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Memes are everywhere! From Facebook timelines to Instagram feeds to Reddit threads and Twitter, they are everywhere and loved by the younger generations. What started out as a fun way of expressing humor and jokes has become a cultural phenomenon. Memes are in the 2020s what the hippie movement was in the 1960s.

The business world has always tried to keep up with the changing cultural landscape. Adapting to the tastes and preferences of the younger generations is necessary for companies to remain relevant in the market. This is what helps a business maintain profitability and grow as a younger generation replaces the older as top consumers in the marketplace.

We are in the midst of such a shift right now, with Millennials and Generation Z replacing the older generations as top consumers of the market around the world. This, in turn, has led companies to realign their marketing strategies and business methods to better suit the preferences of these younger generations.

But memes and marketing? How did it come that such a casual thing as memes got into much more serious and for-profit marketing? It amazed us too, but somehow it works and it works really well.

Memes are at the heart of marketing

Meme marketing has become the next frontier of the digital marketing age. You might be wondering why memes are such a hot topic in marketing. Why are all global brands using something as informal as memes? There is a simple answer to that. Memes are effective and work wonders for marketing efforts!

Here are some examples:

The beard club

When Disney released The Mandalorian Series, nobody would have thought that Baby Yoda would steal the show and end up an internet sensation. The memes soon followed and The Beard Club hit the iron when it was hot!

The post went viral and that meant only good news for The Beard Club. Advertising sells more products.

Chipotle

A hungry stomach won’t care about savings, and Chipotle knows this very well. Using a meme to benefit from it was just clever on their part. Who would have thought memes are so effective at getting people to spend money on food? Well Chipotle did it!

Adobe

Adobe Photoshop and Memes were best friends, and it was not surprising that they used the FBI – Stay where you are meme template to promote their new product, Adobe Sparks.

Did it work anyway? Absolutely! Adobe Sparks has over 10 million downloads and a rating of 4.4 out of 5 on the Google PlayStore.

Gucci

You know that very well Memes are effective for marketing when a titan of the fashion industry uses them to market his products. In this case, Gucci used the “Me versus the guy she shouldn’t worry about” template to promote their watch and accessories.

It didn’t stop at just marketing products, Gucci used memes to increase engagement and connect more with its customer base in order to maintain and improve brand sentiment.

Future type

Future Kind, an e-commerce vegan dietary supplement company, uses memes to both entertain their products and make them accessible to their customers.

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Their memes get good engagement from their target audience and help the brand build their voice and image.

The magic of memes in marketing

The only thing that is clear to you is that the younger generation love memes and how they express themselves and communicate. But is that all? Was that enough for large companies to use memes in marketing? No! Meme marketing has its distinct advantages and here they are:

A healthier way of marketing –

Born and raised in the age of the internet, the younger generations know their way around online. For businesses, this means that they won’t condone irrelevant ads or be forced to view ads. All thanks to AdBlocks,

Memes, on the other hand, are a form of entertainment preferred by these generations. If a company uses memes to effectively market itself, chances are good the younger generations will reciprocate. In this way a company can have a larger and larger reach, including the organic!

Meme templates are free –

Yes you’ve read correctly. Meme templates are not copyrighted, so there are no license fees. Now that’s a big win for cost savings. It doesn’t end there, meme templates are versatile, you can Use a single template to present different things. As long as it is relatable and humorous, it will work wonders for your marketing efforts.

Making memes is easy –

There are three requirements for creating funny and relatable memes: current and in-depth knowledge of meme trends, a good sense of humor, and Basic knowledge of image processing. It should come as no surprise that most companies already have people with these skills, the interns!

Interns who are paid to do something they enjoy and what they enjoy doing memes will work wonders for any business. Happy interns would not only produce high quality marketing memes for your company, they would add more value to your company in the long run.

Simple and time-saving –

It is well known that running a typical marketing campaign requires a company to devote a significant amount of its resources. Creating memes to market your products and services is not resource intensive at all. A single intern can easily produce a dozen high-quality marketing memes in a day.

Unlike traditional marketing material, measuring the impact a meme has on a company’s audience is relatively easy. Everything a meme needs to be is funny, relatable, and humorous enough to do well. Resources saved in this way can be reallocated to more value-creating business Functions.

Increases your brand value –

Memes are cool, and being cool is good for your brand equity! Being in tune with meme culture and using memes to communicate with your audience is a surefire way to be cool in the contemporary world.

Not only does this create a sense of belonging for your audience to your brands, but it also gives you extra organic reach and users will inevitably share your memes. This not only saves costs, but also increases the productivity of your marketing function.

These points make a compelling case for why memes should be a part of your company’s digital marketing strategy. Social media users love memes, and so should your social media marketing strategy.

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Memes are here to stay and for a long time to come. It’s time memes found their way into yours digital marketing strategy and social media marketing. Your business will gain many competitive advantages when you choose meme marketing.

You could say that memes in marketing are not just a trend, they are a timely development. There is no getting around marketing without memes. Integrating memes into your social media strategy not only saves you resources, but also gives you greater and greater organic reach.

Memes will completely change the marketing landscape in the coming days, make sure you don’t end up as a school bus that can’t dodge!

So how are you going to start using memes for marketing?

Author: Yash Chawlani

Follow @yashchawlani

Yash Chawlani is a freelance content marketing strategist known by his personal brand, Merlin. He specializes in SEO and social media and supports B2B and SaaS companies with his first-class content strategies. In his free time you can find him either in the gym or on the … Show complete profile >