A slightly tweaked and swiftly spreading, on the world wide web, a video, an image or a text which is extremely humorous and relatable to current scenarios on a lighter note, almost an imitation, is a meme.
As memes obviously get instantly shared to spread laughter among friends and family, brands are making use of it to reach a wider audience. It touches even those who are not glued to the idiot box, introverts who are in their own world, shy people who do not mingle much and all those who skip advertisements; None skips memes. So, knowingly-unknowingly everyone registers a product or a brand through memes.
Memes make brands more authentic and relatable. They bring people together to discuss events and in turn a brand if its product is a part of a meme. Moreover, brands do not have to spend more money on ideas as memes already have the content in it. All it requires is a strategic placement of its product to make it hilarious. Look at this meme from Chipotle, masked cutlery, a hilarious take on importance of mask.
Though, some advertising could be based on originally created memes. A difficult task however, if executed well it does wonders. Example, Tooth & Honey a brand dealing with Dog Clothing & Accessories uses meme content as animals are so popular on the web. Now, dog lovers will obviously follow a lot of dog content so using dog memes for their brand will certainly generate a lot of new consumers without having to invest a fortune in mainstream advertisements.
Remember, memes do not have a call to action so, consumers do not run away from it. Instead, the brand remains in the memory of people for a long time. This often leads to loyal consumer base. Check this one out, someone offers a Pepsi but the armed man shows a thumb up. Does it mean that he only likes Thumbs Up? Wonder, which brand it is gonna help more Pepsi or Thumbs Up?
Even though, all this sounds easy, memes if not intelligently used can destroy the brand as well. Here is the best one, maybe bad for Facebook but good for the world to laugh till stomach hurts.
