The rise of Meme Marketing 📈
A top meme.
It's official. Mimieme’s have taken over the internet. We've all heard of “mimiemes” before, right? You might know them by another name... If you've been anywhere on the internet in the past ten years, you've probably heard of memes. These often visual artefacts are shared online with endless variations that apply to countless subcultures. Simply put, memes are everywhere. Even in our history. 🤯 Thousands of years ago, the Greek word "mimieme" was used to describe viral illnesses. But it wasn't until much, much later that the concept of "viral" would be extended to a cultural phenomenon that spreads rapidly. In his 1976 book 'The Selfish Gene', British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins coined the term "meme". Though it is only in recent times that the term has entered the zeitgeist, it looks like memes are here to stay. 💪
But what does this meme do for advertisers?
(See what we did there? 😉)
Today, we want to explore why meme marketing became so popular and what the future of this trend might look like.
Let's dig in!
What is Meme Advertising?
Meme advertising is a very specific way for brands to reach their target audience. But before we discuss what it is, we must discuss what it is not.
Meme marketing is not simply copy-and-pasting a popular meme to a brand's social media account and posting. Instead, advertisers must ensure that the meme is edited in a way that makes it relevant to their brand and target audience.
Meme marketing must:
Offer something of value to the target audience
Come across as organic, not as an obvious advert
Connect to the feelings, needs and concerns of their audience.
Be engaging and, perhaps most importantly, fun.
When done right, brands can enjoy some of the following benefits:
Going viral
Promotion of brand voice
Connecting to customers in new ways
Increased engagement
Sounds good to us!
So, how can advertisers reap the benefits of meme marketing?
To realise and harness the full potential of memes, advertisers and digital marketers should look to what attracts social media users to memes in the first place.
1. Relevance
For brands, any memes you post should always, always, be relevant to your brand and your audience.
If it's not relevant, it won't achieve the desired results.
2. Entertainment
While there are countless memes across the internet, they all have one thing in common.
They are designed to tickle your funny bone.
When adopting or creating memes, brands should always remember that users want to have fun and feel included!
3. Inclusion
Memes are made to be versatile. A meme itself is designed to spread through large amounts of people.
Only, memes don't just spread through profiles, they spread through subcultures.
What makes memes so popular is that they are often a very simple concept. But what users and brands do is tailor these memes to their specific audience. The application of a meme must be specific and not generic. The concept of a meme is the generic bit.
So, by making your meme specific to reach a specific group of people, your target audience feels more included in the joke. This allows brands to align themselves with the target audience!
When done right, meme marketing offers a unique opportunity for advertisers to provide relevant and funny content that entices their target audience to share their content and engage with their brand.
For advertisers, this is perhaps the holy grail of advertising.
To learn more about Meme Marketing, get in contact today.
