Month: June 2020

What is a Meme?

Memes can be funny images, videos or even well-structured texts that are shared on social media with the intent of sharing humour. You can make a meme out of anything off the internet today, it may or may not be meaningful but be relatable and shareable. Everything right from a facial expression of a person/celebrity to an adorable animal video, a movie dialogue or even a snapshot of your favourite pop culture movie character can become a meme.

And the fun part is you’d find something new every day. Memes are mostly humourous, but often can also be offensive or controversial to some. They can make you happy, confused or perhaps even annoyed at times.

Image Source: Vocal.Media

In a way, memes have also become a great escape from our stressful lives and make us laugh for the split second that they appear on our phone screens. An escape that has today formed what is called ‘meme culture’. A culture that brings together like-minded people that bond over sharing memes. It’s what we call the new norm of internet friendship!.

 

More Helpful Stuff: What Do You Meme? Basic Bitch Expansion Pack – https://amzn.to/3hWSu55

Did you know memes can be used to market your brand?

From being meaningless pieces of humour on social media to becoming a sensational way of marketing brands and content, memes have come a long way. So much so, that a meme is no longer just a piece of content, it is an undefined internet language spoken by or communicated with amongst like-minded individuals. Memes are used by brands for promotion, launches, building brand recall value, communicating trending social ongoings and marketing.

Evolution of Memes

Image Source: Bigradar Website

Back in the day, we’ve witnessed humorous face clip arts as memes; then there was the use of viral stock images and today, we notice anything and everything can be a meme! Who would have thought a coffin dance ritual video from Ghana would become such a sensation? It’s phenomenal how the meme culture works these days and it has evolved globally!

Memes are no longer just used as online banter but they have become a powerful medium of communication with your audience- a way to advertise your brand/ product.

Today, memes can generate brand awareness, attract potential followers as well as increase your social media engagement with the existing followers of your brand and even nurture them with good content. And thus brands have now started to dedicate a marketing budget specifically for meme marketing on Facebook, Instagram and sometimes even Twitter.

A good meme has the potential to reach out to a wide audience due to its social sharing factor. If you create relatable (memes) content that communicates your brand, your followers will become your best marketers online. An avid social media consumer shares at least 10 to 30 memes per day and that generates an abundance of opportunities for you as a brand to reach out to your audience!

Meme Marketing in India

Website Source: Starfishm

India is one of those countries that embrace the meme culture with a whole heart. What’s interesting about the Indian audience is that you’d find diversity in cultures as well as demographics. However, the majority of heavy internet consumption is carried on by teenagers and young adults who are the best target audience to practice meme marketing in the country.

Platforms like Reddit, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube tend to support this popular culture of memes to advertise products and services for brands. Although there is still a lot of scope in this area, brands that use memes for marketing purposes tend to generate an engaging relationship with their audiences.

 

Related Post – Choosing the Right Digital Marketing Agency for your Brand

Brands that use Meme Marketing Successfully

Every brand is now jumping onto the meme marketing bandwagon. It is one of the most successful and most price-efficient ways of communication and engagement for brands. To be putting it in clear perspective, consumers love finding brands that tell stories, brands that they can relate to.

 

And what’s better than finding brands that also bring a smile or a crack a laugh once in every while. For brands, it generates a recall value in the consumers’ minds, creating a relationship to be their preference in the consideration stage of their buyer’s journey.

Here are some reputable brands that are great examples of meme marketing :

Durex:

Source: Durexindia Website

MumbaiPolice:

Image Source: Instagram/mumbaipolice

Swiggy:

Image Source: Instagram/swiggyindia

Tinder:

 

Image Source: Tinder Website

Netflix:

Image Source: Netflix Website

Things to consider while Meme Marketing

1. Choosing meme templates that fit your brand image: There are hundreds of meme formats available on the internet, but not every meme fits your brand guidelines or suits your brand language. Ensuring that you pick the right style can avoid miscommunication of wrong positioning of your brand.
2. Reacting to trending topics: Memes have trends too and sometimes a great way to put your brand out there is jumping on the trend bandwagon! If you want to reach a wider audience, trends can be a quick and easy way to go.
3. Welcoming user-generated memes: Just as user-generated content is a metric to validate your brand engagement, so are memes. People who love to engage with your brand will willingly generate memes about/for your brand. It’s a healthy practice for your brand to share those too. You can even commission meme artists to generate regular meme content for the brand depending on your requirements. There are even dedicated companies/agencies that can help your brand to generate memes.
4. Going for maximum creativity: When it comes to dealing with content, it’s all about quality. More creativity = higher social engagement. You don’t necessarily have to try too hard, only use your innovation and generate relatable content to give it a funny angle.
5. Avoiding sensitive topics: Sometimes memes can come with a sense of humour that may hurt religious, political or emotional sentiments. Ensuring you consider a topic that may not appeal to a certain audience is also important. It’s best to avoid sensitive topics or even using dark humour.

And that’s it. I hope you enjoyed reading the article.

 

Sometime in February 2013, I was in Delhi attending the India chapter of Ad: Tech. It was a first for me – being part of a global digital marketing conference – and frankly, I was a little in awe of the big names present on the event schedule.

The opening keynote was given by Wendy Clark, the then SVP, Integrated Marketing Communications at Coca Cola. As Wendy took the stage and navigated through Coke’s ‘Liquid and Linked’ Content Strategy, there was pin-drop silence in the room.

Not only was the entire audience intensely engaged in her keynote content, but also the fact that she was a sublime storyteller. Having had just started my career, I was of course completely bowled over by her presentation but even more by her empathy.

 

Let’s take a look at five extraordinary women from the Indian communication industry:

1. Gauri Shinde

For a majority of India, Gauri Shinde shot to fame with her debut movie which also marked the return of Sridevi to the big screen. However, that’s just the tip of the iceberg in the SIMC graduate’s long journey.

From being a Copy Trainee in an ad agency in Pune to joining the films department at Lowe Lintas, and debut-directing the critically acclaimed ‘English Vinglish’, Gauri has come a long way. She’s directed over 100 ad films for brands like Tanishq, Knorr Soup and Havells.

 

2. Kainaz Karmakar

The CCO of Ogilvy & Mather, West (India) is one of the agency’s strongest creative pillars for a long time. Her love for psychology led her to the world of advertising.

The confessed cappuccino addict is the mind behind globally recognised campaigns like Savlon Healthy Hands Chalk Sticks and Beauty Tips by Reshma. Along with her creative partner, she led O&M to win 9 Cannes Lions in 2017 – a record for the agency.

 

3. Malvika Mehra

Malvika Mehra who currently helms the CCO chair at Dentsu India has a long history of creating stand-out work for many Indian brands. During her long stints with O&M and Grey, she’s worked with clients like ITC Foods’ Bingo!, Vodafone, SBI, Gillette, Dell, Fiat, Honda, Duracell and the Indian Army.

She has been recognised for her work globally and is included in Impact India’s ‘50 Most Influential Women in Media, Marketing and Advertising’ and Brand Equity’s ‘’Top 20 Creative Directors in India’ lists.

 

 

Related Post- How to Create a Visual Language for your Brand

 

 

4. Swati Bhattacharya

With over 22 years of honing her creative craft at JWT, the current CCO at FCB Ulka is a go-getter at heart. Swati’s work on the Bengali tradition of Shindoor Khela for The Times of India not only shows her courage – the campaign opened 50 temple society doors to include widows, transgenders, separated, divorcees and single mothers – but also her willpower for communication that changes the social fabric for better.

At the core of most of her work, one can observe deeply emotional connections with genuine empathy. Perhaps that’s why her short film ‘Double Shift’ earned her the coveted Dadasaheb Phalke Award for the screenplay.

 

5. Ashwini Deshpande

An NID graduate, Ashwini is the co-founder of Elephant Design. Her work has won awards across categories like FMCG, healthcare, automobile, and food services. As a key member of The Design Alliance Asia Consortium, she has also edited a book titled ‘Colours of Asia’.

 

Her vast experience also includes lecturing across 20 countries and being a jury member at some of the most prestigious design festivals. In 2019 (5th consecutive year) she featured among ‘50 Most Influential Women in Media in India’ by Impact magazine.

 

I strongly believe that most women have a deeper sense of empathy that most men, and that is what makes women better communicators. As someone I know says, “Products have rationales. Brands have emotionales.” Women have the intrinsic ability to pick accurate insights from a sea of complex emotions across a varied customer base. As women continue shattering the glass ceiling and take on leadership roles, organisations need to identify and encourage young female talent.

For more articles please visit https://seagulladvertising.com/blog

What is Local SEO?

Local SEO can also be known as local search engine marketing. Local SEO is a process of optimising your online business presence (by promoting services and products) to attract local customers. Local SEO services are useful to increase website traffic and business leads. It also plays a vital role in brand awareness from local business search.

 

People use various search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, Apple Maps and more to collect the relevant information for local search. And search engines depend on local content, social media accounts, links and citations built on local business directories. 

 

According to statcounter, Google comprises 98.5% search engine market share in India (April 2020 Statistics).

Why is Local SEO Important?

Here are some interesting facts about Local SEO. Source:  HubSpot

1. 46% of all Google searches have local intent. 
2. 97% of people learn online about a local company. 
3. By 2021-22, mobile devices will influence higher than $1.4 trillion in local sales.
4. “Close by” or “Near me” kind of searches grew by more than 900% over the last two years.
5. 92% of searchers will choose businesses on the first page of local SERP.

 

So, these statistics showcase that a robust local SEO marketing strategy is vital in driving more prospects and customers to your business.

 

What are Local SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages)?

Local businesses need to improve their traffic by appearing in the local pack. Local pack or 3-pack is a block of three local business listings appearing in the google search results to fulfil your query. Below is the local pack for the search term ‘coffee shop near me’:

 

Related Post- Top Free SEO Tools For 2020

 

What are the Primary Local SEO services?

1. Website localisation
2. Business Listing / Citation building
3. Claiming your Google My Business (GMB) page
4. Managing customers ratings and reviews
5. Getting relevant and quality backlinks

 

Benefits of Local SEO Services

1. Citation building in local directories helps to build online visibility
2. Local SEO generates more targeted traffic for relevant search terms
3. Targeted traffic leads to more customers
4. GMB optimisation helps to enhance Google Map visibility. Plus, it builds brand trust in the market
5. Quality backlinks prove you as a trusted source of information

 

What to do to Rank well in Local Search?

Implement the following local SEO tips to make a strong presence of your business in the local pack:

1. Claim and optimise GMB listing
2. Make your website Mobile friendly
3. Ensure NAP(Name, Address, Phone Number)Consistency
4. Do proper On-Page SEO – Optimise URL, meta title, meta description, headers and content
5. Add location pages
6. Write high-quality local content
7. Add unique keywords to the content related to your niche and location
8. Improve your website internal linking structure
9. Earn relevant and authority backlinks
10. Create and optimise online citations
11. Optimise and engage in social media accounts

 

It’s ok if you are not technically sound to perform all the SEO tasks by yourself. Why not hire experts to do your job? 

 

Who can help me with Local SEO services in Pune, India?

Seagull Advertising is one of the best and renowned local SEO marketing firms in Pune.

1. We can help you with keyword tracking and understanding the current rankings
2. We can help you in building online citations for your business ensuring NAP consistency
3. Help you to optimise current business listings too
4. Build and optimise GMB listing
5. Manage your reputation by tracking and replying online reviews

 

Visit our website for more information. www.seagulladvertising.com

Insta Stories or IG Stories are the new real-life-reel that lets you showcase the moments you wish to share with your IG pals. Moreover, it allows you to doodle, put background music, tag friends, tag brands, use filters, the universal favourite – the boomerang, and a lot, lot more.

 

The story signs or symbols appear as circled profiles on top of your account and are probably the main reason for people returning to the app. As they stay for 24 hours only, Instagrammers have formed the fear of missing out on interesting stories of friends and famous personalities they follow. Glad tidings: Like you have ways to preserve your memories, IG also has a feature to preserve stories in the archive. 

 

Although this (IG Stories) multi-featured, customizable and engaging functionality is short-lived, its use has given some delving experiences to me. Here are some of them:

 

The Experience of Creativity 

 

It is said that invention is the mother of necessity, but the world we live in today, I would say creativity is the mother of necessity. The necessity of growing, the necessity of exploring, trying something new, killing boredom, looking at the world in your own way……and it can go on. And that’s what IG stories, at least for me, have done. 

 

It has been a form of communicating a lot more from what just the picture or boomerang or video says. So, in that 4.7-inch screen, my stories are sometimes a layout of a shortened belief, sometimes the itch of having some fun and sometimes the proclivity of speaking my mind. Thanks to the glow pen, stickers, filters and gifs, they make my IG story picture perfect.

 

The Experience Of Falling Into My Own Trap

Being a marketer myself, I acknowledge the robotic instinct of being where the customers are and try out all permutations and combinations to make them stay.

 

So here I was like any other day, visiting Instagram just to look out for exciting stories and also get an update on what my favourite stars have been up to? And that was the first-ever time I came across a brand whose story was like a virtual store! A cosmetic brand, with shades and shades to lure you. Where my usual stoppage at a story is not more than 3 seconds, I was glued on this one for some good 5 minutes. It was engaging!!

 

Exactly the moment when I realized that I was on the other side of the table. Wearing a customer’s shoes, I had fallen into my own trap. It was Sephora, and I had swiped up.

 

Related Post- 31 Marketing terms you need to know!

 

The Experience of Getting Inspired

IG stories are that virtual form of sharing which fortuitously seed ideas into the followers’ minds and inspire them. Be it a basic dance video or taking up a challenge of zero filters / zero make-up pictures, what the IG stories do is that it annihilates any inhibition one may have; mostly to be in front of the camera. This thread of inspiration literally grows outside one’s own network and creates an environment of unconditional admiration.

 

In my list of stories inspired by people I follow, includes some arduous yoga poses, sequences, and even blurting my heart out.

 

The Experience of a Conversation Starter

IG stories for me, have gone just beyond a 24-hour showcase of “see what I did” or “see what I saw”. They have helped me break the ice once again with friends and acquaintances perhaps whose number I may not even have in my phone contact record. So to say it honestly, IG stories have always been a pleasure. 

 

Interestingly, each story that has started a conversation for me with my long lost friends have never started with Hi! How are you?….never the usual way. And believe me, those conversations are far more quality conscious and indulging.

 

So yes, my stories have reconnected me with many people, with whom I would love to stay in touch with. Starting with Oh! You haven’t changed in the last 15 years! to Hey! I live in the building next to yours, I have rekindled certain bonds by just sharing new blooms in my terrace garden or a click of my car’s empty fuel signal.

 

 

At The End..

These stories always strike an emotion and perhaps become an important event of one’s life or should I say that they rather convert the emptiest of pictures into a ballet. With my staggered usage, I can say that I will be discovering more stories in the future if only the stories don’t find me earlier.