The meme world has moved beyond social media and messaging apps. Memes are now an effective marketing tool used by companies to kickstart a discussion on their brand or products. But when companies aren’t creating one of their own, they are latching onto an existing trend. Most often than not, the memes are absolute cringe. In the world of ‘no such thing as bad publicity’ though, the cringedom of memes is a pretty good strategy. The marketing guys can pat themselves on their backs.
Earlier this month, a comedy creator called Girl on Couch uploaded a video on TikTok with the caption, “Did I just write the song of the summer?”, asking her followers if they could turn her pitch into an actual song. “I’m looking for a man in finance, with a trust fund, 6’5, blue eyes, finance…” The lines, supported by beat sound, soon caught the attention of social media.
Of course, the website was hardly the first brand to hit the nail when a trend was viral. Indian police forces have been doing it for a while.
The meme is now viral and has entered the marketing book of VIPShaadi.com, which took the lines as a challenge to itself. It erected a billboard to claim that the company does have a roster of men who tick the boxes mentioned in the song. It missed the sarcasm and decided this is what Indian women are really looking for in the marriage market.
They missed the point but hit the nail in terms of marketing.
Marketing professionals who brainstorm on ideas have realised that memes are an easy avenue for them; all they have to do is wait for the right word to be trending before they can hedge their product or services on it. And Instagram, where memes rule and reels are interspersed with a slew of ads, has brought the two worlds closer. Meme is the new messenger in the memeverse.
Memes and social messaging
Meme is the new language and even authorities are trying to reach out to the youth using their language on road safety. Brands understand the GenZ language
The Bengaluru police was one of the pioneers who cracked the code when it came to the use of memes for social messaging. Others followed suit. In 2017, it involved the services of a marketing team to engage with a meme-fied generation. Bengaluru-based startup Crowd Kart took over the city police’s Facebook, Twitter (now X), and Instagram accounts. What followed was a spurt of memes referencing TV shows like Game of Thrones, sending the Bengaluru police’s popularity chart on social media over the roof.
This was top-notch marketing that made police appear approachable, while driving home points about crime and safety.
After all, as everyone is scratching their heads, wondering “What do the youth (read Gen Z) like?,” the police found a way to connect with them. And with Gen Z clearly teaching their parents to be more social media savvy, memes can actually reach a wider section of audience.
It is good that the police are trying to get people to notice how cyber criminals are getting more suave.
But the police mean business, in case we had doubts.
Nice try, Buddy! 🏏 But attempting to breach security during #IPL is a guaranteed six straight into our custody. Sorry, mate, you're stumped! #RCBvsCSK #WeServeWeProtect pic.twitter.com/Dj4sMXq9jt
— ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು ನಗರ ಪೊಲೀಸ್ BengaluruCityPolice (@BlrCityPolice) May 18, 2024
The Mumbai and Delhi police have also often resorted to using memes to address a host of issues, such as drunk driving, cyber crime awareness, or encouraging voting. Most recently, the Mumbai police used the template featuring Fahadh Faasil from his 2024 film Aavesham to talk about reporting crimes by dialing 100.
The Delhi police used Kiran Rao’s Laapata Ladies to warn against sharing OTP to strangers.
O 'SAJNI' re OTP kabhi mat share karna…#DPCares #LaapataaLadies pic.twitter.com/KdvHowTGVy
— Delhi Police (@DelhiPolice) May 22, 2024
After all, we do ignore texts warning us against fraudsters, but we are definitely addicted to memes. Modern problems, they say, need modern solutions, and better memes than boring texts. But the memes have to be super relevant and updated. Otherwise they do not land.
Memes and sales
The police are not the only ones acing the marketing game. Food delivery apps like Zomato and Swiggy regularly use memes. Although I may be on a strict diet to get that summer body, a good meme telling me where to order my dessert from is an effective marketing strategy for both the apps and retaining that gym membership.
Of course, this is not to say all memes can be used for marketing purposes. Meme-making and remaining politically correct is an art that still needs fine-tuning. There have been clearly very problematic memes used in ads, which were later pulled down.
Zomato, in its excitement of owning the meme market, erected billboards using words ‘MC. BC.’ to denote short forms of foods like ‘mac and cheese’ and ‘butter chicken’. Except nearly everyone knows that these are also acronyms of popular Hindi swear words. Zomato apologised for its pretty thoughtless, and what they imagined, witty pun.
But by and large, memes as marketing tools are here to stay. As long as the memes are actually funny, or even cringe, and not disrespectful, they work. It is the world of social media dominion and these brands are living it, and the audience are clearly loving it.
Views are personal.