Abstract

Underpinned by brand placement literature, associative network theory, and narrative transportation theory, this research examines how meme marketing types (brand prominent and brand subtle) create immersive consumer experiences through narrative transportation and the moderating effects of consumer brand knowledge, meme literacy, and linguistic characteristics (i.e., pronouns) on meme marketing effectiveness. Study 1 (N = 300) confirms that brand prominent meme marketing generates more favourable consumer outcomes (attitude towards ad, customer engagement) and narrative transportation compared to brand subtle meme marketing. Additionally, Study 1 examines the moderating effects of consumer brand knowledge and the mediating role of narrative transportation. Study 2 (N = 300) validates the findings of Study 1 and assesses the mediating role of narrative transportation between brand prominent meme marketing (vs. brand subtle) and outcomes among consumers with varying meme literacy. Brand prominent meme marketing yields profound consumer outcomes and narrative transportation, especially with low brand knowledge. Study 3 (N = 253) confirms the results of Studies 1 and 2 and further introduces a novel linguistic moderator, examining the use of first-person and second-person pronouns within the meme marketing content using a different product category. This study uncovers the influence of second-person pronouns on intensifying narrative transportation. Empirical evidence supports all three moderated mediation models. Overall, this study adds to the knowledge on meme marketing and provides useful insights for designing and targeting effective meme marketing campaigns.

Introduction

Internet memes have become the most prominent form of digital content found online (Voigts, 2018) and an innate language of digital culture (Forceville, 2014). Meme marketing, a strategy that leverages the popularity of internet memes, allows brands to seamlessly integrate their brand elements (i.e., brand name, logo, product picture, etc.) into entertaining content to communicate and engage with customers in a naturalistic way. Over the past few years, meme marketing has emerged as a popular social media marketing and advertising communication strategy with remarkable engagement results. For example, according to Paquette (2019), meme marketing results in a 30% engagement rate on social media, compared to 1% on Google AdWords. However, little is known about the underlying mechanisms of meme marketing effectiveness, particularly the factors that can enhance or hinder its impact on consumer attitudes and engagement (Malodia et al., 2022; Razzaq et al., 2023).

Brand placement, a prominent marketing tactic, has experienced significant revenue growth, totalling approximately $23 billion USD in 2021 (Statista, 2023). As digital media continues to evolve, marketers are constantly seeking new ways to reach wider audiences. Meme marketing, in this context, has surfaced as a new marketing communication strategy in which brands can strategically place or integrate their brand elements into entertaining internet memes to boost engagement. For instance, Wendy’s, a popular fast food brand in the USA, experienced a 49.7% surge in customer engagement over social media platforms after implementing meme marketing (Kao et al., 2020).

General discussion

We conducted three experimental studies to test our hypotheses, examining the effectiveness of meme marketing. Specifically, brand prominent meme marketing (vs. brand subtle) reported a more favourable attitude towards ad, and customer engagement (see Fig. 2), as well as narrative transportation (see Table 2 for summary of results). The findings contradict extant brand placement literature (Boerman et al., 2015; Choi et al., 2018), highlighting that prominent brand placements in meme marketing capture audience attention, allowing consumers to quickly associate the meme with the advertised brand for improved attitudes and engagement. As far as narrative transportation is concerned, the findings are in line with previous literature on narrative transportation theory (Green and Brock, 2000). That is, prominent brand placements facilitate a faster and easier immersion into a narrative world (Halkias, 2015).

More importantly, we found a significant interaction between brand knowledge and meme marketing types on narrative transportation (H3). In particular, we found that high brand knowledge results in similar or indistinguishable narrative transportability across both types of meme marketing (see Table 2 for summary of results). However, when brand knowledge is low, only brand prominent meme marketing (vs. brand subtle) results in greater narrative transportation. The findings provide support for associative network theory (Keller, 1993), expounding that associations brought up by the prominent brand elements and meme story would create new ‘nodes’ in the brand’s associative network for people who have low knowledge about the brand, leading to narrative transportation (Avramova, 2017).