Memes aren’t just for laughs; they’re a marketing goldmine. In this article, we will explore the world of meme marketing, and discover how to use PosterMyWall to craft viral, brand-aligned memes. This guide will break down the anatomy of successful memes, offer inspiration from top brands, and provide a step-by-step tutorial to create your meme magic. Get ready to boost brand engagement in a fun and fresh way!
What are memes? A background
The word meme refers to an image or GIF that is designed to resonate with a specific audience, usually to evoke humor. Memes began to gain popularity in the late 90s, with content such as ‘dancing baby’ shared among early internet users. Around a decade later, memes became a global phenomenon following the launch of social media websites like Facebook and discussion websites such as Reddit – allowing people to quickly share funny memes with their friends and families.
As a result, memes have now established themselves as an important part of viral marketing and are designed to encourage social engagement. In 2021, over 50% of marketers used visuals in over 91% of their content, including memes created for targeted social media campaigns.
As most memes are effectively cultural ‘inside jokes; marketers must be extra savvy in staying ahead of the latest trends so as not to appear out of touch. Many images in memes are instantly recognizable but the wording is ever-changing, applying a new twist to an old joke. However, new memes are created every day, with some achieving thousands of interactions in just a few minutes.
Whatever your business, from local stores to modern startups like crowdfunding investment platforms, and even corporate giants. Memes can be incorporated into a range of marketing campaigns for a more diverse strategy. Even though the NFT craze is behind us, tokenizing and monetizing memes is still the talk of the town in marketing circles.
Using memes for marketing
Recent data shows that people spend an average of 2 hours and 24 minutes a day on social media, globally. As people often digest the same content across these platforms, it typically resurfaces in daily conversations between friends and family, both in person or on communication platforms like WhatsApp. The power of this content has led to businesses investing millions of dollars into social media and video marketing and has given rise to social influencers.
Memes have become so ingrained in daily life that they can even affect the language people use. Words like ‘stonks’, the deliberate misspelling of stocks, as in stocks and shares, are commonly used as an inside joke by traders and finance experts.
AI is expected to play a key role in meme marketing, automatically generating on-trend memes that perfectly align with a company’s brand. Furthermore, AI tools could instantly upload new memes to social media platforms, and embed them in a document using Vue and similar libraries, opening a whole new can of worms—auto-generated memes.
The 5 Most Popular Memes of All Time
- Grumpy Cat – This meme originated from Reddit back in 2012, capturing the mood of many on a Monday morning.
- Evil Kermit – Taken from the movie, Muppets Most Wanted, this one shows the lovable Kermit the Frog as an evil Sith Lord from the Star Wars franchise.
- Trump Signs An Executive Order – An image of former President Donald Trump proudly showing off his first signed executive order has since been photoshopped countless times. Including him showing off his Pokemon card collection or displaying child-like drawings.
- Interesting Man – Originally an advertisement for Dos Equis beer, this picture of a refined, older gentleman in a serious pose has certainly done the rounds, with the internet finding new humorous takes on the original messaging ‘ ‘I don’t always drink beer, but when I do, I drink Don Equis”.
- Success Kid – This picture of a young child seemingly celebrating an achievement has sparked internet users to add all sorts of captions, celebrating small but satisfying victories.
Creating your meme magic: A quick guide
PosterMyWall provides all the tools you need to create magical meme marketing campaigns, allowing you to easily add images and text so you can humorously reach your target audience. In this section, we will provide a quick guide on how to use PosterMyWall to create hilarious memes for your next viral campaign.
Choose your image
Whether you have created your graphic, staged a photo, or are altering a well-known meme for your campaign, adding an image is very easy in the PosterMyWall editor.
Add a stock photo
- To add a stock photo in the editor, simply click the ‘Media ’button in the selection bar on the left, then just click ‘View All’ in the images row.
- Using the search box you can search for the ideal image by typing in a keyword and pressing enter.
- Once you have found a suitable image, double-click it and add it to your design.
Add from your photos
- To add your photo, click the ‘My Uploads’ button in the left selection bar, and choose ‘Upload Media’.
- Pick the photo you intended from your device and click Open.
- Your photo will then be added to your design once it has been successfully uploaded.
Add from Google Drive
- Click the ‘Photos’ button and this time, click the Google Drive icon left of the ‘Upload Media’ button.
- A pop-up will then prompt you to log in to your Google account.
- Once logged in you will be able to browse your Drive to find the image you would like to upload.
- Click ‘Select’ to confirm your choice and it will be added to your design once uploaded
Insert text
Memes typically need a caption to give them context, thus making them funny. Once again, text is very easy to add in the PosterMyWall editor.
- Click the ‘Text’ button in the selection bar on the left of the screen, then click ‘Plain Text’ or ‘Fancy Text’ depending on your preference and the style of your meme.
- An ‘Add Fancy Text’ box will then appear on your design. Click it and add your text by typing or copying and pasting.
Customization
- The text can also be customized by clicking the text box and then clicking the ‘Styles’ button in the selection menu on the right.
- Here you can change the font size, font type, color, alignment, spacing, and more.
- You can also use the ‘Position’ tab in the same menu to send the text-to-back or bring it forward.
Download your newly created meme and share them across different channels for maximum exposure. By experimenting with different images, wording, and text styles, you will quickly determine which elements are the most successful in terms of reaching a wider audience.
Conclusion
It’s very likely that you will see multiple memes, every single day, proving how effective they can be at reaching large, global audiences. Memes can contain anything, giving marketers the flexibility to devise a range of campaigns, from unique takes on classic memes to brand-new memes that target a current trend.
Design countless memes in no time with the PosterMyWall marketing platform. Shares your memes with a few clicks on social media, email campaigns, or even internally to cheer up the team.
