To Meme, or Not to Meme
This past week, a 16 year old named Alex became famous in ONE day. Someone took a picture of him working and created a meme, dubbing him #AlexfromTarget. He now has over 500,000 Twitter followers and has even made an appearance on The Ellen Show. Target even embraced his new found fame, saying, “We heart Alex, too #AlexfromTarget.” One meme was all it took; Alex became famous and Target benefited from it. Seeing how much this meme had an impact, I decided to dig deeper and answer the burning question: “To meme, or not to meme?”
We heart Alex, too! #alexfromtarget pic.twitter.com/LvA7qc5RfS
— Target (@Target) November 3, 2014
After some article surfing, I’ve concluded that if used properly, a meme could be a great addition to a brand’s marketing strategy. In my search, I came across a Mashable article that discussed both #AlexfromTarget and successful meme marketing tips (how perfect!). It went on to explain “memejacking;” using memes to your advantage in your marketing strategy, and the correct way to use it. To successfully memejack you must:
- Make sure you understand the meme. It is very important to know what you are using as a marketing tool, do some research!
- Don’t lose out by wasting valuable time. Memes can be time sensitive; they could stay viral for months or fizzle out within a matter of days.
- Make sure the meme is brand-friendly. You are using this as a marketing tool; make sure it represents your company and won’t damage your reputation.
Following these three simple (but very important) tips can help you effectively incorporate memes into your marketing strategy. But you be the judge, check out these examples of good and bad meme marketing from the Mashable article:
Good
Seemless: Created memes to go along with the 2014 Academy Awards, huge success!
Bad
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: They attempted to use the popular “Doge” meme and it disappointed.
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