It only takes one meme to move a market.
I’ve been in advertising, communications and marketing since 1978 (Geezer) and know one of the quickest ways to success is a big communication idea that captures the interested of the masses. If you capture consumer attention, they will sit still long enough for you to deliver something of value, which in turn, hopefully, gets them to buy.
Back in the day, big ad campaigns or big news headlines got people to pay attention. Today online, big headlines and big campaigns are harder to come by. On news sites, every headline is a big headline. Roseanne. Anthony Bourdain. Comey. World Cup. And the ads online are tiny. There are no big campaigns online.
In digital marketing the communication of choice is the meme. A good meme acts like wildfire. But most memes are consumer created. Marketers aren’t good at them. Memes are antithetical to advertising and digital agencies because they can’t get paid for them.
Agencies need to work hard to create marketing memes – then charge for the virality. Charge for the impressions earned. That way they’ll take them seriously.
Today’s marketing world is not optimized unless it takes the meme seriously.
Peace.