Everyone loves memes.
It seems like there’s a meme for everything and everyone.
Memes went from obscure jokes on the early internet, to basically a language in and of itself online today.
But is it a language you can speak as a company?
Can you really use memes as part of your marketing strategy?
Well, in short, yes. But! Be warned, it’s not so straightforward.
“Hi, I’ve just woken up from a 40-year-long coma. What are memes?”
It’s hard to explain what memes are. But let’s try.
Basically, a meme is a humorous reference (usually from pop culture) that takes on a life of its own and spreads through the internet.
They’re funny and people love sharing them with each other.
Like jokes themselves, it’s hard to explain what makes them funny.
You either “get it” or don’t.
Unlike jokes, however, a meme is often repeatedly modified while the core reference stays intact.
The one common defining factor to all memes is that they’re all “relatable,” referring to a widely common feeling or experience; and the added layer of humor from combining it with said reference.
So, the more relatable and funny it is, the better the meme performs.
Meme marketing is pretty much what it sounds like: using popular internet meme formats as a marketing tool.
As simple as this sounds, it’s not. Using memes as a marketing tool is like harnessing nuclear power.
Do it wrong and it can be disastrous.
There are firm but unwritten rules you have to be careful not to break!
That said, it’s well worth the risk.
So it’s time to do a deep dive into memes and where they intersect with the world of marketing and business!
We’ll look at examples of where they worked well.
But we’ll also look at times they failed spectacularly, examine what went wrong, and what we can learn from them.
Surprisingly, the world of memes does in fact have rules– albeit unwritten ones.
And they’re not all clear, but you’ll definitely know when you’ve broken them, at which point you’re in damage control.
Here are some tips to bear in mind:
Be sure you understand what it’s all about before creating your own iteration of it.
Not all memes work for all people groups.
Research on your what your audience prefers and their preferences for humor.
This will help you cook up memes that hit the mark every time.
The rule of thumb here is: does it seem as though you’re taking existing content and trying to pass it off as your own original creation?
This is a no-no, and not just where memes are concerned.
At least, ensure it isn't the wrong kind of offensive.
If in doubt, just don’t risk it and play it safe!
Remember that a meme is not, we repeat, not an ad.
Don’t dump too much text, and certainly never add a call-to-action!
Memes are highly fluid and the trends are constantly changing.
Avoid using an old or outdated meme long after it’s dropped out of circulation unless you’re sure it will work.
On a similar note, keep track of meme challenges and take part in them to get more views.
Memes are like chili sauce.
They spice up the meal and make it more interesting, but they’re not supposed to be your main course.
Your social media should have some healthy variety, with memes just serving as the cherry on top.
Here's the cherry on top: Don’t take yourself too seriously, and don’t be afraid to make fun of yourself too.
Here are some places you can go to dip your toes before you dive into the world of meme creation.
KnowYourMeme is like the Wikipedia of memes, explaining their origin, meaning, and use, and tracking their growth and popularity on the internet and in pop culture at large.
Confused about a meme and don’t get it?
Look it up on KnowYourMeme and now you’re in the know.
Warning: Since KnowYourMeme covers internet culture in depth, some articles could include offensive and NSFW topics (safely hidden behind clear warnings, however).
We’ve linked to them in this blog to explain many topics and memes, and all those links are safe for work, but still, exercise some caution.
There are many meme generator tools online, and ImgFlip’s Meme Generator might be the most popular one.
It’s simple and easy to use, with pre-loaded meme templates ready to go, and no Photoshop knowledge is required.
This is a great place to start with making your own memes.
Want to make memes on the go?
Mematic has got you covered.
Available on both IOS and Android, it brings the fun of making memes right to your smartphone.
The app is easy to use and very intuitive, helping you make memes for your marketing campaigns in no time.
Now for the fun stuff!
Let’s look at how various companies managed to use memes and got great responses with their audience.
We’ll analyze why it worked so well, and what lessons we can take from them!
Starting off strong, we have this hilarious meme from Natural Cycles, a mobile app that helps women keep track of their fertility.
Now most companies dealing with topics like these would go the route of being overly polite, using metaphors and light imagery, and avoid going into a lot of detail.
But instead, they posted a meme that’s not exactly subtle.
Referencing the iconic scene from the classic horror movie The Shining– and therefore, hilarious and instantly relatable.
Which is really what memes are all about.
The comments and likes under this post are proof of how perfectly this meme landed with its audience.
Netflix are the undisputed kings when it comes to companies using memes to connect with the public.
It helps, of course, that they’re part of the entertainment industry.
But it’s still notable how sharp their social media team is with memes.
Here’s their Thanksgiving offering, turning one of their hit animated fantasy shows, Simpsons creator Matt Groening’s Disenchantment, into a relatable meme for the season.
In any business, it’s hard to overstate the importance of knowing your audience.
And that applies to using memes, too.
Here’s book publisher Penguin Random House hitting the nail on the head with their iteration of the famous distracted boyfriend meme, instantly appealing to book nerds and grammar nazis everywhere.
It’s the kind of meme that might fly over the head of many people, but certainly not to its audience of avid readers.
And that’s why it works.
Now don’t get us wrong.
If you’re going to use memes in your marketing, they don’t have to be only all about your brand.
They can simply be relatable in a way that connects with your audience in a way that’s relevant to your offering.
Take this example from BarkBox, a company that does subscription-based dog toy boxes.
Why does it work? Aside from being relatable, funny and cute, it features a dog being silly.
So it’s instantly relatable to any animal lover and pet owner.
As a bonus, the text is a reference to the lyrics of the 2009 hit Breakeven by The Script.
Notice how it’s not trying to sell you anything.
The meme doesn’t even have a “BarkBox” watermark (remember, we pointed out that nobody “owns” memes).
It’s just funny and relatable to pet owners, or 100% of BarkBox’s audience.
And that’s enough for it to go viral, which is better for brand recognition than any expensive ad campaign.
Singer Mariah Carey’s 1994 hit “All I Want for Christmas Is You” became an enduring seasonal anthem, played everywhere repeatedly year after year around Christmas.
It got to the point where the song practically heralds the approach of the season.
And this phenomenon itself spurred on a myriad of memes.
So Netflix got in on the action with their own meme based on their hit series You.
They even threw in a second layer of meme humor with the caption “Two Joe Goldbergs?
In this economy?!” thereby affirming their status as corporate meme kings.
They’re so good at this, they made this list twice.
Just about everyone loves coffee.
Most of us here at Broadcast2World wouldn’t get any of our work done on time without this magical dark potion.
But admittedly, some are more, shall we say… passionate about it than others (read: coffee snobs).
Here’s how Purity Coffee acknowledged their most ardent fans, threw a little playful shade, made fun of themselves just a bit, and made their audience laugh all at the same time through this meme.
What’s especially commendable here is how this meme doesn’t come off as mean-spirited.
It also has a dash of “not taking itself too seriously”, by simultaneously admitting they’re coffee snobs, but also making fun of themselves for it at the same time.
We’ll drink (a cup of joe) to that!
We mentioned earlier that self-deprecation works really well.
McDonald’s poked some fun at themselves with their addition to “The World if X / Society if X” meme.
Which features images of some futuristic sci-fi utopia with a caption implying that if some minor issue was different, we would all be living in this perfect world today.
Self-deprecating humor works so well because it’s disarming, doesn’t offend anyone (since you’re making fun of yourself), and shows that you don’t take yourself too seriously.
McDonald’s knows who they are, and they know what their customers love about them.
So most importantly, it comes off as sincere and fun.
The corporate world is all about projecting this serious businesslike image of professionalism and dedication to your craft and blah blah blah.
But that’s simply not how memes roll.
Continuing the trend of self-deprecation we were talking about earlier, take this tongue-in-cheek example from Litmus.
An email marketing platform and app, they presented this meme lovingly roasting their own industry.
Marketing is harder than it looks, and it’s tempting to take shortcuts when the pressure is on.
By pointing this out, marketers got to laugh at themselves and relieve tension.
But while it’s also self-mocking, it also subtly hints at Litmus’ dedication to their craft and keen understanding and insight of their industry.
It’s a kind of Dunning-Kruger effect thing, where you can only truly understand (and laugh at) something being done badly, only when you know what it really takes to do it right.
In a similar vein, here’s Zendesk poking fun at unrealistic expectations in the tech support industry, in a way that those on either side of the phone call (both customers and professionals) can appreciate and laugh at.
And that’s all it is. Just a simple joke in a meme format that anyone can understand.
And in a subtle way, reveals that Zendesk really do have enough knowledge and passion about what they do, that they have insights like these to draw humor from.
The great thing about memes is that you don’t have to overthink it much.
Dunkin’ Donuts dropped this simple donut-based meme and had a great response. It was a take on the “don’t speak to me or my son ever again” meme.
It’s simple, effective, made people laugh, and was all about the delicious donuts.
Even Homer Simpson would understand it.
When we say “avoid being offensive, especially the wrong kind of offensive,” this is a notable exception.
Fast food chain Wendy’s has set itself apart from the competition by running a hilariously rude, insulting social media persona that ruthlessly roasted anyone that dared cross them.
This only earned them respect from even the most jaded netizens and led to a lot of memes and viral attention.
But it’s not something that can just work for any brand, and we don’t recommend you try this unless you really know what you’re doing and have the right kind of brand for it.
That said, they’re no stranger to memes. Here they are taking on notoriously foul-mouthed celebrity TV chef Gordon Ramsay, using the “Spider-Man pointing at Spider-Man” meme.
This is just a “chef’s kiss” emoji.
It’s vitally important for you to really know your customer base and understand their world.
And Tindr India hit the bullseye with their meme-based billboards to go with their “adulting can wait” campaign (the word “adulting” itself part of another meme family).
They know their user base are young adults who love memes and are newly navigating adulthood.
So these ads landed perfectly.
Note how they didn’t just copy-paste memes as usual, but actually had proper professional photoshoots with local Indian models, and recreated the memes perfectly.
Surely, this was far more work to do; but doing this made the ads right at home in any bustling Indian city.
We should underscore how this was not easy to pull off, despite how simple the end result may look.
There are a myriad of ways this could have gone wrong, been tone-deaf, or even come across as trying too hard.
But this ad campaign threaded the needle just perfectly.
Semrush is a keyword research tool for marketers.
And right there, there’s not a lot you can say to make that interesting for outsiders.
But that’s where some savvy use of memes can lighten things up, help you connect with your audience, and bring a spark of life to your brand image.
Here they shared their contribution to the enduring black and pink houses meme, where a rather goth-looking somber black house stands right beside a cute pastel-pink and lilac-colored house near the beach, the contrast ripe for comedy and meme captions.
The joke is that marketers often talk about marketing with happiness and enthusiasm; but the actual work itself can be pretty intense, serious, and even boring (sorry, marketing people, but you know it’s kind of true).
On a more subtle note, the use of this meme also hints at Semrush’s experience and depth of knowledge in marketing, without beating the audience over the head with it.
When you’re as big as Spotify, you don’t need to raise awareness that your brand exists.
Rather, you celebrate your brand loyalty by showcasing how well you understand your customer base.
Here they dropped a meme that’s universally relatable: how we discover and share music with close friends, versus how we try to impress a crush.
Again, notice the lack of branding in the meme.
They didn’t mention Spotify or drop the brand logo anywhere, because 1) it simply isn’t necessary, and 2) a meme is not an advertisement.
With a name like “The Marketing Millennials” we can only expect a savvy level of meme skills, and we’re not disappointed.
Their contribution here hints at something almost anyone can relate to, not just marketers or office drones working in teams.
The meme is of what looks like a slice of pizza, but on closer inspection is a huge sushi.
It’s not particularly appetizing and kind of a hot mess– just like working in a team where everyone adds their input, regardless of whether they’re good ideas or not.
The message is loud and clear: Many hands may make light work, but conversely, too many cooks spoil the broth!
For the marketing world, this meme can be a tad subversive and even controversial, but it still hits at a fundamental truth.
And of course, it’s relatable to anyone who’s worked in a team of any sort, so this meme is a hit.
It seems odd that Bernie Sanders, an 83-year-old politician with unkempt hair and cranky energy, would be so wildly popular in meme culture.
But we suppose the world has never really been the same since they said Pluto was no longer a real planet.
So it’s just something we’ve all come to accept.
Sanders’ appearance at the 2021 Presidential Inauguration of Joe Biden set off a tsunami of enduring memes.
It was a freezing cold January morning and the inauguration was outdoors with Covid still making the rounds.
So Sanders bundled up with huge homemade mittens, arms and legs crossed, wearing a mask on a skinny folding chair.
We can’t really explain it, but there was just something intrinsically comical about this photo.
He looked typically grumpy, but it’s more likely he was just cold that morning.
It wasn’t long before this was making the rounds on the internet with humorous alterations and text.
And Jameson Whiskey got in on the action with their own little homage, a Photoshopped meme of Bernie sitting patiently and grumpily outside their latest location, waiting for it to open.
The caption deploys a suitable pun with “Berning time till the Jameson Distillery opens” as a cherry on top.
And he’s back!
We are once again asking you to consider another Bernie meme.
This one from Ikea is devastatingly simple and effective, declaring “get the look” and quietly featuring the folding chair and huge oven mitts in homage to Sanders’ signature lack of style.
And you don’t have to be part of the upper one percent to afford it, either!
It’s funny, cheeky, and inoffensive. And that’s why it works so well.
The rise of GenZ growing up and getting online led to their own take on memes.
Many of them were notably bizarre and surreal, like the “Stonks” meme, an intentional misspelling of “stocks” with a bizarre CGI businessman-type character standing before a screen showing stock prices and a climbing arrow.
It doesn’t make much sense and it’s not really supposed to.
This meme is often posted sarcastically, self-referencing poor financial decisions.
Investment trading app Investr deployed this meme cleverly, with the caption “don’t be stonks guy!,” implying that using their app was smart and financially savvy.
It’s about as close to an ad that you can get using a meme, and it notably walks the fine line of not getting too much like an obvious advert.
It’s simple, it’s funny; but it works because it understands what the meme is about, rather than trying to change it into something it’s not.
The core principle of all memes is that they’re inherently relatable on a broad or even universal level.
Microsoft isn’t known for being meme-savvy or “cool” as a brand image, but they scored with this simple meme-like tweet.
It’s something we all do, constantly hit Ctrl+S while working.
We all still do this even though modern apps auto-save and the days of a crash losing all your work are long gone for the most part.
By hitting at something we can all relate to and have a little chuckle at, Microsoft really connected with their audience and spread just a little joy.
It’s not selling anything, it’s not taking itself seriously, and it works.
OKCupid was an early dating platform, long before the days of Tinder, Hinge, and Bumble.
This website set itself apart by using a myriad of fun quizzes and polls that you play with for the platform to build an accurate profile of your personality, likes and dislikes.
This way, you’d improve your chances of matching with someone you could really get along with.
That’s why this meme is especially effective, because it hints at what they were originally so great at doing.
It also hints at the trials and tribulations of dating, that it’s not just about finding the right people, but avoiding all the wrong ones too.
The “Me: / Also Me:” memes are probably one of the most widely relatable formats out there.
It references and acknowledges the many self-contradictions we all have; and through humor, lets us have a laugh at ourselves.
It’s a reminder that we’re all complex beings and that’s okay.
You’re not a hypocrite for sometimes having self-contradictory behavior.
Probably nowhere else is this more apparent than our desire to eat and live healthy; but then binge on junk food at the first chance.
And restaurant franchise Jimmy John's made use of this meme to remind us that it’s okay to be tempted by their enormous delicious sandwiches.
We all know at least one fitness freak in our lives.
That one person with an amazing physique who loves to talk about their workout routine, long bicycle ride, or how much they ran this weekend.
And we do know they’re usually not bragging just to throw shade at us or make us feel bad for going goblin mode with Netflix and a blanket, while they spent the same weekend seemingly training for the Olympics.
So RunningWorld gave its user base a chance to laugh at themselves by owning it with this swear jar meme.
Self-deprecation is a common theme in memes and internet culture, and it’s relatable and universal because it’s not offending anyone other than the person doing it to themselves, and we can all share in the laugh.
Like Microsoft earlier, GE is another juggernaut corporate behemoth that is known for many things, but being meme-savvy is not one of them.
However, when they launched their Pinterest page, they went hard with this hilariously cheesy romantic meme with inventor Thomas Edison posing with one of his inventions, a very early version of a video camera.
The caption makes a pun with organic chemistry terms, and there’s just a simple GE logo quietly sitting in a corner.
It was a smash hit and they soared to 12,000 followers.
It works because it simply celebrates being a nerd rather than trying to be cool and slick and bragging about their accomplishments.
Yappy is a business that sells pet products.
So it’s no surprise that their customer base is unapologetic animal lovers.
In another great example of “know your audience,” Yappy dropped this meme to the great delight of their Instagram followers.
The infamous and hilariously unhinged Pepe Silvia meme features the character Charlie from "It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia".
With a deranged conspiracy-theory-esque pinboard, complete with red threads and too many clippings and articles to count.
It’s a staple of memes mocking unhinged conspiracy theorist types.
The joke is how deranged the reader probably appears while trying to explain to their partner why they should get even more pets.
It’s exaggerated for comedic effect and yet, quite relatable to anyone that knows what it’s like to live with a beloved furry companion.
The 2004 action-comedy White Chicks is a movie about two black FBI agents assigned to protect a pair of filthy rich young white heiresses, and typical hijinks ensue when they take their place in heavy disguise.
Its cult following led to many enduring memes.
In one scene, a thief steals one of the disguised agents’ handbags, which holds his gun and badge, leading to a spirited chase and confrontation where he gets it back, much to the mugger’s disbelief.
Fashion brand Telfar got in on the memes with their altered submission to this scene.
A risky move, because they were essentially bragging about their brand. But they knew they had a fiercely loyal fanbase, so it was a hit.
They say a wise man learns from his mistakes, but an even wiser man learns from others’ mistakes.
So now let’s look at a few examples of how NOT to do it.
We’ll start with the best-case scenario for failure, where the meme just doesn’t work or connect.
Facebook tried to get in on National Pizza Day but it simply fell flat.
It wasn’t particularly funny, and had no real connection to anything Facebook does.
The comments expressed confusion rather than delight.
Going further down the list, HealthCare.gov tried to connect with its audience by posting a doge meme, bragging about their efficiency, benefits, coverage and affordability.
It fell flat, as a lot of Americans cannot afford healthcare, and it’s a hot-button political issue with no solutions in sight.
The comments came in hard and fast, and they were not positive.
Why did it fail? Several reasons can be listed.
Rather than being relatable and funny, the meme came across as trivializing a serious issue, and not addressing the many problems the audience face with getting healthcare.
There’s a fine line between being irreverent but funny, and just plain insensitive.
So this is a lesson in those unwritten rules we covered earlier: Understand the meme, and know your audience before you try your hand at memes for marketing purposes.
Another example of how not to do it. Here’s why this flopped.
McDonald’s attempt at the “say no more, fam” Barber meme was stale and outdated, over three years old at the time.
But even worse, it didn’t actually make any sense.
The original meme format was misunderstood.
As a result, this tweet came off as missing the point, like someone pretending to be “in the know” with meme culture and trying hard to fit in with youth.
All in all, nothing too terrible.
Certainly it wasn’t offensive or made the news. But definitely a swing-and-a-miss moment to learn from.
Yahoo were a little too eager to fire off this meme, and shared a screenshot of them using their competitor Google, which was definitely not part of the joke.
And the internet noticed.
While it’s usually not a bad thing to make fun of yourself a little if you’re dabbling with memes, it’s still possible to shoot yourself in the foot with a message you’re not trying to convey. Even with memes, attention to detail is important!
While it’s important to keep a keen eye on current events and trends, bear in mind that there’s a thin line between being playfully irreverent… and veering into the offensively flippant, making light of serious issues.
This is especially important when you’re essentially advertising using a meme.
The Seattle Seahawks used an MLK quote superimposed over an image of a crying Russel Wilson to celebrate the Seahawks getting into the Super Bowl.
Conflating a sports victory with the historic and ongoing struggle for civil rights, was not a great look.
The response was not one they were going for, and they deleted the tweet and issued an apology.
But amazingly, things can get even worse…
It’s hard to top Digiorno’s 2014 PR disaster.
While not technically a meme but a hashtag movement, it’s similar enough that it gets the top (or rather, bottom) spot on our list.
The hashtag #WhyIStayed was a viral #MeToo-esque movement where survivors of domestic violence explained why they initially stayed with their abusive husbands.
It was meant to open up a frank dialog on a sensitive, heavy topic, and to counter the victim-blaming that survivors have to deal with.
However, Digiorno’s Twitter account joined in the discussion by joyously tweeting “#WhyIStayed: You Had Pizza.”
Clearly, the agent handling the social media account had not read up on what the hashtag and movement were actually all about.
Within minutes, they realized their mistake and tweeted countless apologies.
But the damage was immediate and severe, even going so far as making the mainstream news for several days.
So, yes, turns out there really IS such a thing as bad PR.
While it was a huge gaffe and DIGiorno was raked over the coals for a week, they also tweeted countless apologies and fully owned up to their mistake.
So at least they didn’t make a bad situation worse, and valuable lessons were learned about how to represent your brand on the internet and social media.
So can you really use memes for marketing?
Turns out, yes, you can– but only if you do it right.
And this is not a hypothetical, but already happening everywhere, as you can see from our list of best (and worst) examples.
We hope this blog post was enlightening and helpful, and even gave you a chuckle or two.
And maybe even gave you some inspiration to try your hand at memes yourself!
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