13 Examples of Meme Marketing + 4 Best Practices to Follow

By mbretous@hubspot.com (Martina Bretous)

My social media feeds are made up of 90% memes.

They’re usually posted by people I follow but every once in a while, a brand will post a meme and add their own spin on it. When it’s done right, those are the brands whose content I engage with the most.

What was once considered a trend reserved for Millennials and Gen Z has now evolved into an effective way for brands to engage with their audience.

Let’s talk about what meme marketing is, how you can leverage it, and see examples of brands getting it right.

A quick background on memes – they’re concepts, behaviors, or ideas that spread on the internet. A meme can be any type of media format, including a GIF, video, text-post, or basic image.

The truly successful memes spread like wildfire. That’s exactly why marketers want to leverage these already viral pieces of creative for their own marketing.

Another benefit to meme marketing is that it’s low effort. Most of the work has already been done: It’s being shared all over social media and it has a clear concept. All you have to do is fit the meme to your brand and hit “post.”

Furthermore, memes help bring communities together. Not only are users tempted to like and comment on them, but they also want to share them.

Now that we know the benefits of using meme marketing, let’s get to a few examples of brand memes in the wild.

Meme Marketing Examples

1. Kai Collective

meme marketing example by Kai Collective

Image Source

Black wojak memes started spreading on the interwebs in the fall of 2020. It wasn’t until December of the same year that it went viral, with users creating their own version of the hilarious meme.

Kai Collective was one of them.

The concept behind this particular meme– I say particular because there are multiple variations of this meme – is simple: One Black girl meets another Black girl, they bond over something and become friends.

Kai Collective made its own version of this meme to highlight its product, a print top. Instead of simply adding the text, they took it one step further by adding their clothing and making it a truly custom meme.