Samidha
What is meme marketing?
Memes as an element are very well established and relevant in the modern day. The rise of social media has led to popularity of memes and the increasing use of the platform for marketing has resulted in memes being a core source of social media strategy. Meme marketing utilizes the popularity and potential reach of the memes to increase brand exposure.
Why is it effective?
The current generation which is highly active on social media consumes and enjoys meme content. Memes have become a new language, a format of communication amongst users. Brands can use the same to communicate their message to the audience in a creative and trendy way. The meme culture allows brands to connect and engage with the audience instantly. Research suggests means have taken over 85% of shared content across the globe. Since means have the ability to be easily shared and altered as per reference they can be leveraged by brands to increase reach and engagement rate. They can also increase their life cycle by staying relevant with the audience and their trend interests.
How does it benefit digital marketing?
- Grabs attention: The audience attention rate has been declining gradually. Memes are a great source of image and text combination for brands to grab their attention while building a community..
- Brand Visibility: Memes receive high engagement from the audience. Placing the brand with a meme enables the audience to relate, increasing the reach and engagement.
- Audience Engagement: Memes have the unique ability to reach viral potential as they can be easily shared by the audience. When brands use memes to promote their services, they increase the engagement rates and potentials of being viral.
- Cost effective: using the trending memes and creating the brand’s version of it only requires creativity and originality.
- Brand recall: Since means have a longer retention with the audience, its association with the brand will allow the audience to develop a lasting impression increasing brand retention.
Brands benefiting through meme marketing
Zomato: Zomato has witnessed the abundance of memes on social media and utilized the strategy optimally receiving unparalleled advantages. They utilize humor and compelling one liners to engage the audience. The brand ensures clear communication of its messages through memes which grabs attention and helps them stand out in the crowd.
Amul: Amul has been way ahead of its time. It has been utilizing meme marketing even before the digital era. It has been running its advertisements since 1966 and has remained relevant with their creative marketing under shift to digital platforms. They connect with the audience utilizing their brand mascot ‘utterly butterly girl’ covering political, social, pop culture, and various topics and maintaining brand relevance.
Numerous brands like Swiggy, Netflix, Mumbai Police, and more have been utilizing and benefiting from this strategy for quite some time.
Memes relatable to the audience, trends, and brand niche can effectively elevate a brand’s social media presence.
