Memes and Marketing: Engage Gen Z with Trendy Humor
Every year, the newest generation, Gen Z, is hitting the workforce more and more. They’re equipped with newly found income and curiosity to explore the market. This generation is on the rise and on their way to becoming the future majority of your customer base. In 2020, Gen Z already made up 40% of all U.S. consumers! With each generation, there’s a different way to advertise products to them. Considering 69% of Gen Z reported finding ads disruptive, it’s time to take a fresh approach – Memes!
Traditional print and TV ads might’ve worked with baby boomers, but that’s not the case today. In order to best reach and engage today’s up-and-coming audience, marketers need to get creative. By incorporating memes into your marketing strategies, businesses can gain traction online and deliver content right to their customer’s phone. Bear in mind that Gen Z spends an average of 250 minutes a day on their smartphones. So, this is perhaps the hottest way to reach your audience. Especially since old-school tactics get ignored by a large chunk of the new consumer population. This blog will discuss how to market your brand to Gen Z by using the popularity of memes!
Why Do Memes Work?
Gen Z is an infamously difficult group of consumers to market to. Traditional marketing methods have become largely unpopular due to their disconnection to younger people on a cultural level. However, memes on the other hand are something that everyone in Gen Z can relate to. Take Denny’s for instance:
This classic Denny’s meme was a massive success. It gained hundreds of thousands of likes and retweets at an insanely quick pace. This post was entertaining and relevant to common memes at the time. Yet, while appealing, it’s also extremely cheap and highly shareable. Making a meme like this costs almost nothing, but can have a huge payoff when done right. So, by taking advantage of all of the latest and most popular social media websites, businesses small and large stand to benefit. Let’s take a look at how to use memes in marketing effectively:
Make Memes That Sound Organic
Even though memes are a great way to market to Gen Z, a lot of businesses struggle with it. This is because they often seem forced. Customers will see this as an ingenuine cash-grab by companies. So, a 65-year-old who’s never used Reddit or made a meme looking to cash-in on trendy humor is probably not going to work out well. You need to be familiar with meme culture and how that fits in with your brand. Focus on putting emphasis on entertainment over profit and your audience will engage.
Take Advantage of Trends
Meme culture is ever-changing. So, memes from last year, or even last month, might not be relevant anymore. To get the best response, you should know what’s trending. Follow some meme accounts on social media and make sure to stay up-to-date. Content that’s currently going viral holds the hottest opportunity for success.
Know Your Audience
If you’re a serious company with a serious audience, then memes might not be for you. However, a lot of companies can get aboard the meme express and knowing your audience is a big part of that. Just like any marketing, there should be a strategy behind your memes. You need to know who you want to engage, what your target audience is most likely to respond to, and what social media platforms they use.
Be Familiar with Social Media
Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Tumblr, TikTok, Reddit. Nowadays, there are a lot of platforms to choose from. Yet, that doesn’t mean they’re all the best fit for your business. For example, LinkedIn is a professional, business-centered platform. If you want to run a B2B marketing campaign, would these companies respond to memes? For the time being, that poses potential risks. Currently, a lot of Gen Z typically fills lower-level roles in businesses. So, it’s likely that you would be sending memes to the older generation where memes aren’t as popular.
While posting memes on multiple accounts is a good idea, it’s still important to know each platform. For instance, food related content is especially popular on Facebook and Instagram. To further the engagement of your meme, make sure to delve into analytics to gather information on your audience. Just like any ad, information such as post time or demographics should play a role in the creation and posting of your meme.
Furthermore, you can increase your meme marketing prowess by becoming an expert in each platform’s unique capabilities. For Instagram, you can research the best hashtags to tag onto your post, or even create and promote one to help guide the trend. For Facebook, you can make a contest or get involved in meme groups to further post reach. Familiarizing yourself with your platforms is key to success!
Make Original Content
This one can take a bit more effort and creativity, but have some great payoff! Making original content is a great way to stand out and make more of a splash. Keep in mind that original content usually works best for existing brands with large amounts of followers. For small companies, hopping on a trend tends to be an easier way of increasing engagement. This is because the general public may be unfamiliar with the company, but know the meme. Nevertheless, well-made original memes can be a fantastic way to show your audience that you’re relatable.