Latest / Marketing Made Simple with Fexingo: Branding, SEO, and Digital Strategy for Beginners / How Brands Use Memes for Viral Marketing Success
Transcript
- Lucas: So Wendy's claps back at a customer who complains about a stale fry, the tweet gets half a million likes, and suddenly every brand on earth thinks they need a 'savage' Twitter voice. Luna: Right, and most of them fail at it because it sounds forced. But when it works, it's marketing gold without a media budget. Lucas: Exactly. That's what we're digging into today: meme marketing. Not just posting funny pictures, but using cultural shorthand to earn attention. And the reason it matters more now than ever is that organic reach on platforms like Instagram and X has cratered — unless your content gets shared. Luna: So you're saying memes are basically a distribution hack? Lucas: They are. A well-timed meme doesn't just get seen — it gets reposted, remixed, quoted. That's earned media. One tweet from Wendy's in 2023 generated over 5 million impressions in 24 hours, and they spent zero dollars on promotion. Compare that to a typical paid ad: you'd spend maybe $10,000 to get a fraction of that reach. Luna: Five million impressions is a lot of eyeballs. But is that sustainable? Can you build a brand on jokes? Lucas: No, and that's the trap. Memes are attention magnets, not brand builders. They work best as part of a broader strategy. Take Duolingo — they have a massive TikTok presence with millions of followers, and they post unhinged, surreal humor. But behind that, they're still a utility app. The memes drive app downloads and course signups. They're the front door. Luna: Right, so the meme is the hook, not the whole meal. I think a lot of small businesses hear 'go viral' and think it's a shortcut. But it's actually really high-effort and high-risk. Lucas: It is, and that's the part I want to focus on. Because there's a real playbook here. First: speed. Memes have a shelf life of maybe 48 hours. If you're responding to a trend, you have to be fast. That means your social team needs autonomy — they can't run every post through legal for three days. Luna: Speed plus context. You need to understand the meme's origin, or you'll look out of touch. Remember when brands tried to use 'bing chilling' without knowing it was a weird John Cena interview clip? Lucas: Oh, that was painful. That's the second rule: context matters. The best brand memes feel like they could have been created by a fan, not a committee. Wendy's doesn't just post roasts — they engage with specific users, reference current events, and have a consistent personality. It's not just 'funny' — it's on-brand. Luna: So how do you measure success? I mean, likes and shares are vanity metrics, right? Lucas: They are, but they're not useless. The real metric is engagement rate relative to your follower count. A brand with 10,000 followers getting 5,000 engagements is doing better than one with a million followers getting 10,000. Also look at share of voice — how much of the conversation in your category are you owning? And earned media value: if you get picked up by a news site or a big influencer, that's tangible. Luna: I've also seen brands use memes to humanize themselves during crises. Like when a company messes up, a self-deprecating meme can actually rebuild trust faster than a press release. Lucas: That's a great point. There's a famous example from 2021: a fast-casual chain had a data breach, and instead of a corporate apology, they posted a meme of a dog sitting in a burning room saying 'this is fine'. It was risky, but it acknowledged the problem without being defensive. Customers appreciated the honesty. Luna: But it's a double-edged sword. If the joke misses, you look tone-deaf. Like when brands tried to meme the pandemic lockdowns and it just felt insensitive. Lucas: Right, and that's the third rule: know your audience and your risk tolerance. A B2B SaaS company probably shouldn't try to be the 'savage' brand. But a consumer brand with a young audience? Go for it. The key is to test in low-stakes environments first. Reply to a follower with a light joke, see how it lands. Build muscle. Luna: I think there's also a timing element. Not every trend needs a brand response. Some memes are just for the culture, and brands inserting themselves can ruin it. Lucas: Absolutely. The best meme marketers know when to stay quiet. In fact, I'd say 90% of the work is listening and the other 10% is posting. You have to be embedded in the communities where your audience lives. That's why some brands hire Gen Z social media managers who are already native to those spaces. Luna: So if a small business wants to start using memes, what's the first step? They don't have a Wendy's-sized budget. Lucas: Start small. Pick one platform where your audience is most active. Spend a week just observing the types of memes they share. Then create or curate a meme that ties back to your product in a very light way. It doesn't have to be a roast — it could be a relatable struggle meme about your industry. For example, an accounting firm could post a meme about forgetting to save your Excel file. It's low-stakes, relatable, and shows you get the pain. Luna: And use a scheduling tool so you're not glued to your phone 24/7. But you still need to be ready to pounce on trends. Lucas: Yeah, tools like Later or Buffer can help, but the real-time stuff needs a human with authorization. That's why I'm a fan of giving your social media manager clear brand guidelines and then trusting them. The best meme marketing comes from a place of confidence, not fear. Luna: You know, these conversations often spark ideas that listeners actually try. If these marketing breakdowns have given you something you've used at work or in your own projects, that's exactly why we keep making them. A lot of people ask how they can support the show beyond just listening. Lucas: And the honest answer is: a couple of dollars a month genuinely makes a difference. It covers hosting, editing, and keeps the episodes ad-free. We're on buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo, and every contribution, no matter how small, helps us keep digging into topics like this. Luna: It's a simple way to say 'keep going'. And it really does. So if you've gotten value out of these episodes, that's the place. Lucas: Alright, back to memes. One more thing I think is crucial: don't be afraid to fail. Not every meme will land. The brands that win are the ones that learn from misfires and iterate. Duolingo's early memes weren't all hits — they tested, learned, and refined. Luna: So the takeaway is: memes are a tactic, not a strategy. Use them to earn attention, but have a real product and a real brand behind them. Lucas: Exactly. Memes open the door, but what you offer once they're inside is what keeps them. That's the marketing made simple way.