The internet is an interesting place. One moment you’ll come across groundbreaking national news, and on the next, you’ll have Rick Astley dancing on your screen. Memes are an integral part of the internet; they’ve evolved into a language. You can look at a meme and understand what the OP was trying to communicate. Many brands have embraced this new trend in their marketing strategies, and it’s going great for them, but how can you tell if it’s the right move for your brand?
What is Meme Marketing?
If we look at it from a marketers perspective, meme marketing can be called a part of inbound marketing. Curating and making funny, relatable content for your audience. Let’s look into why meme marketing has been so popular and whether it’s the right fit for your brand.
High-Value Content
High-value content doesn’t mean that you had to spend big bucks to produce it. High-value content is the content that gives your audience something to takeaway, generates awareness about your brand, and communicates well. Meme marketing checks all the boxes if done right.
Easy to Communicate
We’re used to micro-doses of entertainment in the current world, thus the rise of social platforms like TikTok. Memes are very simple, straightforward, and easy to understand. You know what emotion the picture is trying to convey. This simplistic method of communication is what makes it the perfect tool for digital advertising. It gets the message across in the simplest way possible.
Relatability Drives Engagement
64% of consumers prefer to shop from brands they can connect with, and humor is one of the best ways to achieve that. Most consumers are likely to engage in a relatable post rather than a serious one because it’s easier to react to and share with their friends. Moreover, when brands take a fun approach in their marketing, it creates a very friendly environment for consumers to interact and tag others.
A recent study done by Abir Ershad is a stellar example of this. A fun, low-effort post that was relatable to their brand and niche generated massive amounts of organic traffic instead of a high-quality generic visual.
Always Up-To-Date
Most brands that implement meme marketing as their primary social media strategy are always aware of current trends and what’s popular. For meme marketing to do well, it has to be in real-time. Memes are a phenomenon of the internet, and like everything else on the internet, they expire very fast. When something starts to become too popular, it gets oversaturated very easily, eventually dying off.
To have that edge and connection, brands need to be on-trend and ready to put out content when there’s hype and when people talk about it.
Well Targeted Content
Humor is universal, but it is also very subjective. Not everyone finds the same thing funny. It would be ignorant for marketers to assume that their entire audience will find the same content comedic or relatable.
Well-made meme content is also very accurately targeted. A general strategy followed by brands divides their own niche or audience into smaller categories and micro-segments them to make precisely targeted content. This isolated, targeted content serves a small part of the entire demography. Still, the value in return in terms of consumer loyalty and top-of-mind awareness seems worth it to most brands.
Popular Bangladesh-based burger chain, Chillox using well-targeted content marketing, catering to a rather small niche of consumers who are fans of anime.
User-Generated Content
When brands post memes or meme-able content, it’s not unusual to see followers and other online users and other brands (even their competitors) come up with their own variations.
Topping The Brand Ladder
The nature of meme marketing is very fast-paced and in sync with culture, trends, and conversations. Because of this, brands are always including themselves in popular conversations and generating awareness for themselves.
Because consumers see the brand so much, it creates proximity bias and helps them remember the name when they want to order something.
In Conclusion
Meme marketing is a great way to get your brand name out there and connect with your consumers. It takes practice, trial, and error to master the art of comedic marketing, but when done well, it can do great things.
To implement meme humor in your marketing funnel, you’ll have to consider if you and your marketing team are capable of adapting to the culture of pumping out content when it’s popular and whether or not your audience prefers it or not.
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