It’s 2023 now. Are there still brands that don’t know how to use memes?

Starting from the current social hot topic - the phenomenon of memes, this article discusses the importance of memes in brand marketing and its corresponding principles and strategies. It is recommended for brand practitioners to read.

"Nayuki's Tea" teamed up with Jay Chou, and netizens discussed that the co-branded milk tea must be ordered iced, because "I'm afraid that you will be heartbroken and no one will help wipe your tears";

The Li Jiaqi live broadcast incident gave birth to Huaxibi, a currency unit exclusively for workers;

MiHoYo’s new game “Honkai Impact 3rd” was jokingly described as “a game made just for the sake of playing with memes.”

In the modern online life where the density of memes is extremely high, if you don’t understand memes, it’s like surfing the Internet without a surfboard. You can only sigh in despair. In this communication environment, understanding memes, playing with memes, and creating memes have become compulsory courses for brand marketing.

But it is not easy. If you don’t handle it well, you may end up making things worse, like an elder forcing his way into a children’s playground and causing resentment. We reviewed cases such as McDonald’s, Xiaohongshu, and “Honkai Impact 3rd”, studied what is the meaning of playing with memes, and summarized how to reduce the failure rate and improve the input-output ratio from three perspectives: fitting the personality, paying attention to the scale, and combining with one’s own products and business.

1. Surfing front line, have you played a meme today?

As to what is a meme, that is really a question.

The more common saying is that the original word for "geng" is "gen", which refers to funny words or actions. It later evolved into crosstalk terms, such as "penggen" and "dougen". Now it can generally refer to funny points with "stories". For example, when talking about singing and dancing, rap, and basketball, a name will immediately pop up in your mind. "geng" can even directly refer to funny points, such as the homophonic "geng".

Some well-known memes often become wildly popular in a short period of time, such as "Your mother is calling you home for dinner" or "What level, the same as what I use", but they often come and go quickly . The motivation for using such memes is more to show that one is keeping up with society and at the forefront of surfing.

Some memes are often circulated within a circle. The most typical ones are the two-dimensional memes, which often come from anime or games. People in a small circle understand them immediately, while non-readers or players are confused. Playing with this kind of meme has more of the meaning of demonstrating a sense of belonging and pride in the group.

Of course, there is no clear distinction between popular memes and niche memes. British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins proposed the meme theory in his book The Selfish Gene, defining memes as small cultural units that spread between people through constant replication and imitation. The stronger the reproduction ability of a meme, the more widely it can be spread, and the greater the chance of survival.

It can be seen that meme is very close to the definition of "梗" in the Chinese world. That is to say, when a meme's reproduction ability is strong enough, it will break through the circle and become popular. For example, when many people are playing memes such as "Coach, I want to play basketball" and "I'm getting bald and stronger", they often don't know the original source.

Regardless of whether it is for following the trend or to show group identity, the reproduction ability of a meme often depends on three key factors: first, whether it is funny enough; second, whether it is easy to imitate; and third, whether it expresses social emotions.

2. Play with memes, save money, and attract people

It’s understandable that people use memes, but why should brands get involved?

The most direct benefit is to increase the degree of dissemination and reduce the cost of brand promotion. When used properly, playing with memes is like riding on the hot spots, which is more likely to attract attention, cause spontaneous dissemination by netizens, and bring considerable traffic.

Let’s take a look at the gaming industry that understands young people best. MiHoYo’s new game "Honkai Impact 3" was officially launched in May this year, basically replicating the performance of "Genshin Impact" when it was released, and it was ridiculed as "finding a small number of games in a large number of memes."

In the copywriting of "Honkai Impact 3rd", you can see memes from traditional classics, such as "Stop wasting time at home", and memes from modern workers, such as "This is not a work group, you guys should relax a little", "XX's life is not easy", and two-dimensional memes, such as Detective Conan and Kamen Rider. Due to the excessive intensity of memes and keeping up with current events, some UP hosts even gave such a "warning" in the video:

These memes scattered throughout the game were dug out one by one by players and posted on Bilibili. The number of related video views was astonishing. These spontaneous discussions and dissemination brought a lot of traffic and attention to the game.

In common perception, the second dimension is a new world far away from the real world, a paradise for otakus and housegirls. However, miHoYo has placed its hopes on expanding the number of mass players in the game "Honkai Impact 3rd", which means it needs to hit more people, which is why there are many plots in the game that are closely related to real society, and memes are one of the carriers of social emotions.

The second benefit of playing with memes is to integrate with users , which is more obvious in circle memes.

Last year, Yili signed football star Benzema as its spokesperson, and its marketing and communication plan revolved around a popular meme among fans - "Blame Benzema". This phrase originally came from fans' dissatisfaction with Benzema's performance on the court, and later gradually evolved into a universal sentence for ridicule, saying that everything can be blamed on Benzema.

The animation produced by Yili started with the meme, using Benzema's winning of the Ballon d'Or, a heavyweight award in football, to tell a story of a scapegoat who became the winner of the Ballon d'Or. The animation aims to interpret Yili's passion through Benzema's fearless passion and spread it to the passion of every ordinary person. At the end, an Easter egg was added in which Benzema said the popular meme "It's all Benzema's fault" in Chinese.

Fans in the comment section also "took the challenge" and started making jokes, such as "I haven't had much time to watch football since I started working, all because of Benzema", "I bought Yili milk, it's all Benzema's fault".

In addition to interest circles represented by football fans, there are also circle memes that are popular in the region, such as city memes, which carry characteristics and habits unique to the local people.

This year, Xiaohongshu teamed up with agencies to carry out a series of marketing campaigns for Wuhan in summer. An important part of the campaign was the release of 12 sets of posters with slogans such as "Going to the swimming pool is like making dumplings, going to the river is like swimming" and "In Wuhan, you can refuse to accept the weather, but you cannot refuse to accept the heat".

It can be seen that the copy is closely integrated with the local conditions and customs of Wuhan, including the dialect, as well as summer special activities such as eating lotus stems, selling gardenias, and jumping in East Lake. The offline activities are also to give away 100,000 gardenias throughout the city. The pictures are taken from the local streets of Wuhan, full of life and echoing the copy. Many locals commented that "I can't help but read it out when I see the poster for the first time" and "It must be written by a Wuhan kid."

3. Personality, scale, and business: pay attention to these 3 points when playing memes

The first thing a brand should pay attention to when playing with memes is the character setting. The term " working people" has been a popular term in recent years and has evolved into various forms. BMW China once posted a Weibo post saying "I've filled up my tank, how about you? Working people", but netizens did not buy it. There were many doubts and rebuttals in the comments, so BMW China also re-edited the post and deleted the three words "working people".

"Dagongren" is meant to be self-deprecating. If it is used by someone who is not close to you to describe yourself, the meaning will change. In addition, BMW's mid-to-high-end brand positioning can easily cause disgust. Another car brand, Wuling Hongguang, has also played the "Dagong" joke on Weibo, but the effect is different. One reason is that it is positioned as a friendly brand, and the other is that it uses the tone of a Weibo editor, which is more appropriate and natural.

In addition to matching the character, one must also pay attention to the scale. In June this year, Lao Xiang Ji apologized for excessive use of memes.

The reason was that the official account of Lao Xiang Ji once posted a message saying that the daughter born by Cai Xukun was called "live pearl". "Live pearl" refers to a chick that has been fertilized but not fully hatched. It has wings and other signs but has not broken out of the shell. It will be eaten by humans. This reply is obviously playing the "chicken you are too beautiful" joke.

But later, Cai Xukun was exposed for causing a girl to become pregnant and have an abortion. The reply from the official account of Lao Xiang Ji was dug up, and netizens called him a prophet. This was followed by accusations of excessive and vicious memes.

Lao Xiang Ji has always been very active on social media. Its Weibo editor lets himself go, indulging in "clucking" and slacking off every day, and mingling with netizens. It is an object for many traditional brands to learn how to be more internet-savvy. However, the official account ultimately represents the company, and one must pay attention to the scale when letting go, especially when making fun of oneself, one can be bold, but when the memes involve others, one must be more cautious.

The third thing to note is to combine it with your own business. After all, playing with memes is just a means, and the most important thing is the purpose.

For example, ZiYan Baiwei Chicken released a video last month, using the joke "What to do? Mix it cold!" to describe the problems encountered when cooking by people such as kitchen novices who can't cook, flustered mothers, and grandfathers who lack side dishes. It used this to launch the slogan "ZiYan's cold dishes are all easy to mix", highlighting its convenience and deliciousness.

Behind this is the fact that this brand of braised food for side dishes is creating a brand feature with mixed vegetables as the core. By focusing on the pain points of the crowd, the combination of mixed vegetables and mixed vegetables is indeed a good match and leaves a memorable impression.

Let’s look at the next case. If you have been online frequently this year, you must have seen the “crazy words” from “Maimen”, such as “A person who thinks McDonald’s is delicious can’t be that bad. This is my view of good and evil!”, “May Mai Mai bless every child who is working hard outside, Maimen!”.

"McMen" means belief in McDonald's, adapted from the Christian word "Amen". In the formation of "McMen", a song "McDonald's is Infinitely Good" sung by Eason Chan and adapted from the song "The Sunset is Infinitely Good" played an important role.

According to iQiyi Marketing Intelligence, from January to August this year, the total interaction of "McDonald's Infinite Goodness" related content on mainstream social media platforms reached 360,000, with a total of 251,000 likes. On Xiaohongshu, non-commercial notes about McDonald's accounted for 100%.

If playing with memes is the entry-level way of playing, which is to piggyback on existing hot memes, then creating memes, that is, making the brand the meme itself, is undoubtedly a step up.

FBIF once spoke to Sheffield, the editorial director of McDonald's marketing communications and social media, who revealed that McDonald's began using the "Fan Truth" strategy on all social media platforms last year. "Fan Moments" are closely centered around McDonald's products, experiences, and brands. They are real, specific memories or behaviors , and are "truths" that make people smile when they see them, such as the "Hash Brown Song" and the "Kitty Hash Brown Rings."

Although the specific selling points of the product are not mentioned, they are quietly integrated into the brand and become part of the meme. In addition, the team currently responsible for the official social media platform of McDonald's is called the "Social Media Editorial Department", which has different positioning or personality on different platforms. For example, the focus on Weibo is on "playing with memes" and "creating memes".

Creating memes is not just about doing it behind closed doors. What’s important is to have a give-and-take relationship and leave room for users . On Weibo, McDonald’s often throws out fill-in-the-blank questions for netizens to express themselves freely. It also launched a Mai Mai hot review to review the interesting interactions with netizens, and even gave out Mai Mai fan badges to the fans on the list.

4. Analyst Comments

No matter how much we talk about it, we still have to go back to the most fundamental change - from the era of people looking for goods to the era of goods looking for people. Whether it is playing with memes or creating memes, it is because brand marketing must be interesting, so that people are willing to watch, spread and buy.

But "interesting" is not the ultimate pursuit of a brand. It is indeed important to speak out and have people listen, but it is equally important to speak to the right people and say the right words.

Author: Dao Fa Xing Yan WeChat Official Account: Dao Fa Research Institute