Positive vibes only: How to safeguard your brand amid the election-year frenzy

If content is king, conversation is sitting beside it on the throne. In recent years, the digital town square has become a virtual minefield, as what is deemed socially and politically acceptable evolves. In the run-up to yet another polarizing presidential election, social advertising and marketing has become a case study on the hazards of brand engagement on particular topics and in many cases on entire social platforms. Brands are expected to operate like trustworthy friends when it comes to topics that affect their target audience(s). While there are a few examples of brands successfully taking sociopolitical stances and creating a halo effect, there are many more cases of brands jumping into conversations and taking stands without the cultural awareness and sensitivity needed to avoid alienating their consumer base. And there are just as many instances of “innocent bystander” brands blamed for random adjacencies to toxic conversations or hateful posts. An election year can feel daunting to brands who want to authentically connect with their consumers. It doesn’t need to be. One strong remedy for connecting with consumers you care about without sacrificing brand safety? Be the reason people want to share positivity on the internet. Giphy's 2023 Brand Study, created in partnership with Disqo, examined current and future online behaviors, app usage and how GIFs enhance online communication among consumers. In addition to exploring the differences across Gen Z, millennials and Gen X regarding sentiment, the study confirmed the power of positive conversations online as consumers show a direct connection between GIF usage and positive sentiment. According to the brand study, 80% of consumers—including 84% of millennials and 83% of Gen Zers—love using GIFs in online communication. Text messaging remains a primary option for communication, while GIFs in particular are largely used by consumers. On top of that, consumers indicate that GIFs are the go-to medium for emotional connection. Advertising partners versus advertising platforms To adequately tap into the potential of positivity online, brands must be intentional about activating campaigns as partners of platforms rather than merely as customers. Giphy helps build effective creative and distributes it within positive audience conversations by staying aware of the conversations happening across the digital landscape, and combines creative strategy, data-driven insights and robust tooling to ensure brand safety and ad effectiveness. When brands work with Giphy, they're being placed in front of users searching for a single sentiment to share, express themselves and to connect with others. Those sentiments are overwhelmingly positive, everyday topics that people lean on to connect with each other. That might include “Happy birthday,” “I love you,” “I miss you” and so on. In the last year, many of the most popular searches for GIFs were related to positive sentiments and self-expression. For example, celebratory GIFs were among the top searches in 2023, as evidenced by two of the top GIFs of the past year being rapper Saweetie’s “Happy Birthday” and beloved author and animator Mo Willems’ “Yay.” Conversely, brands can also count on Giphy to mitigate the risk of toxic adjacencies. There are established safeguards on Giphy’s owned platforms to ensure that only trusted uploaders can add content to the search index, and all searchable content is proactively moderated at upload using a combination of hash matching, machine learning, and human review. Giphy's robust moderation pipeline and evolving content policies are informed by partnerships with industry leading organizations, with a focus on illegal content, misinformation, hateful content, and violence. Don’t just add to the conversation, join the conversation In addition to being synonymous with GIF communication, Giphy is also a partner for positive conversations. Look no further than the Super Bowl as an example of Giphy’s popularity and usefulness in how brands can win as an advertising partner. According to Giphy’s analysis of the Big Game, fans and viewers leaned heavily on the platform to participate in the most-watched TV show of all time. It's no wonder that any brand that is serious about winning the hearts and minds of its consumers must invest in a well-crafted approach to leveraging social from the top to the bottom of the marketing funnel. Advertisers aiming to ensure the safe and effective activation of their campaigns, whether during short-term moments like the Super Bowl or for longer-term, potentially riskier periods such as election seasons, should seek out partnership with platforms where positive sentiment and conversational expertise reign supreme. About Giphy Founded in 2013, Giphy is the visual communication platform where thousands of artists, brands and content partners make everyday expression a little more moving. Giphy allows you to search, discover and share your favorite GIFs, clips, and stickers to make your conversations more positive, more expressive and more you. In addition, Giphy Studios works with brands, influencers and celebrities to help tell their stories and create best-in-class GIF-inspired creative. Acquired by Shutterstock in 2023, Giphy’s platform has a daily user reach of more than 1 billion to which it serves 10 billion pieces of short-form content every day.

Positive vibes only: How to safeguard your brand amid the election-year frenzy

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