Savvy marketers are always thinking of ways to get the brand out there. One of the hottest ways to do it currently is to use social media marketing.
Pretty much every brand out there has a social media presence. Their social media marketing team normally posts about brand news, ongoing promotions, while occasionally dealing with irate customers.
Lately, brands are taking viral marketing to the next level, by jumping on viral bandwagons themselves. These campaigns leverage extremely popular but equally short-lived trends or memes, by relating their product to said trend, often in a humorous way.
The latest example of this is the ‘460 burger’ phenomenon in Malaysia. Suffice to say, the story of a gullible man being taken for a ride by his female dining companion and her birthday friend was an unexpected hit. Brands immediately took this opportunity to advertise their wares – all of which coincidentally cost less than RM460, and providing much greater value to the customer.
The 460 burger is the quintessential example of a ‘shooting star’ trend – which appears brightly, but disappears just as quickly. Brands need to jump on the bandwagon fast, as such memes have extremely short half-lives. If a brand comes up with a campaign or recycles if after the meme has run its course, it has the danger of looking outdated.
Furthermore, such ‘memejacking’ is not suitable for every brand. The worst sin a brand can commit is to hitch its bandwagon to a popular meme that is at odds with its brand image. If done improperly, it can seem childish, amateurish – or worse, insulting to the customer.
Thus, driving your brand’s social media presence using viral memes is a great way to drive customer engagement – but can easily backfire. Tread with caution, be aware of the use-by date, but most importantly, have fun – that’s what such marketing is all about.
