillness of the rest of the image, plus the element of suprise. Most of all, it’s an opportunity to show off what photographs traditionally cannot transmit, the sense of a living, breathing, tactile subject.
• How can they work in marketing? When done well, cinemagraphs are subtle, clever and atmospheric. So far they have already begun to surface in fashion editorial, but there’s no reason why other industries couldn’t adopt this method for showing off a visually tempting product in action.

Back in 2011, Citroen decided to use a set of cinemagraphs during their marketing campaign to launch the new DS5. At the time, Citroen UK’s Communications Director, Marc Raven, said this was ‘Creative Technologie’ at its best, “breaking new ground in how cars can be presented”. This is true. So why didn’t the cinemagraph take off? Probably because it is a somewhat cumbersome task to produce and requires advanced software knowledge…

Until now! Cinemagraphs are gradually starting to appear across social media platforms thanks to a new crop of apps which do the techy, laborious bits for you. With today’s superior camera phones (compared to those from 2011) visual arts are at our finger tips more than ever.

If you’ve bought a Nokia Lumia recently you will most likely already have the Windows Cinemagraph app installed. For iPhone users, the Flixel Cinemagraph Pro app is the market leader having won the Apple Design Award 2014. For Android, Fotodanz does the job. If you want to go all out on your desktop, Adobe Photoshop CS5 is the software for pros.

If you’re looking for new ways to market or launch your business or product, feel free to contact us on 01926 832395 to speak with a member of our team of experts.