With ani-gifs we're like cats with string

I've finally got round to doing some research on what's going on, obviously the first place I go is Mark Brownlow! I had a quick flick through his latest post on Novelty - fair point, it's good to mix it every now and then - and I found my way to a stat saying that 5% more people clicked through on a message using animated gifs, nice!

I think there should be a lot more animated gif in emails, even if it is just snow in the background. If it is moving, surely it's more likely to get clicked?

I recon we're like cats with a bit of string dangling in front of us, we just have to click that animated gif!


To be honest I was hoping for a bigger improvement on the ani-gifs so I went looking around and only found two worth any salt...

Style Campaign claims 25% increase.
Mark Brownlow quotes Blufly's 12% Increase in revenue


I'd like to see something better, like A/B testing of messages - one with ani-gifs and one without and see how well it actually does.

The animation should be subtle and not made to be in your face like a bit of snow, bouncing text, not a giant word saying 'click me' which flashes red then blue then green, that invites rebellion!