Internet memes are no stranger to web professionals and copywriters. We all know the power of a great video or an image that can take on a number of messages when passed on by many people. In fact, an Internet meme is more powerful than any ad copy image that is carefully shot and produced. If any of you remember Zeddie Little, the ridiculously handsome guy, he probably did more to the cause of running for certain health conditions than any full time model or celebrity did.
All that he did was to run and a photographer took a picture of him in that iconic moment. While such internet memes are rather rare, there are thousands of memes that convey similar cultural and marketing messages that are more powerful than traditional advertising. Know your Meme has a great collection of memes that you can take a look at in order to find inspiration.
Using Memes in Serious Marketing Campaigns
Memes usually tend to be light hearted but pack in serious marketing punches, in the business world. It could be that serious looking SEO professional who can take on a number of messages that your company stands for. The same picture can be used to warn customers of not following SEO best practices and at a different time, the same image can be used to inform users about an impending algorithm change. Memes can convey messages at an unconscious level and such messages are likely to remain in people’s minds for a longer time than a professionally created ad copy. This is one reason why ad professionals try to create memes as much as they can. There are certain qualities of a good meme.
Memes Speak to Target Audience
A great meme speaks to its audience like no other. A meme has a tendency to understand target audience’s tastes, language, keywords or their sense of humor. Mike Lewis wrote that memes need to be highly relevant. They should resonate the intended message to their target audience. No meme is useful unless he or she has the ability to go viral. A meme needs to be highly memorable and incredibly attention grabbing. In fact, memes tend to symbolize certain archetypes that we have in our minds.
Archetypal Memes
Zeddie Little symbolized the healthy, happy and fresh faced athlete like no other model could ever do. That is probably the reason why he became one of the most enduring memes in the last couple of years. Some memes tend to be short lived and they reflect an audience’s changing interests and trends.
Memes can be easily reimaged, according to Mike Lewis and take off on a specific platform. Also, they have an overt marketing message, unlike ad copy, which try to keep marketing messages subtle and sophisticated. At the end of the day, memes can be great for companies when they are looking for a great way to market their products and services to a particular target audience, without spending a lot of money. Also, memes shouldn’t cost a lot because they are supposed to go viral.
How to Create a Meme that Is Successful
There are many ways to create a great meme. You will either need to have great images of animals or people or animated pictures or you will need to use an open source meme that is freely available. Once you have chosen an image for your meme, you can write down the tag that usually goes along with a meme. These tags need to be catchy and attention grabbing. This is the place where you can get people to be interested in your company, product or service. By choosing a great image and a series of attention grabbing tags, you can run a mini ad campaign to boost or assist your expensive ad campaign.
One can always get a great copywriter and a graphics designer to ensure that memes convey the message that your target audience wants to hear. Using memes is an effective and time tested marketing tool that only needs creativity. One can certainly find talented creative guys who can create memes that bring in a lot of revenue and profits to the company.
