No matter what field you focus on, be it sports, entertainment, music, etc. Memes are a piece of content that will spread across anyone’s perimeter.
Now what exactly is a meme? Basically, a meme is anything that can evoke a humorous emotion. This can be through a variety of content formats, including images, videos and/or text.
Millennials are one of the most impressionable demographics for brands to attract to their services. According to Statista, millennials spend more than 200 minutes per day browsing the web. Memes are a big reason for this because they make people laugh and have fun, two key features that keep people engaged. In this week’s episode, you’ll learn examples of how some athletes and creators have used meme marketing to promote their services and why it worked.
Paulo Costa
UFC Fighter Paulo Costa uses his social media channels to push his meme-themed brand. For example, most of his content is about sharing jokes in the MMA community with his unusual style. His “main meme” that he shares is about a “secret juice” that he considers a “secret” supplement that helps with his training and exercise.
He proactively decided to use this for a promotional giveaway giving his followers a chance to win an Xbox. This tweet became Paulo’s most interesting post that week.
So what can we learn from this case study? From this one post, Paulo was able to generate more brand awareness through his “secret juice” memes than through his more original content. It has managed to actively use the opportunity to promote its brand through advertising. Therefore, for any other athletes or brands looking to promote themselves, actively using Paulo’s tactics might not be such a bad idea.
Johnny Fisher
Jonny Fisher is an undefeated boxer from Essex who is signed to Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing. Johnny is a regular on TikTok, with most of his videos featuring his father, with much of the content surrounding his passion for Chinese food.
Compared to the boxing content that John uploads, it is his dad’s content that often gets higher views and engagement. Captions during these videos will usually include hashtags such as #bosh and #boshsoldier, which are referenced throughout the content and have now become part of Johnny’s brand.
Although Johnny is an athlete, it’s fair to say that his meme-related content on TikTok surrounding personal interests has helped develop his brand identity rather than sustain mainstream sports content.
Anthony Taylor
Anthony Taylor is a fighter best known for competing in multiple combat sports, primarily MMA and boxing. When he posted the first tweet, he soon faced another opponent, a common occurrence in the world of combat sports.
After this episode, he decided to post a transcript of the mockup as a meme related to the situation. After posting this, he is trending #1 on Twitter.
So what can we learn from this example of meme marketing? Given that Anthony Taylor trended on Twitter, this likely had a positive effect on his engagement and follower count, which would benefit his personal brand. Therefore, when it comes to meme production, timing and staying true to your brand values are key to optimizing impact.
Belal Muhammad
Belal is a UFC fighter who looks like Paulo Costa and is known for sharing memes on Twitter. Earlier this week, Muhammad decided to share his perspective on the state of his fight division in the UFC in a critical but humorous tone. Adding to that, he got an emoji to go along with it to make it a media tweet.
As for Bellal’s point-of-view caption, it’s a clever meme marketing tactic to get attention from the other fighters he mentions. Also, the emojis he posted with it is another tactic that can be used for other purposes, such as improving his brand identity.
So what can we learn from this meme? First, meme marketing in the style Bellal delivers can capture the attention of an audience from your core demographic. This is evident from a review of the comments section of media tweets; it circulates other memes related to other fighters.
Mujahed Fudailat
Mojahed Fudailat is a freelance anime maker who regularly produces MMA-related memes in animated cartoons.
Mojahed uploads his videos to YouTube as a primary source. On average, his videos collect 140 thousand views; Sometimes this is a higher viewership than the highlights of some of the UFC fights uploaded to the main channel.
As evidenced by the video above, Mojahed’s videos are related to current UFC events, but have a humorous tone.
What can we learn from this meme? His videos sometimes get more views than official fight highlights, showing the appetite of some sports fans to spice up their content feeds with memes. If you try and constantly communicate through traditional channels, consumers will likely lose interest. For this reason, meme marketing provides another opportunity to maintain or even increase that interest.
It’s a wrap. What was your biggest takeaway from this week’s edition of Content Lessons with Ash?