In this day and age, everything from technology to marketing strategies have evolved. Some traditional marketing strategies are still very effective however as times change, social media marketing has also evolved to cater to different demographics who have different preferences. For instance, so many Gen Zs and Millennials are more attracted to visually appealing content with humour incorporated. Thus, meme marketing has actually become one of the most effective strategies that is taking the social media world by storm. Those humorous, often absurd images or videos have become sort of like a secret weapon for brands that are targeting Gen Zs and Millennials. So, in this blog, we’re going to explore what exactly is meme social media marketing and explain why it’s effective and provide a few examples to demonstrate what it is.
What is Meme Marketing?
First, allow us to explain what a meme is. Pronounced like “meme”, memes are images or videos, typically humorous and often spread across the internet rapidly. Memes are highly adaptable and it can come in many different variations. Thus, meme marketing is taking any form of meme and altering it to align with your brand, products or services, then advertising it across the internet. It’s almost like a universal language that anyone in the world can understand and that gives memes the benefit of virality.
Why is Meme Marketing Effective?
As mentioned before, meme social media marketing is appealing to most Gen Zs and Millenials. This is because the people in these generations grew up on humorous content, mostly memes, from various social media platforms. To this day, most people from these generations enjoy memes on social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram. On top of that, they love to see brands incorporating meme marketing in their social media. It allows them to form a sort of connection with the brand. Aside from being well-liked by a diverse audience, here are a few other reasons meme marketing is so effective:
- Humour: Being funny on social media where there is already so much humorous content isn’t an easy feat. Memes make it a little easier, though. They’re often humorous, making them highly shareable. When audiences find something funny, they always want to share it with their friends or family.
- Relatability: Memes are typically relatable, referencing common experiences, that’s why they’re so enjoyable. They resonate with a lot of people through depicting familiar situations or emotions.
- Virality: Thanks to memes’ simplicity, they’re literally designed to spread quickly. Since it’s relatable and funny, when one person starts sharing it, it spreads like wildfire.
Meme marketing leverages the power of these aspects to generate engagement and reach a diverse audience within a short amount of time.
Benefits of Meme Marketing
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High Engagement
As mentioned before, memes are highly favoured by a huge demographic; Gen Zs and Millennials. Therefore, they can generate high engagement on most social media platforms. Your targeted audience will like, comment or share your content and that increases your brand’s visibility and spreads your reach to more potential customers.
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Memorability
Due to how simple and short-form memes are, they tend to linger in people’s memories. They’re memorable and funny which ultimately makes them a great way to make your mark on people’s minds.
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Low Cost
When you compare meme marketing to other traditional marketing methods, it takes minimal effort and can be cost-effective. This makes it one of the most efficient ways of marketing on social media, especially when done right.
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Wide Reach & Viral Potential
Again, thanks to the simplicity of memes and their humorous nature, they’re highly shareable. This means that one single meme can reach over hundreds or thousands of views within a short amount of time. This leads to the potential to get viral without any additional effort or cost.
Examples of Meme Social Media Marketing
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Local Brands
Shopee Food
Shopee is a well known e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia and they have several sub-services including Shopee Food. Shopee Food Malaysia’s Instagram page, @shopeefood_my, has been utilizing meme marketing for quite some time now and their content has gotten a decent amount of engagement. They often pair memes with relatable situations that people experience when ordering food making their content funny and engaging.
Source: @shopeefood_my on Instagram
GSC
GSC is a Malaysian cinema chain and they’ve been creatively utilizing meme marketing by creating humorous content related to the current movies and events. This makes them highly likable while attracting an audience to visit their cinemas. For example, to honour the recent release of The Nun II, they posted this photo, garnering positive reactions from their followers:
Source: GSC on Facebook
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International Brands
Razer
Razer is one of the world’s lifestyle brands for gamers and their social media pages reflect what they do very well. Their version of meme marketing incorporates memes that are relatable to gamers and it showcases their products in a fun way. The content they make perfectly engages with the gaming community and attracts the right target audience.
Source: @razer on instagram
Tinder
Aligned with their brand’s personality, Tinder’s content on social media is very fun, witty, flirty and engaging for their target audience. They incorporate common dating situations and turn them into shareable and relatable content.
Source: @tinder on Instagram
Oreo
Who doesn’t know Oreo, right? This iconic cream cookie brand has also jumped on the meme marketing bandwagon. Not only are they already a very memorable brand but they’ve successfully created a memorable presence on social media too. Their content is attractive, engaging and humorous.
Source: @oreo on Instagram
How to Successfully Use Meme Marketing
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Identify Your Target Audience
As with any branding or marketing strategy, you have to identify your target audience before going further. Understand who they are, their behaviours or characteristics and align your content to resonate with them.
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Choose the Right Memes
When you’ve determined your target audience, choose the type of memes accordingly. For instance, all the examples we’ve provided above have different styles while still making it relatable and funny. On top of that, and this should go without saying, try to steer away from any controversial or offensive content.
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Be Creative and Original
Although content should be relatable and depict common experiences so that people resonate, there are endless ways to make it unique and original to your brand. Take Netflix’s Instagram for example, instead of using traditional memes as templates, they make memes out of the shows on their platform.
Source: @netflix on Instagram
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Keep It Simple
As mentioned a couple times in this blog, memes are simple and straight to the point. It shouldn’t have to take a while for people to understand the meme. Memes are meant to be easily digestible so that it becomes shareable.
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Maintain Virality
Virality is fleeting and it’s not easy to keep it consistent. What you can do to try to maintain it is add some call to actions or question your audience so they engage.
The Bottom Line
All-in-all, it’s safe to say that meme marketing is taking the world by storm and it’s gonna stay for a while. When you know your target audience, make your memes unique to your brand while maintaining simplicity and relatability, your engagement might just get better. But just in case you’re unsure or you want a solid social media marketing strategy, then give us a call! We’re always ready to give your brand an in-depth analysis and provide a great social media strategy tailored for you.
Discover what kind of marketing suits your brand! Give us a call.
