The benefits of using memes for marketing
Posted: Wed Jan 15, 2025 5:33 am
There is a certain homespun charm to internet memes. Anyone can get involved, using sites like Meme Generator to add text to the classics of the genre.
Brands can use memes created by other people for their marketing campaigns, but it is advisable to create your own memes if you plan to use them for marketing purposes. Marketers have to work a little harder to jump onto cultural trends.
The hard part is thinking up a witty caption. This example from BarkBox provides a handy reference point:
4 Reasons to Use Memes in your Marketing
It is relevant to the brand and relevant to the phone list audience, without destroying the connection with a pushy sales message.
When executed with skill, memes are a cheap and cheerful way to attract social media interaction.
2. Memes can be a powerful brand marketing medium
You can also create meme-able content yourself. That is to say, brands can create content that has the potential to become a meme in its own right.
For example, when Netflix released preview material (for example, the image below) for its Bird Box series it provided the canvas for countless memes:
4 Reasons to Use Memes in your Marketing
Netflix released images such as this to intrigue viewers about the upcoming show, but they also wanted to encourage engagement. People started using the image in new contexts, from the banal to the absurd.
4 Reasons to Use Memes in your Marketing
The reviews for Bird Box were not particularly kind. Salon’s Melanic McFarland wrote “Is it good? Not really, but it doesn’t need to be.” Due to what we might call the “meme effect”, people watched Bird Box anyway - it had 45 million views in the 7 days after its launch.
Brands can use memes created by other people for their marketing campaigns, but it is advisable to create your own memes if you plan to use them for marketing purposes. Marketers have to work a little harder to jump onto cultural trends.
The hard part is thinking up a witty caption. This example from BarkBox provides a handy reference point:
4 Reasons to Use Memes in your Marketing
It is relevant to the brand and relevant to the phone list audience, without destroying the connection with a pushy sales message.
When executed with skill, memes are a cheap and cheerful way to attract social media interaction.
2. Memes can be a powerful brand marketing medium
You can also create meme-able content yourself. That is to say, brands can create content that has the potential to become a meme in its own right.
For example, when Netflix released preview material (for example, the image below) for its Bird Box series it provided the canvas for countless memes:
4 Reasons to Use Memes in your Marketing
Netflix released images such as this to intrigue viewers about the upcoming show, but they also wanted to encourage engagement. People started using the image in new contexts, from the banal to the absurd.
4 Reasons to Use Memes in your Marketing
The reviews for Bird Box were not particularly kind. Salon’s Melanic McFarland wrote “Is it good? Not really, but it doesn’t need to be.” Due to what we might call the “meme effect”, people watched Bird Box anyway - it had 45 million views in the 7 days after its launch.