A meme is a combination of visuals and content that communicates an issue among the public using a humorous caption. The word meme was first used when there were no Facebook, no WhatsApp and no Twitter. A meme can be in the form of an image, GIFs or videos. Nowadays, memes are in great demand among the public. It reaches people faster than any news or tweets. It contains mainly three ingredients such as:-relevancy, a humorous slant, pop culture reference.
In recent times, people mostly use memes rather than other forms of content. Also, brands or companies today have several ways whether online or offline to connect with its customers. But the best way to connect with customers is through online mode as they are available 24×7 on their smartphones and internet. Just by advertising your products online on various platforms, you are not attracting the customers rather than you are pushing them away from you. The customers today are fed up with various kinds of ads. The best way to attract customers is by converting that ad into a meme. Memes can make anything popular. It can make an egg popular, a movie popular, a cat popular and it can also make one’s brand popular. About 85% of the content that is shared today on social media comprises memes. As the use of the internet rises among the people, the definition and meaning of memes have completely changed. Memes appear just in the form of a video or an image or GIFs along with funny and hilarious captions. There are three ways to look after the memes today:-
- Memes are made by several companies to promote their brand today to increase their customers and target audience.
- Memes are made by several audiences to troll the brand.
- Memes are made by audiences to pick up the latest brands, i.e. memes on latest trends.
Now let us focus on how brands use memes to increase popularity of products and services among customers.
- Zomato has made memes for its company or brand as a part of its marketing campaign for ages now.
- Big Bazaar and Rajni Kant vs CID Jokes media team up together for a meme based campaign to promote big bazaar public holiday sale in 2018. The results were
- On Facebook, a total of 14 memes were posted by RVCJ media.
- Garnered a total reach of 1.59 million people.
- Engagement rate 21.2%
- On Instagram, these memes garnered a reach of 2.5 million people.
- More than 91,000 people on Twitter.
However, there are some brands that create their own content to keep up with the trend. For example:-
- Netflix makes memes from their own source instead of using already viral templates. Thereby promoting their shows and increasing the viewership.
- When Sacred Games 2 was released, Parle G took note of Bunty who was seen surviving on just biscuits and black tea in the first episode and called it every artist’s initial struggle before Netflix and Swiggy offered some help to them.
TOP VIRAL MEMES OF 2020
BINOD: This name got popular after a person mentioned his own name in the comment and people went crazy about it. They started referring to everyone and everything as Binod.
RASODE MAI KON THA:
This meme became famous after a guy made a remix of a dialogue from a serial named “Saath Nibhana Sathiyan”, people made dance videos and mimic videos on the same.
Tajmahal meme:
This very popular meme trended after Trump’s visit to India where everyone morphed their faces with Trump’s daughter sitting in front of Taj Mahal with the help of photoshop.
Go corona go:
This meme trended after a lady was seen chanting ‘go corona go” on the day the hon’ble Prime Minister asked everyone to bang thali’s in their balconies.
Mujhe drugs do:
The remix audio of popular news channel anchor, Arnab Goswami trended after he was seen asking for drugs in one of his interviews.
Dalgona coffee:
This is a two-layer creamy coffee that is literally almost made in the quarantine. It was a trending food item. And people loved posting about it on their instagram handles.
Atma nirbhar:
After Modi ji asked everyone in the country to be atma nirbhar in one of his speeches from man ki baat, people made memes on the same.
Coffin dance:
Coffin dance is a popular African dance where people can be seen carrying a coffin and dancing while walking with it.
Shoe flip challenge:
This is a challenge people are posing on reels. It is basically throwing one shoe in the air, and then editing it to another fresh get up.
Recreating old pictures:
A lot of people tried to recreate their childhood picture or their parents’ old picture and posted it on Instagram.
