Meme Marketing: When Hashtags Laugh Back

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Sep 5, 2025 / by

In today’s digital playground, memes are more than just playground jokes and idle distractions. When wielding with deft and precision they can be (and have been) deceptively powerful and flexible marketing tools. Brands that “speak meme” share the same language as their audiences: punchy, playful, and instantly relatable.

But with great lol comes great responsibility, especially when negotiating the slippery slopes of copyright and ever-evolving cultural tone.

1. Why Memes Work: Humour, Culture, and the Shareable Spark

Meme marketing thrives because it speaks directly to shared cultural moments, mixing humour, relevance, and authenticity. Meme marketing uses culturally relevant humour and recognisable meme formats for brand engagement, creating space for active participation rather than passive consumption.

For instance, starter‑pack memes (like “knitted Bally baddie”) use humour and satire as delivery devices for their commentary. Fashion brands such as Gucci and H&M have already quite enthusiastically embraced these, transforming trend clichés into authentic engagement with Gen‑Z audiences.

Meanwhile, Jet2’s “Nothing beats a Jet2 holiday” jingle became a meme this summer on TikTok when users paired it with chaotic vacation clips. Jet2 wisely leaned into the meme, launching a challenge with a £1,000 holiday voucher to ride the viral wave.

2. The Rise and Reach of Meme-Driven Campaigns

Meme marketing isn’t new, but it’s firmly become mainstream in the last few years. The “Meme” Wikipedia entry traces its origins to campaigns like Dos Equis (“Most Interesting Man in the World”) in the 2000s, which became meme templates and boosted brand sales substantially.

Today, brands like Duolingo (with its witty owl character that it declared was “dead” this year), Netflix, Wendy’s, Gucci, Sour Patch Kids, and Zomato incorporate memes to boost relatability and engagement. Ads evolve in different ways, some overt (like meme‑style posts), some subtle, but all deeply shareable.

It’s high engagement at low cost because memes are shareable, relatable, and don’t require huge budgets. Tapping into ongoing trends also means instant visibility, even if it doesn’t necessarily last too long. But there’s always the next big trend waiting round the corner.

3. Three Keys for Brands: Humour, Cultural Timing & Shareability

So, how can brands tap meme power without tragically misfiring? Three essential ingredients:

a) Use Humour That Resonates

Memes should feel organic. Brands like Wendy’s have mastered meme‑style roasting and Duolingo’s memes feel like the brand’s authentic voice, not a copy‑paste.

b) Ride Cultural Moments

Timing is everything. Memes rise and fall at lightning speed; outdated formats can make your brand look tone-deaf. Jet2’s swift embrace of meme culture is a textbook case of turning viral momentum into a marketing win.

c) Make It Shareable

Meme formats are built for virality. Starter‑pack memes invite user participation and product discovery and campaigns that invite or encourage user-generated meme content amplify reach organically.

4. Navigating Copyright & Tone Risks

Moving into meme territory requires careful navigation:

a) Copyright & Fair Use

While repurposed memes often fall under “fair use,” especially when transformative or humorous, copyright issues become riskier when memes are used for commercial advertising.

Academic guidance notes that using a meme in a “new or different way” may qualify as fair use, but monetising or using it for campaigns blurs that line.

A clearer route is to use original assets or licensed content and encourage user-generated memes as this avoids stepping on any significant legal and ethical toes.

b) Tone & Cultural Sensitivities

Memes can be edgy, and edge can always backfire. Brands must vet for stereotypes or problematic subtexts. The Wikipedia entry flags how memes can have unexpected or controversial backgrounds, urging marketers to research origins and avoid being insensitive.

Examples of brand blunders are littered across marketing lore, but meme campaigns ask for extra vigilance.

5. Best Practices: Making Hashtags Laugh Back (Safely)

Here’s a practical roadmap:

  1. Know Your Audience: Use memes that genuinely resonate with your market, demographics, and brand voice.
  2. Vet the Format: Research meme origins to avoid cultural pitfalls.
  3. Add a Brand Twist: Be playful but not intrusive. Light watermarking or subtle logos should suffice.
  4. Use Licensed or Original Images: When uncertain, create your own asset or license appropriately.
  5. Move Fast: Jump on trends when they’re hot, and don’t linger too long.
  6. Encourage UGC: Invite meme-making from fans because organic creativity is always a winner.
  7. Track Engagement Carefully: Measure shares, comments, hashtags, viral reach, not just clicks. Analysing what resonates can inform future campaigns.

Final Thoughts

Meme marketing is something of a cultural handshake, a wink and a nod, and sometimes it can even be the most human way a brand can speak directly to its audience rather than up or down to it. When done right, it blends laughter, shareability, and cultural relevance into one potent strategy. But humour also demands respect: for copyright, for context, and for consumer intelligence.

So, ask yourself: is your brand ready for the conversation? If your hashtags can laugh back (and are, more importantly, funny), then you’re already in the game.

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