I sometimes see certain memes related to some corporate content pick up a ton of traction online and can't help but wonder if they're organic or manufactured. Spreading subtle ads through memes is probably still an under-explored area of marketing and it bypasses modern ad-blocking techniques. The way I learned of Invincible was through a couple memes, which eventually lead me to research and watch the series.
To give a concrete example of another trend: a few years back there was this group trend on TikTok of going to the theater dressed up in a suit to watch some animated movie. You would only need to pay a couple of large accounts to engage in this trend, and then others will follow along because they want to fit in.
Another dimension through which content marketing will probably expand in the future is by creating media that encourages people to take sides and engage in discussions, like Giant Monkey vs Giant Reptile, who wins? This trend is very popular within the political landscape, but it could probably be twisted for fictional IPs as well.
I feel bad because I mention it here all the time but "Trust me I'm Lying" is a great book about modern guerilla marketing that gives some concrete examples of the sort of things I'm always skeptical of in "organic" online content. If I were in some corporate or state think tank I'd be spending all day trying to figure out how to get some post about "my wife's shirt" on the front page of Reddit with my product or propaganda in the background.
I don't love the increasing difficulty in telling if something is genuine human expression or a marketing technique designed to look like genuine expression. But as dystopian as that murkiness can seem, I still prefer it to peak 90's pre-internet advertising when record-breaking ad spending was primarily used to scream relentless in our faces until we bought stuff or developed a mental illness. Media in that era was far more monolithic and almost entirely ad-driven, and it really felt like the advertisers (and their favorite brands and multinationals) had won all the battles and the war. All that was left was to watch the latest Visa-sponsored TV event, brought you you by Honda, with special considerations from MetLife, all before a word from our sponsors over at Nestle. Even the punk festival was run by a shoe company in the 90s.
Anyway, now I sometimes get ads for stuff that isn't shilled by a multi-billion-dollar multinational and I barely every have to watch an actual advertisement, so my vote goes to new hell over old hell, no question.
Really? To me the murkiness seems much more dangerous. In the 90s you had a clear sense of what was "TV reality" versus what was actual reality. You would compartmentalize and take "TV reality" for what it was: A source of entertainment, not a source of information, and you would develop a mental spam filter that would prevent the messaging from getting to you. With social media, all of this is getting much harder.
There are already many people today who cannot tell the difference in realities, and likely many people who think they can but only succeed some of the time.
It's so pervasive that soon it will become the 'only' reality (online) and then it's too late. This is what the marketing people want, just like the sugar companies.
> Spreading subtle ads through memes is probably still an under-explored area of marketing and it bypasses modern ad-blocking techniques.
In this vein, I encourage you to search about the 2016 russian interference, and the tactics of the IRA (Internet Research Agency, a russian troll farm). It's been eye-opening for me how was heavily in Twitter/Tumblr in those years about the quantity (and quality) of manipulated memes and astroturfed viral content in social networks.
There was this weird "meme" going around a few months ago about Dreamworks vs Disney that lined up extraordinarily hard with the release of "Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken" movie. (Release to theaters, I should say)
I can't say that I'm a distinguished memer, but I've consumed my fair number of memes. But a lot of this "meme" was about hating on Disney + talking about how Dreamworks movies were better.
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On the one hand: "memes" that sprung up organically about say, Shrek, have this raunchy quality to them that likely is toxic to advertising partners. (Gay sex, sex jokes, implied rape, etc. etc.). Meme culture is famously toxic, especially as it comes out of 4chan. So in a sense, the "raunchiness" is the proof that its likely not corporate.
But this "Teenage Kraken" meme was ... "tame" so to speak? A lot of "The Little Mermaid" hate, but nothing that matched my familiar memeing patterns. Sure, people hate on "The Little Mermaid" and had a ton of memes making fun of that movie, but... to see some memes pivot into what turned into a "Teenage Kraken" advertisement was so weird and offputting to me.
So I've always wondered if "Teenage Kraken vs Ariel" memes were Dreamworks guerilla marketing. Just me personally. Especially because "Teenage Kraken" wasn't a very popular movie, so its such a strange subject to "meme". Memes usually work the opposite way: the movie comes out and then months or years later, the memes take hold.
The timing was all wrong. The meme wasn't as raunchy or mean as normal memes. It lined up with (attempted) corporate profits to advertise a movie that was soon to be released in theaters. It was a relatively unpopular movie in the great scheme of things. Etc. etc. etc.
Trying to get a grasp on consensus nowadays on any question on the internet is almost impossible.
Way too much astroturfing, shills and what I suspect are semiautomatic bots.
For reviews, Youtube reviews seem to be the best approach. At worst it becomes like a TV shop commercial and you can see that the table saw can atleast actually saw or if it behaves like it would have bad quality.
Some people seem genuine in the 'still too small for money to be made' channels. But it seems like there are not a lot of subscribera needed before they start to make ads for VPNs... so they are approached by marketing quite early.
To give a concrete example of another trend: a few years back there was this group trend on TikTok of going to the theater dressed up in a suit to watch some animated movie. You would only need to pay a couple of large accounts to engage in this trend, and then others will follow along because they want to fit in.
Another dimension through which content marketing will probably expand in the future is by creating media that encourages people to take sides and engage in discussions, like Giant Monkey vs Giant Reptile, who wins? This trend is very popular within the political landscape, but it could probably be twisted for fictional IPs as well.