What is Meme Marketing? How to Tap Into Viral Culture

Meme marketing has quickly become one of the most engaging and powerful tools for brands seeking to connect with online audiences. Memes, often humorous or satirical images, videos, or texts, are shared rapidly across the internet, creating viral sensations. According to Forbes, businesses employing memes in marketing are 60% more likely to attract purchases, with millennials typically viewing 20–30 memes daily.

For businesses, memes offer an opportunity to capitalize on viral trends and authentically and relatably connect with a younger, internet-savvy demographic.

Memes and Their Evolution in Online Culture

A “meme” is a piece of content, usually humorous, that spreads rapidly through digital platforms, gaining popularity based on its relatability and wit. Memes can be static images, gifs, or videos, often accompanied by a short, punchy caption. While originally coined by biologist Richard Dawkins in 1976 to describe how cultural ideas spread, the modern internet meme evolved as a form of communication that resonates with digital natives.

Today, memes represent a new language of sorts, reflecting shared experiences, cultural references, and inside jokes. Their format is simple, but their influence is widespread. A meme can spark conversations, encourage participation, and connect people across various demographics. 

A recent survey revealed that 74% of people share memes for humor, 53% use them as responses, 35% as cryptic messages, and 28% when words are insufficient, frequently engaging in meme-based conversations. In digital marketing, brands tap into this meme culture to stay relevant and in sync with their target audiences.

The increasing popularity of memes in digital marketing stems from their virality. Memes can reach millions within hours, making them perfect tools for brands looking to create an organic connection with audiences. They appeal to the internet generation that values relatability and humor.  Meme marketing helps brands inject themselves into everyday online conversations, increasing visibility without seeming overtly promotional.

What is Meme Marketing?

Meme marketing known as meme advertising, involves using popular internet memes as part of a brand’s promotional strategy. These memes, which are humorous or culturally relevant, are used to convey a message, promote a product, or align the brand with a trend. Unlike traditional ads, meme marketing doesn’t feel forced or promotional. It relies on humor, satire, or relatability to engage with audiences in a fun, creative way.

Meme marketing capitalizes on current social media trends to enhance brand messaging. Whether through simple image macros, short clips, or viral GIFs, memes provide brands with an accessible, low-cost way to connect with consumers. According to a report, 75% of individuals aged 13 to 36 post memes, with 55% sharing them weekly and 30% daily, indicating a strong meme presence among young adults.

Key Elements of Memes in Marketing

Memes are a powerful tool in marketing because they engage audiences with humor, relatability, and cultural relevance. To successfully implement meme marketing, brands need to understand the essential elements that make memes effective. Below are five key elements that contribute to the success of memes in marketing:

1. Simplicity and Visual Appeal
   One of the hallmarks of a successful meme is its simplicity. Memes are often composed of an image or short video paired with a brief, impactful caption. Their simplicity allows them to be instantly understood, which is crucial in the fast-paced world of social media, where users scroll through content rapidly.The visual appeal of memes lies in their ability to grab attention at first glance. Whether it’s a popular character from a television show, a famous reaction gif, or a stock image with a well-known connotation, the image used in a meme is critical. A meme’s visual nature makes it a quick and effective medium to convey emotions, ideas, or humor.

   For marketers, simplicity is key when using memes to connect with audiences. The challenge lies in capturing a brand’s message without complicating the meme. Overloading the meme with text or visual elements can detract from its impact. Keeping it minimal while allowing the visual and caption to work in tandem ensures the content is digestible and shareable.

2. Timeliness and Relevance
   A meme’s timeliness is often its most important feature. Memes thrive on current events, viral trends, or social moments. The more relevant a meme is to what’s happening in the world, the higher its chance of being widely shared. Memes are often used to comment on popular culture, politics, sports, or everyday life, making them relatable to a wide audience. Brands that successfully incorporate meme marketing know how to tap into trending conversations without appearing forced or out of place.

   Timeliness is also about knowing when to jump on a trend and, just as importantly, when to stop. A meme can go from fresh to overused in a matter of days or even hours, especially in the fast-moving world of the internet. Brands that use outdated memes risk seeming out of touch or disconnected from current conversations.

   For a meme marketing example, when the “Delulu is the Solulu” meme was at its peak, numerous brands used it in their campaigns, leading to great engagement. Forbes even headlined an article using the popular catchphrase to pique the interest of their readers. However, using it long after it peaked would have resulted in diminishing returns.

    

3. Emotional Connection
   Memes work because they evoke an emotional response—whether it’s humor, nostalgia, irony, or even sarcasm. A meme’s ability to reflect shared experiences and emotions is what makes it so powerful. This emotional connection is essential for brands that want to engage audiences on a deeper level. By crafting memes that resonate with people’s experiences, frustrations, or aspirations, brands can create content that feels personal.

   For example, memes about the difficulties of working from home during the pandemic struck a chord with many. By tapping into the universal experience of juggling work and personal life in the same space, brands using such memes were able to humanize themselves and build a stronger emotional bond with their audiences. Brands that manage to evoke the right emotions through memes are more likely to see their content shared, commented on, and remembered.

4. Cultural Relevance
   Memes are often based on cultural references, be it internet trends, viral videos, or shared societal moments. For memes to resonate with a specific audience, they need to align with that audience’s cultural pulse. This means brands must stay informed about what their target demographic is talking about, what media they’re consuming, and what language or references they use.For instance, younger generations who grew up with internet culture may respond to memes that reference specific video games, movies, or online communities. Memes such as those referencing “Among Us” or “Stranger Things” have seen widespread usage among brands trying to reach Gen Z and Millennial audiences. Brands like Netflix and Taco Bell have excelled in meme marketing by using memes tied to pop culture and internet trends, demonstrating that they’re in tune with their audiences.

   

5. Shareability
   One of the greatest strengths of memes is their inherent shareability. Memes are designed to be passed around and enjoyed by large groups of people. When a meme resonates with an audience, they are more likely to share it with friends, comment on it, or repost it on social media. This shareability gives memes the potential to go viral organically, making them a cost-effective form of marketing.Memes that combine humor with cultural relevance and emotional connection are often shared widely across social media platforms. By sharing a meme, users indirectly endorse the brand associated with it, increasing brand visibility without traditional advertising efforts. This is why brands invest in crafting memes that their audiences will not only enjoy but feel compelled to share.

Why Meme Marketing Works

Meme marketing by brands works because it taps into human psychology and our innate love for humor and relatability. Memes reflect shared experiences, making audiences feel understood and connected to both the content and the brand.

1. Relatability
   Memes resonate because they are rooted in shared experiences. They reflect cultural references, everyday frustrations, or societal commentary. For example, a meme that jokes about the struggle of working from home during the pandemic would resonate with millions who experienced it, instantly forming a bond with the audience. In this way, memes can humanize brands by associating them with universal, relatable situations.For instance, Netflix successfully utilized meme marketing during the pandemic with a meme featuring its hit show, “Tiger King.” By creating memes that spoke to the collective obsession with the show, Netflix managed to keep its audience engaged and entertained, contributing to an increase in its subscriber base by 15.8 million during the first quarter of 2020 alone.

    

2. Virality
   Memes thrive on their shareability. Unlike traditional advertisements that require paid promotion to reach a wider audience, ‘meme ads’ have the potential to go viral organically. The “network effect” of memes means that one share can lead to dozens more, creating a ripple effect that spreads the content across various platforms.A great example of meme virality is the 2019 Popeyes Chicken Sandwich meme phenomenon. What started as a simple product promotion quickly spiraled into a meme war between Popeyes and Chick-fil-A, leading to widespread user engagement and a spike in sales. Within two weeks, Popeyes sold out of its chicken sandwiches and garnered $65 million worth of free advertising through memes and social media interactions alone.

   

    

3. Cost-Effectiveness
   One of the major advantages of meme marketing is its low cost. Unlike large-scale ad campaigns that require significant investment, creating a meme is inexpensive and can yield significant results. For smaller businesses or startups, meme marketing offers an accessible entry point into the world of digital advertising.For instance, Ryanair, a European low-cost airline, frequently uses meme marketing to engage its audience with quirky, humorous content. These simple, witty posts consistently generate high engagement without hefty advertising costs.

   

4. Cultural Relevance
   Memes are inherently tied to current events and trends, which means brands that use memes effectively seem more in tune with their audience. A timely meme can make a brand look culturally aware and relevant, increasing its appeal to modern consumers. For example, during the 2022 Oscars, brands like Applebee’s and Pepsi cleverly used memes inspired by the viral moment of Will Smith’s slap to align themselves with trending conversations.Memes for marketing allow brands to participate in cultural moments without appearing out of place. This is particularly important for connecting with younger audiences who value brands that are “in the know” and able to adapt to the fast-paced nature of internet culture.

How to Create Successful Meme Marketing Campaigns

While meme marketing has immense potential, it requires a strategic approach to be successful. Your meme strategy game should be on point to garner results. Here are five key steps to crafting a meme marketing campaign that resonates with audiences:

1. Know Your Audience
   Understanding your target audience is critical in meme marketing. Different age groups, cultures, and social groups resonate with different types of humor and content. Researching your audience’s sense of humor and preferences will help ensure your memes connect.For instance, Wendy’s has become iconic for its witty and often savage memes, particularly on Twitter. Wendy’s has successfully tapped into youth culture, creating memes that resonate with a young, tech-savvy demographic. Their memes frequently incorporate internet slang, trending topics, and a sharp sense of humor, making them widely shared and discussed.
2. Stay Updated with Trends
   Memes have a short lifespan, meaning brands need to stay on top of the latest trends to remain relevant. Tools like Reddit, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter can help marketers monitor viral trends and memes. Staying up-to-date allows brands to react quickly and create timely meme content.An example of brands capitalizing on viral trends is Oreo’s 2013 Super Bowl ad, where they tweeted a meme with the caption “You can still dunk in the dark” after a power outage during the game. The tweet went viral, getting more than 10,000 retweets and more than 20,000 likes on Facebook, showcasing Oreo’s ability to create timely, humorous content in real-time.
3. Balance Between Brand Message and Humor
   Striking the right balance between humor and brand messaging is critical in meme marketing. While memes thrive on humor, relatability, and wit, it’s important for brands not to lose sight of their core message. Overly comedic or irrelevant memes can dilute the brand’s identity, making it difficult for the audience to connect the humor back to the product or service being promoted.To avoid this, brands should craft memes that align with their values and tone. The humor should be in line with the brand’s image, ensuring that the message is not overshadowed by the joke. For instance, a playful brand can take more liberties with edgy humor, whereas a more serious brand may need to use lighter, more sophisticated humor.
4. Avoid Over-Commercializing Memes
   One of the key challenges in meme marketing is striking the right balance between promoting a brand and maintaining the authenticity and humor that make memes popular in the first place. Overcommercializing memes, where the marketing message overshadows the humor or relatability of the content, can lead to negative reactions from the audience. Memes thrive on a sense of shared culture, spontaneity, and organic appeal. When brands try too hard to push their product or service through memes, they risk coming off as disingenuous or out of touch with the meme culture.When brands force a meme to fit their marketing agenda, the content feels disjointed. Audiences can sense when something is artificially inserted into a trend or when a meme doesn’t align with the brand’s voice or values. Forced memes are quickly rejected by the internet, often resulting in backlash, negative comments, or, in extreme cases, memes mocking the brand’s attempt.

   Pepsi’s infamous ad featuring Kendall Jenner, while not exactly a meme, is a clear case of a brand forcing a serious cultural issue into a commercial agenda. The ad was met with significant backlash because it was seen as tone-deaf and out of touch, ultimately leading to its removal. The same applies to meme marketing—brands must tread carefully to avoid missteps that alienate their audience.

5. Understand Meme Lifespan
   Memes are highly dynamic, evolving quickly and often disappearing just as fast. What is popular and widely shared today might be outdated or irrelevant tomorrow. This rapid lifecycle poses both challenges and opportunities for brands. Leveraging memes at the right moment can lead to massive viral success, but using outdated or overused memes can harm a brand’s reputation and make it seem disconnected from current cultural trends.

From LOLs to Leads With AdLift

Meme marketing has the potential to significantly boost brand awareness, engage audiences, and make brands part of everyday conversations. Its virality, cost-effectiveness, and ability to connect emotionally with consumers make it a powerful tool for brands looking to engage the modern, internet-savvy audience. 

Successful meme marketing requires brands to strike a balance between humor and brand messaging, stay up-to-date with the latest trends, and understand the fleeting nature of memes. By keeping these factors in mind, brands can leverage memes to not only stay relevant but also become part of viral conversations, ultimately fostering deeper connections with their audience.

Sources:

https://contentdetector.ai/articles/meme-statistics/ 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/michelinemaynard/2019/12/22/how-popeyes-fried-chicken-sandwich-became-the-fast-food-phenomenon-of-2019/ 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/traversmark/2023/09/21/is-delulu-really-the-solulu-a-psychologist-explores-the-new-tiktok-trend/ 

https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2020/4/22/netflix-posts-explosive-growth-but-boom-may-not-last-long