Is Meme Marketing The New Craze Among Digital Marketers?

Picture yourself scrolling through social media, and all you see are ‘monotonous’ marketing campaigns and brand promotions. Known for their relatable humour, memes are taking over the world. The grumpy cat to batman slapping robin is funny, satirical, witty, and catchy, giving the audience a good laugh.

Memes are like a virus, and they spread online quickly, which often gives higher organic engagement rates – for digital marketers – than any other social media post. They produce an instant response as well as an emotional engagement because they are so relatable to the common people. Since their basic concept is shared with your friends, colleagues, and family, the idea or content posted is frequently reposed and “re-memed” over social platforms, reaching a broad audience.

The rise of memes has not gone unnoticed by brands in the digital marketing world. Digital marketers are using these highly visual and engaging memes to give a new life to their marketing strategies. Memes have now gone commercial, and brands are now packaging their communication and campaign goals in the form of objective-driven memes to showcase to their audiences.

Digital Marketers Making Memes

Are you aware that millennials spend over 200 minutes online every single day? Memes are so prolific that there’s a very good chance millennials – as well as Gen Zers ‘- are laughing at and sharing memes while they are online. This gives brands plenty of changes to engage with their audience members.

The problem with brand marketing on social media is that it frequently has low engagement. Let’s be honest: nobody actually wants to see branded content on their feed. They want to skip over weak, commercialised content and then get to their normal programming. Gen Z is very ad-averse. They are able to smell promotion from a mile away – they aren’t having any of it.

When done correctly, meme marketing can be extremely successful. It goes past joke-inducing branded content and shares something of value to your audience members. Memes work for brands as they’re designed specifically for social platforms and offer value through entertainment. Memes aren’t overly promotional — they make individuals laugh with a casual reference to your brand.

Because of the meme’s entertainment value, it’s far easier for your audience to share memes. Think about it:

• Wouldn’t you much rather share a hilarious meme about McDonald’s burgers or a 500-word blog from McDonald’s that details their newest menu addition?

You’ll perhaps go for entertainment over information, and the same is true for the members of your audience.

How To Get Started With Meme Marketing

The secret to getting started with meme marketing is to stay clued in on the latest digital trends and then create memes which reference them.

Businesses which are interested in trying meme marketing have two options:

1. They can either take the road less travelled by creating their own unique meme
2. They can meme-jack another brand’s meme and then edit it to suit their own style as well as tone.

There is some good news for brands which choose to become meme-jackers. They don’t have to worry about plagiarism. With so many websites that offer free images, brands are able to copy a competitor’s high-performing meme and alter it to include their own unique brand message. Conversely, brands which choose to create their own memes from scratch should be ready to stay constantly on top of the most recent developments and have a good understanding of what the meme represents.

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