Meme Advertising

Meme Advertising or Memevertising [/miːmvətaɪzɪŋ/] refers to the act of using a meme to advertise a product, a service or an idea. It can be considered a form of viral advertising.

Definition
Memevertising is a portmanteau composed by the words “meme” and “advertising”.

The term “meme” is derived from hard sciences. A meme is any idea, behaviour, or skill that can be transferred from one person to another by imitation. In the context of memevertising, it alludes to the concept of “Internet meme”.

The word “advertising” refers, instead, to that part of marketing that, using a paid communication, aims to "persuade someone to buy a product or service of an identified sponsor".

Given that viral marketing is "any strategy that encourages individuals to pass on a marketing message to others, creating the potential for exponential growth in the message's exposure and influence", memevertising can be considered one of the promotion tool of this kind of marketing.

History
The advent of the Internet – and particularly of social networks – has changed the way we communicate and, as a consequence, advertising itself. Today, consumers - especially technologically highly literate "millennials" - can easily interact with each other and with the brands, expressing themselves with comments and ratings, but – above all – they are presumably more able to choose and control the media they consume. For these reasons, they can be considered more powerful than they were in the past. Hence, for advertisers is no longer enough to force a message in front of an audience, but they should take advantage of marketing pieces that are memorable and attention-grabbing like Internet memes. Advertisement is one of those marketing strategies that have high return-on-investment and have been effective since the past fer decades. Traditionally, advertisement were confined to pamphlets but later on it made its journey through newspaper, television, performing arts and now, it's making its impact through social media platforms too. The idea of an advertisement has also been mended from time to time with addition of factors like emotional connection with the brand, recognition of similar products just by the name of brand etc. Digital Marketing is the greatest revolution in the history of advertisement because it changed the way people used to look at advertisement. Advertisement were considered to be boring five minute breaks in between your movies, an unskippable prison, you have to be in for a few seconds, befor your YouTube video starts; but now, with a mind boggling idea by Marque Berry, Meme marketing has made advertising no less than fun. People interact with memes on a daily basis and there is a follower base on millions on mist of these meme pages. People like to have fun while learning about something and that's the subtle art of meme. It's like serving the most bitter medicine in the disguise of ones favourite meal. People don't even noticed that they subconsciously gained trust on the brand because of the shared laugh. Marque Berry has revolutionized the field of digital marketing and is sure to bring a lot to the table in the coming decades.

It is important to note that "meme" comes from the Greek word mimēma (ed. that which is imitated), but the colloquial use of the term is different from the traditional, scientific construct.

Memes' identification in the web can be reconducted to 1994, when Mike Godwin wrote an article on Wired using the term in the context of Internet culture. Although, the neologism was first introduced in 1967 by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in “The Selfish Gene”. According to Dawkins evolution is based on replication. In this connection, Susan Blackmore suggested that, because of its characteristics, a meme can be considered – like the gene – a replicator. Consequently, every human is a meme machine, a vehicle for propagation, an opportunity for replication and a resource to compete for. Therefore, studying the memes could be useful in order to understand the cultural evolution.

Internet memes
An Internet meme is an activity, concept, catchphrase or piece of media which spreads – often as mimicry or for humorous purposes – from person to person via the Internet.

There are several types of Internet memes that can be used in advertising, the most common ones are:

- photo meme: a picture showing someone imitating a position or action that is popular or familiar. Some examples are planking (a person lying face down with their arms to the sides in unusual public spaces ), tebowing (a position that involves getting down on one knee, placing one’s elbow on the knee and fist against the forehead; the name come from the Denver Broncos’ quarterback Tim Tebow which was photographed in this position in 2010 ), and owling (that is a variation of planking, involving a person sitting in a position similar to the one of an owl );

- video meme: it consists in dubbing popular videos or changing their sound ; - image macro: it is an image superimposed with text, mostly written using Impact font (also known as “the meme font” ). The choice of the font is not random, Impact is very befitting due to its linearity and simplicity that make text easy to read and remember. This kind of meme is different from a photo meme because the employed image is already popular online and the superimposed text (mostly a quotation) is slightly different from the original. Vice versa, it can also be possible to find familiar text with a slightly different image. The concept of “image macro” presumably first appeared in 2004 on Something Awful website ;

- word meme: it can be a word or a phrase that become popular online (e.g. Twitter hashtag) ; - miscellaneous marketing meme: in some cases brands stimulate the creation of user generated contents. In fact, they often ask their loyal fans (or potential new ones) to engage in an activity and take a picture of themselves while doing it. The fans are also encouraged to add their own personal touch to the original posture.

- reaction image: it is an image or animated gif that is meant to portray a specific emotion in response to something that has been said. Reaction images are commonly used in discussion threads in a similar fashion to emoticons.

The use of Internet memes in advertising
As corporate communication begins to follow the audience's consumption patterns, companies have shown an increased interest in exploiting Internet memes in their campaigns. According to Sax, memes can be considered as advertising assets for brands “because, like celebrities, they have an audience that recognizes and appreciates them”. The concept of “communities” is very important, indeed most memes “might sound nonsensical to those unfamiliar with internet culture, they do have meaning and purpose to those [communities] they inhabit”.

Talking about the use of Internet memes in advertising, the first classification that has to be made is between memejacking and memescaping: the former is the most common approach and involves a brand using an already existing and popular meme, the latter involves the creation of a brand-new meme.

The fact that a meme is already viral is the fundamental feature for marketers that want to take advantage of an idea that is already successful.

Italian discount stores: Eurospin and MD
The Italian discount store chains Eurospin and MD decided to use memevertising on social networks, in particular on Facebook.

For example, on February 6th 2017, Eurospin posted a meme that made reference to the 2016 American presidential election. The image had the typical format of a diffused meme: three crowds compared one with the other. Then, on March 2017, Eurospin proposed another meme with a very standard format: the so called "starter pack" meme. The meme was accompanied by hashtags that reported some "slang" expressions.

Concerning MD SpA, on August 11th 2017, the company published on its official Facebook page an image macro representing a cat with a mad expression superimposed by a sentence about pasta on sale.

On September 2017, MD posted a very diffused meme representing one boy and two girls. The boy admires another girl while holding the hand of his girlfriend. MD discount store is meant to be the single beautiful girl.

On October 2017, riding the wave of the fast diffusion of the image, MD presented its version of a meme based on three different pictures of a seagull.

Huawei
Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. is a Chinese telecommunication giant.

On the occasion of 2017 device releases, the Italian branch advertised company's products on Facebook and Twitter. They used memetics (or memes), making frequent reference to contemporary culture.

For the Huawei P8 lite 2017 Italian release, the brand used one of the most common Internet meme: “Keep calm and carry on” meme. This meme refers to a catchphrase that originally appeared on a World War II-era British public safety poster. The same meme was used to launch a video contest in 2017. Another kind of popular Internet meme jacked by the Chinese brand – on the occasion of the launch of Huawei P8 Lite – is the “not you” meme. The text refers to one of the most important virtues of the item (the fast charge) and underlines that the product is better than [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple]’s ones. In fact, the English translation of the text is: “thank you for charging the cell phone from 0% to 60% in only 30 minutes” and “not you” (on an apple, an explicit reference to its American competitor).

According to KnowYourMeme “Not You / Tú No" is a series of multi-pane image macros in which the author expresses positive sentiments toward eight of the photographs in the image except for the middle one, which has the caption “not you” or “tú no,” excluding them from the compliment”.

Gucci
Also Gucci has recently understood the power of Internet memes. In fact, according to latest data from Instagram, the Italian Maison has been – for the fourth time in a row – the most buzzed about brand of the Milan Fashion week (September 2017). This success started on March 17th 2017, when – using the hashtag #TFWGucci and playing on the popular meme “That Feeling When” – the label debuted its first meme campaign on Instagram. The idea of presenting the “Le Marché Des Merveilles” watch collection with memes (created by artists from all over the world) has been conceived by the creative director Alessandro Michele and attracted considerable media attention.

Listed below are some examples:-	William Ndatila’s “When he buys you flowers instead of a Gucci watch” meme. He captioned the Italian Renaissance painter Agnolo Bronzino’s portrait of Eleonora di Toledo (dated 1560). In the painting, the character is disappointed in the quality of gifts from her potential suitor ;

-	Christto Sanz and Andrew Weir’s “When he gets mad at you for being 3 hours late but you’re too fire to deal with that kind of attitude” meme.

They introduce us to a mysterious fashionista who holds a flaming rose while she casually checks her Le Marché des Merveilles watch ;

-	Derek Lucas and Benjamin Langford’s “When your girl doesn’t notice your new watch” meme.

In the picture there is a man who wears a Gucci watch on his wrist and a hold a bunch of flowers in his fist, showing his frustration: his girl did not notice his new watch. The artists reinterpreted the popular Arthur’s fist meme.

Furthermore, among the memes used for #TFWGucci campaign, a particular one can be noted:

-	Sebastian Tribbie Matheson’s “The GUCCI Starter Pack” meme.

Adopting the brand’s recent hallmarks (like embroidery, patches, and 70s glasses), the artist wants to represent the stereotype of Gucci fans’ style. It recalls the popular “Starter pack” meme.

Memes made into billboards
There are cases in which a company decides to use an Internet meme to craft an offline communication. For example, the group chat application HipChat launched a meme-inspired billboard in San Francisco.

The billboard, representing the famed "Y U NO Guy", generated huge public response.

Success Kid, a child with a resolute expression, has been portrayed by Virgin on billboards aimed to advertise the HD channels offered by the Group.

McDonald's, in order to advertise its products, spread some billboards having a meme format in Switzerland.

Unintended side effects of Memevertising
Memevertising can be a very effective kind of advertising, although it can also bring some unintended side effects to companies that decide to adopt it.

Interpretation issues
In order to understand the meanings of an advertisement, it is necessary to analyse its signs. A sign consists of the signifier, the material object, and the signified, which is its meaning; thus, the two elements have to be considered together and they are only divided for analytical purposes.

Undoubtedly, in advertising the signification of the images is intentional. Nevertheless, the question here is: do the consumers' interpretation always correspond to the message originally conceived by the brand?

The interpretation process is hard to control because, as it has been previously said, it depends on a system of meanings (referent system ) shared among members of specific discourse communities.

According to Barthes, the signs in an image contain three different messages: linguistic message (text), literal message (or denoted image) and symbolic message (or connoted image). While the literal message is denoted, the symbolic message is not: the variation in readings depends on the different kinds of knowledge invested in the image. For this reason, the audience may not understand the symbolic message the company originally wanted to vehiculate through the advertisement or may misunderstand it. When it does occur, image damages could be caused to the brands and they have to find rapid solutions in order to guide the audience interpretations.

In this connection, McDonald's policeman meme can be taken into consideration because - as reported by a local news portal - the advertisement was not so immediate to understand and therefore it didn't have the success the company expected.

Nevertheless, as shown by MD's cat meme advertisement, a misunderstanding can also produce positive effects. In fact, even though some of the Facebook users who reacted to the post have linked the "hallucinated" expression of the cat only to the fact that "pasta is on sale", a conspicuous part of them still make reference to drugs, suggesting that the mad face of the pet is caused by the use of ecstasy. The focus, in order to understand the double meaning, is on the word "pasta": pasta is an aliment sold in the discount store but this word, in Italian, can also refer to ecstasy. In addition, another strong element that led one to believe that they are talking about drugs is the fact that the company is called MD, casually, an abbreviation for "MDMA". Furthermore, the description of the image ("Le nostre offerte? Da uscire fuori di testa!") could strength the concept. Best meme marketing company is www.marqueberry.com

Probably the double meaning was not intentional. However – with more than 2600 reactions, more than 300 shares and more than 120 comments – the meme grabbed the attention of the audience, that is the main goals of memevertising.

Coherence issues
Another concern that a company has to consider is the fact that memes themselves could be not suitable to be used by a certain corporation.

Maybe some users, for example, may think that the Gucci's memes are not in line with the overall image of the company. This can damage the company, instead of bought a benefit.

Copyrights issues
As previously discussed, despite the different existing approaches, memejacking is the most common one. However, involving a brand using an already existing and popular meme, this advertising practice is currently shaking the public opinion. In fact, people have recently started to wonder if exploiting contents conceived by others (without paying for them) could be considered ethical and legitimate, especially when multimillionaire brands are involved.

For this very reason, the 2017 Gucci campaign “Le Marché des Merveilles” has been bitterly criticized by the Web community. Nevertheless, the copyright issue has already emerged in 2015, when Getty Images – that owns the intellectual property rights related to the photo on which the popular “Socially Awkward Penguin” meme  was created – asked several blogs to remove its pictures and claimed for a compensation.

If on the one hand there is who – like Getty Images – sustains that the unauthorized use and editing of copyrighted contents should be banned; on the other hand, many believe that memes should be considered an art expression and, for this reason, memes generators should not be persecuted. Moreover, a practical matter stands out: when a content goes viral is hard to find the first guilt of massive sharing.