The Meme Formula: How It’s Revolutionizing Marketing

More and more companies are incorporating memes into their marketing strategies. Memes have become a marker of creativity and cultural relevance, offering low-cost promotion, massive reach, and highly engaged audiences. Often, all you need is a sharp sense of humor to create content that resonates.

Traditional aggressive advertising is giving way to subtle, native brand mentions in memes. It seems like a win-win — but is it really?

Let’s break it down.

What Are Memes and Why Are They So Popular?

While memes might seem like a new trend to many, the term “meme” was actually coined by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in 1976. In his book The Selfish Gene, Dawkins proposed that, just as societies evolve through the transmission of genes, they also evolve culturally through the exchange of memes. 

So, what exactly is a meme?

A meme is a unit of cultural information passed from one person to another, often spreading from one generation to the next.

In today's world, memes typically take the form of humorous images, videos, or GIFs. These cultural touchpoints are usually created in response to trending news, current events, or everyday situations that resonate with social media users, making them highly shareable and engaging.

The average social media user views between 20-30 memes a day. Memes generate double the engagement of regular posts—while the typical click-through rate (CTR) of a standard marketing post is around 5%, memes boast a CTR of 14%. Memes appeal to a wide audience, from teenagers to adults, men and women alike.

Memes generate 10x more reactions than typical marketing posts. Source: persuasion-nation.com

These impressive numbers have led marketers to adopt memes for advertising, brand building, and growing social media presence. What started as simple internet jokes has now become a powerful marketing tool.

But when did memes first enter the world of marketing? It’s not as straightforward as it seems.

How Oreo’s Ad Revolutionized Marketing

Launching a traditional marketing campaign used to involve months of planning, from idea development and securing budgets to crafting creative content and getting legal approvals. It required significant time, effort, and financial resources. 

But everything changed in February 2013, thanks to a groundbreaking ad from Oreo that forever altered the marketing landscape.

On February 3, 2013, during the Super Bowl in New Orleans—America’s most-watched sports event—a power outage plunged the stadium into darkness for 34 minutes, leaving both spectators and millions of viewers at home wondering what had happened.

Oreo capitalized on the situation with a quick, clever tweet. The post featured an Oreo cookie in a dimly lit background with the caption, “You can still dunk in the dark,” cleverly playing off the brand’s famous slogan, “Twist, Lick, Dunk”.

In just a few days, Oreo’s following skyrocketed from 2,000 to 36,000, while the tweet received over 15,000 retweets on X and 20,000 likes on Facebook.

So, where do memes fit in?

The Super Bowl blackout itself became a cultural meme—an instantly recognizable moment that united a nation. Oreo expertly tapped into this shared experience, showing how real-time, culturally relevant marketing can drive massive engagement and boost product visibility.

The success of Oreo’s “dunk in the dark” moment sparked a new era in marketing. Brands began shifting from lengthy, traditional campaigns to agile, real-time strategies that leverage current events for maximum impact.

How Gucci, Netflix, and Other Brands Are Using Memes in Marketing

A prime example of successful meme marketing is Gucci’s campaign for their Le Marché des Merveilles watch collection. In 2017, the Italian luxury brand launched a meme-driven campaign with the hashtag #TFWGucci (That Feeling When Gucci). Initially, Gucci created and shared the memes themselves, but the trend went viral, with everyday users jumping in to create their own content.

Gucci's campaign used familiar meme formats, creative visual effects, and witty captions, which blended seamlessly into users' social media feeds, making the content feel organic. 

Example of Gucci’s memes. Source: gucci.com

Netflix

Movies are often the source material for memes. Creators pick key moments, add captions, and voilà—a meme is born. Netflix's marketing team realized the potential of creating their own movie-related memes. Now, these can be found not only on meme forums but also on Netflix's official social channels.

Netflix typically uses memes to build hype around upcoming releases or seasonal shows. For example, on September 15, 2024, Netflix posted a meme encouraging viewers to rewatch the first five seasons of Gilmore Girls, a show many associate with autumn.

Duolingo, Porsche, Sony

In August 2024, Duolingo, the language-learning app, jumped into meme marketing with a playful meme saying, “end your streak and I’ll end you,” reminding users to keep up with their daily lessons. Porsche crafted a meme showing a unique “pyramid of needs” for car enthusiasts, while Sony created a meme referencing the controversial rebranding of Twitter.

Memes by Porsche, Sony, and Duolingo. Source: x.com

IKEA and Walmart

During the U.S. presidential inauguration of Joe Biden, a photo of Senator Bernie Sanders sitting in mittens went viral, sparking a flood of memes, merchandise, and even graffiti. IKEA quickly seized the moment by creating a meme titled “GET THE LOOK.”

In a clever post, IKEA showed how to recreate Bernie’s look, suggesting that all you need is a folding chair for €6.99 and an oven glove for €3.99.

“GET THE LOOK” by IKEA. Source: ogilvy.gr

Looking for trends? Walmart’s got it!
On September 25, Walmart embraced the viral popularity of Moo Deng, a pygmy hippo, and Pesto, a king penguin. These internet-famous animals are beloved by many, inspiring memes, media coverage, and donations for their care. Moo Deng even has a 24/7 livestream where fans can follow his life.

Walmart capitalized on their fame, featuring a virtual visit from Moo Deng and Pesto to one of their stores, which quickly became a viral sensation (and likely boosted sales):

This is a perfect case of how meme-based marketing can dramatically boost engagement. While Walmart’s regular posts typically get around 15,000 views, the post featuring Moo and Pesto skyrocketed to 350,000 views.

Beyond just memes, these internet-famous animals also inspired the creation of meme coins. By September 2024, the market capitalization of the MOODENG coin had reached $230 million.

Meme Coins in Marketing

In 2024, meme coins evolved from being a source of entertainment into a powerful marketing tool used to attract and retain users.

The catalyst for this shift was the platform pump.fun, which allows users to create meme coins for free and list them on the DEX exchange Raydium. By September 2024, the platform had seen the deployment of over 2.1 million tokens.

Meme Coin Creation Trends on pump.fun. Source: dune.com

With this surge in meme coin creation, competition has intensified. To stand out, projects must adopt robust marketing strategies to engage their audience and attract partners.

There are two main approaches to using memes in marketing:

1. Building a product around a meme coin.
2. Launching a meme coin as part of an existing product.

Early integration with a popular meme coin allows a product to tap into the coin’s user base, increasing the coin's value while driving new users to the product. This creates a mutually beneficial situation.

Examples: 

• A trading bot on the Solana blockchain powered by the popular meme coin BONK.
• L2 Shibarium built around the Shiba Inu token.
• The Berachain blockchain, built on the Bong Bears NFT collection, which can also be seen as a meme coin.

In the reverse strategy, a product is developed first, and a meme coin is later integrated. For example, in January 2024, the DEX exchange Jupiter launched the meme coin WEN and distributed it via an airdrop on their LFG Launchpad. Users received tokens, and the project gained new users—a win-win strategy.

Final Words

Businesses are beginning to understand that today's users are less receptive to complex marketing messages, but they are highly responsive to meme-based content.

According to HubSpot, 24% of marketers claim that memes have become their most effective tool for advertising. In the same report, when asked, “Do you plan to increase investment in meme-based campaigns?” 97% of marketers responded with “Yes.”