No matter what industry you’re paying attention to, whether that’s sport, entertainment, music etc. Memes are a piece of content which will spread across the perimeter of each one.
Now, what exactly is a meme? Essentially, a meme is anything which can trigger a humorous emotion. This can be through various content formats, including images, videos, and/or text.
Millennials are among the most impressionable demographics for brands to attract to their services. According to Statista, millennials spend over 200 minutes browsing the web daily. Memes are a big reason for this, as they make people laugh and feel entertained, two key traits that keep people engaged. Throughout this week’s edition, you’ll discover examples of how some athletes and creators have utilised meme marketing to benefit their services and why it worked.
Paulo Costa
UFC Fighter, Paulo Costa, uses his social media channels to push his brand in a meme-themed fashion. For example, most of his content refers to sharing jokes amongst the MMA community in his own unorthodox style. His ‘main meme’ that he shares refer to ‘secret juice’, which he makes out to be a ‘secret’ supplement that helps with his training and conditioning.
He proactively decided to use this in a promotional giveaway which offers his followers an opportunity to win an Xbox. This tweet became Paulo’s most engaging post that week.
So, what can we learn from this case study? From this single post, Paulo has been able to generate more brand awareness through his ‘secret juice’ meme than he has through his more original content. This was achieved by proactively utilising the chance to promote his brand through a promotional ad. Therefore, for any other athletes’ or brands looking to promote themselves, using Paulo’s tactics proactively might not be such a bad idea.
Johnny Fisher
Johnny Fisher is an undefeated boxer from Essex who’s signed to Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing. Johnny regularly uses TikTok, which features his dad in most of his videos, where most of the content is surrounded by their passion for Chinese takeaway.
In comparison to boxing content that Johnny uploads, it’s the content with his dad that often receives the higher viewership and engagement. Throughout these videos, the captions will usually include hashtags such as #bosh and #boshsoldier, referenced throughout the content and now has become part of Johnny’s brand identity.
Despite Johnny being an athlete, it’s fair to say that his meme-related content on TikTok surrounding personal interests has helped grow his brand identity rather than sticking with promoting core sports content.
Anthony Taylor
Anthony Taylor is a fighter most known for competing in multiple combat sports, mostly MMA and boxing. When he posted the first tweet, it was about a time soon after when he encountered another opponent, a usual occurrence in the combat sports world.
Following this episode, he decided to post a mock-up transcript as a meme relating to the situation. After publishing this, he ends up as a number 1 trend on Twitter.
So, what can we learn about this meme marketing example? Considering that Anthony Taylor appeared as a trend on Twitter, this likely positively affected his engagement and follower count, which would’ve benefitted his personal brand. Therefore, when it comes to producing memes, timing and remaining authentic to your brand values are key to optimising the impact.
Belal Muhammad
Belal is a UFC fighter who’s like Paulo Costa, and is well known for the memes he shares on Twitter. Earlier this week, Muhammad decided to share his perspective on the state of his fighting division in the UFC with a critical but humorous tone. Adding to this, he got an emoji accompanied to make it a media Tweet.
Regarding the caption illustrating Belal’s views, this is a smart meme marketing tactic to garner attention from the other fighters he mentioned. Plus, the emoji he posted with it is another tactic which can be utilised for other purposes, such as enhancing his brand identity.
So, what can we learn from this meme? Firstly, meme marketing in the style Belal has delivered can draw attention from audiences away from your core demographic. This is evident from reviewing the comment section of the media tweet; it circulates other memes relating to other fighters.
Mojahed Fudailat
Mojahed Fudailat is an independent animaker who regularly produces MMA-related memes in animated cartoons.
Mojahed uploads his videos onto YouTube as his main source. On average, his videos accumulate 140k views; on occasion, this is higher viewership than some UFC fight highlights uploaded to the main channel.
As evidenced by the video above, Mojahed’s videos are linked to current UFC events but have a humorous twist.
What can we learn from this meme? His videos sometimes accumulate higher views than official fight highlights, demonstrating some sports fans’ appetite for getting their content feeds refreshed by memes. If you try and communicate directly constantly through traditional pathways, consumers will likely lose interest. For this reason, meme marketing provides another avenue to sustain or even grow that interest.
That’s a wrap! What was your biggest insight from this week’s edition of content lessons with Ash?