Giphy for Microsoft Build
Effective community engagement at the speed of social
Designit demonstrating expertise in successfully expediting—through strategic and inventive collaboration—the production of an exceptional, high-performing creative campaign for Microsoft's tier one Build event. To engage its core audience virtually and in person, Microsoft partnered with Designit to execute quick-turnaround custom GIFs and real-time social media engagements during the three-day event.
Cutting through the noise to surprise and delight
Microsoft wanted to engage with its developers around the Build conference, a yearly event that brings developers together virtually and in person. Owned and earned conversation is strong surrounding the event, and the Designit community management team looks for opportunities to amplify brand love and engage 1:1 with influencers and other fans.
We Build the GIFs
Community management partnered with creative to create 20 GIFs as authentic content, which the team could then use across Microsoft social channels to increase excitement and positive sentiment about this year’s Build. The team also generated real-time conversation and created 23 additional GIFs used to drive 1:1 engagement with attendees.
Creating a branded GIF library: We engineered the library to reflect the company's brand identity, including characters such as Clippy, and emotional visual elements that would resonate with our audience.
Integration into community platforms: Branded GIFs were integrated into our Sprinklr for use in 1:1 engagements, and we tapped into the massive reach of Giphy (700M+ daily users) and its integration with major social and messaging apps to maximize shareability.
Ongoing ideation: To extend brand love and help spark online conversations, the community management team prioritized engagement opportunities with fans and influencers, monitoring and responding during the extended hours of Build.
Get in influencer.
We're going GIFing.
We launched the Microsoft Cloud Giphy library in May 2023, coinciding with Build. Some GIFs were geared toward attendees, while others fueled the way people use animated images daily.
The success of our Giphy launch can be attributed to:
Verification: Content from verified profiles gets key placement in search results.
Metadata: Content was strategically tagged with common search terms, and we "owned" both MSBuild and Microsoft Build queries to surface our content first in those searches.
Timeliness: By timing the launch to a well-known event, we capitalized on users searching for this content.
Editorial placement: By working with our Giphy reps, we were able to get prime placement for select content on the Giphy homepage and various trending trays.
Viral is an understatement
109M
views throughout Build week
4.9%
engagement rate
1.2B
all-time views
175%
engagement increase YoY
53K
impressions