Do you know that moment when you’re scrolling through your social media feed, and suddenly, a meme pops up that makes you laugh? These humorous moments have a greater impact than you might think. Memes not only bring joy but also play a strategic role in brand communication.
According to research by the Z Institute, 73% of Generation Z believes that the use of memes can help brands connect with their consumers. However, the power of memes also resonates with other generations, proving that this form of communication is effective for creating an authentic and relevant connection with diverse audiences, not just younger people.
In this article, we’ll explore:
- Why use memes in your brand’s communication?
- How to use memes strategically
- How to measure the success of this strategy
- How top brands use memes in their communication
Why Use Memes in Your Brand’s Communication?
Using memes in marketing goes beyond sharing funny images. It’s a powerful strategy that leverages the virality of these contents to promote a brand, product, or service in a fun and engaging way.
For brands, memes offer a unique opportunity to interact with audiences in a spontaneous and genuine manner. By adopting popular memes or creating their own, brands can insert themselves into cultural conversations in real-time, showing they are aware of what matters to their audience.
In an environment saturated with ads and sales calls-to-action, memes break the formality and establish a more personal and human connection with consumers.
How to Use Memes Strategically in Communication
Using memes in your brand’s communication can be very effective, but it’s not about creating memes randomly. This could be more harmful than beneficial. Therefore, it’s important to follow some best practices to ensure the strategy is successful.
- Define Your Brand’s Voice
Just like people, brands need their own personality. Before starting to use memes, it’s important to define your brand’s voice. This means understanding what communication tone best represents your company and how it can be conveyed through memes.If your brand adopts a more serious and professional tone, for example, it might be more appropriate to use subtle memes. On the other hand, if the brand has a relaxed and youthful approach, funny and bold memes might be the right choice. The key is to ensure the memes align with your brand’s identity, maintaining consistency in communication. - Know Your Audience
Not all memes are funny to everyone. What makes one generation or specific group laugh might not have the same effect on another. Therefore, it’s crucial to know your audience well before incorporating memes into your communication strategy. Understand who your consumers are, what their interests are, and what type of humor they enjoy. Conduct research, observe interactions on social media, and analyze which memes have already been well-received by them.With this knowledge, you can select or create memes that truly connect with your audience, increasing the chances of interaction and virality. - Avoid Sensitive Topics
Controversial memes are those that touch on delicate, controversial, or sensitive topics, like politics, religion, social issues, or any topic that may divide opinions. While they might seem like a quick way to grab attention, these memes carry a high risk of offending part of your audience. Jokes about tragedies, stereotypes, or exaggerated criticism of public figures can generate negative reactions and even harm the brand’s reputation.For brands, the use of controversial memes should be evaluated very carefully. While they can generate buzz, the negative impact can outweigh the benefits, resulting in criticism, boycotts, and even loss of customers. Before sharing or creating a meme that could be interpreted as controversial, it’s essential to consider the different possible interpretations and how this aligns with the company’s values and ethics. Opting for widely accepted memes that bring lightness and humor without causing division is a safer and more effective strategy to connect with the audience positively.
How to Measure the Success of the Strategy
Once your meme strategy is implemented, it’s time to assess the results. Look at the following metrics to understand the impact:
- Engagement: Monitor likes, shares, and comments. These indicators show how your audience is reacting to the meme and whether they’re connecting with your brand in an authentic and attractive way.
- Reach: Evaluate how many views the meme has received. A large reach indicates the content’s potential to spread and capture the attention of new audiences.
- Conversion: Track how many interactions led to valuable actions, such as new followers, link clicks, sign-ups, or purchases. This helps ensure that memes effectively contribute to achieving your marketing goals.
As your communication strategies evolve, it’s crucial to assess their impact comprehensively. Using a specialized tool can facilitate this analysis. Buzzmonitor’s Analytics module is an efficient solution for measuring your brand’s performance across various platforms, centralizing data on engagement, reach, and conversion, with over 50 social media metrics in one place. With this tool, you’ll gain valuable insights to help optimize your strategies and achieve better results.
How Top Brands Use Memes in Their Communication
And who’s doing this in practice? Let’s explore some cases where brands have effectively used memes in their communication strategies and achieved success.
- Duolingo
Duolingo stands out for its ability to quickly interact with trends and popular conversations on social media. Using its mascot, the green owl Duo, the brand participates in memes and current events, keeping it relevant and fun for the audience.Moreover, not all Duolingo content aims to directly attract new users. The brand also focuses on creating an emotional connection with its audience, strengthening its presence and image authentically and attractively without necessarily promoting app downloads.
- Netflix
Netflix constantly uses memes to promote its releases and connect with its audience. By creating memes related to new series and movies, the company leverages trends and cultural events to grab the attention of its subscribers and increase the visibility of its productions. This strategy allows the brand to be present in popular conversations and stay relevant and interesting.Beyond promoting releases, interacting with the audience through comments and sharing user-generated content helps create an active and loyal community. This tactic helps build a more authentic relationship with subscribers.
- Burger King
Burger King is known for its bold and provocative marketing campaigns. The brand often uses current and controversial topics to attract attention and spark debates, leveraging hot topics to create memorable and impactful campaigns. This strategy aims not only to attract attention but also to generate buzz and interaction on social media, positioning the fast-food chain as a bold and relevant brand.However, it’s important to note that campaigns involving sensitive topics also face criticism and can polarize opinions, demonstrating that the risk associated with this approach is part of its impact.
Conclusion
Incorporating memes into your communication strategy can be an effective way to connect with your audience in a lighthearted and engaging manner. With the right practices and examples, memes can become powerful allies for building an authentic and memorable brand presence.
And your brand? Is it ready to maximize its social media presence with or without memes? Schedule a chat with our specialists and discover how Buzzmonitor can help you identify trends and overcome communication challenges.
