The wildly popular website I Can Has a Chezeburger, filled with LOL Cats is a meme that proves several things:
– People love diversion
– A lot of people know how to use PhotoShop
– People love cats
– Marketers should lighten up
A Time Magazine item about the website I Can Has Chezeburger notes:
The more mainstream the Web gets, the more it’s “…no longer a subculture; it’s just the culture.”
I Can Has Chezeburger isn’t selling anything, except advertising on the site, but it is engaging people in something they enjoy – laughing and sharing funny pictures and ideas.
The LOL cat site is mindless and goofy, and filled with “in” jokes referencing other web phenomenon and it’s spawned loldogs, lolhamsters, and lol Humans: like lolgeeks, lolgays and lolbrarians. That’s because it’s fun!
That’s the same reason many viral campaigns, including several I’ve done for my clients, have been successful. Nobody can be serious all the time.
To paraphrase Arthur Murray, “Put a little fun in your marketing.”
Posted by B.L. Ochman
This meme is nothing new – I wrote about the historical precedent known as “LOLIrish” a few days back: http://occamsrazr.com/2007/07/06/powerless-thinking/
Of course, it does help here that no one’s trying to market anything. How many memes would die on impact if there were ROI goals attached to them?
Great writeup.
I was having a conversation with one of my wife’s brothers who has been a math teacher for over 30 years. The conversation was about holding the attention of the students with humor.
He had come to the conclusion that the students
long term retention was directly proportional to the amount of injected humor into the course material. So, my answer to your question is based
upon my own instincts and his experience. I beleive that the same is true of marketing. The funnier the end product the longer the information will be retained.
I think you make a good point, BL. But I am reminded of the old Spinal Tap line “It’s such a fine line between stupid and clever.” If marketers and corporations took up your advice en masse, there would be a serious conglomeration of lameness VERRRRY quickly.
BL- can you share some of the viral campaigns that you have done? what has worked/not worked?
Eric
I think tapping into an “inside joke” that was already popular is such a great marketing idea but choosing the right one is the key.
Eric – As a matter of fact, I am working on a report about what does and doesn’t work in social media marketing, including campaigns I’ve done.
As soon as it’s ready, I’ll send you a review copy.
Thanks for asking!
BL
My experience working with folks with various developmental disabilities in a production environment is that humor is essential in keeping attention focused.