Learn who your brand followers are and what they care about. Start by making sure incorporating memes in your social marketing will click with your audience. For example, you can try licensing an image that you want to feature as a major part of a marketing campaign. Consider the alternatives: If you want to use a particular image but are afraid there might be implications, explore alternative paths.Make sure you’re not implying an endorsement: In the case of Duane Reade, that’s what got the brand in trouble.Develop a clear policy: Figure out what’s your brand’s tolerable level of risk and create guidelines that everyone on your team understands and follows.Check the rights on an image: It’s important to be aware of the risks you’re taking, even if the chance of ending up on the wrong side of the law is minuscule.One of the potentially most damaging ways to use a meme is to get embroidered in a legal battle over licensing rights, as New York-based drugstore chain Duane Read found out.Īlthough there’s no surefire way to use them, there are various ways in which you can protect yourself from having a meme backfire on your brand: While some companies have managed to use memes to inject new energy in their brands, not all who have ventured in meme-territory have come back victorious. They increase the chance that people will remember your brand when they see the meme elsewhere.According to research, they lead to higher engagement from your audience.They make it easier to showcase complex concepts such as your brand personality and company culture.They are great for humanizing your brand and sharing it on social media with an authentic voice.They are an easy way to capitalize on shared knowledge.Several points make memes great for brands: Memes seem to collect our ideas, emotions, and actions in a simple and transferable form, making them perfect for the Internet age. Memes are successful because they’re “carriers of culture.” If you’ve been thinking about using memes to promote your brand on social media, you’re in good company.Īs memes rise in popularity, brands grow keener on capitalizing on their pervasiveness and charm. Their simple form and humor give memes inherent virility and a broad appeal. So whether you’re new to memes, or looking to spin your meme mastery into good business, this guide will help you nail marketing with memes. If you try to use a meme and don’t hit the mark, you’ll look foolish and out of touch at best, but could also end up seriously offending someone. Memes can work well for brands, but only for those that get the essential elements of using a meme right.
They’re easy to iterate on, and every week, a new one pops up.īut despite their popularity, it seems like using memes is a risky decision for a brand - or is it? Memes are one of the greatest symbols of social media.