Considered the minimum unit of expression on the Internet, the so-called memes are currently the viral content par excellence. But… what is a meme? Can you make money with them? How do you make one?
All of them have in common their anonymity, their humor -usually sarcastic, with a hooligan touch- and their predisposition to its massive dissemination among individuals. They also share an intimate contact with the most rabid news. The new genre has come of age with the help of WhatsApp and Facebook. Political parties and trademarks dream up the genius idea. Behind the occurrences there is much more than anonymous talents. Little by little, the first professionals in the field begin to emerge, among creatives, designers, online consultants and students. All of them without apparent profit.
There are mobile applications that facilitate the creation of this content. Most of them are made with the most popular: . All you have to do is select and upload the image, place the text you want and spread it through social networks, forums, WhatsApp… The first ones appeared on pages like internationally and . “They were very poorly done illustrations, with faces in black and white, showing different sensations. They worked precisely because of that, because of how horrible they were,” explains a designer. Although many consider them successors to emoticons, as a communication phenomenon they have adopted sarcasm and irony that until a few years ago we only saw in graphic humor. With the help of social media, anyone can dissect reality or turn something on its head with a totally different point of view and become the witty guy of the day. However, their anonymous nature has led the most cowardly authors to use them for other totally reprehensible purposes, such as insult or vexation and to exalt totally reprehensible attitudes.
within everyone’s reach
“When you start making them, you can’t be very sure that they’re going to work. It’s still a joke or a way of expressing something, with an uncertain result. Those that are becoming popular here at the moment were perhaps created by someone who is in United States and that I had no idea that they were going to give so much play”. This is Álex Álvarez, creative director at Funciona, a technology and app development consultancy.
He himself carried out an experiment that resulted in the popular memes of Bicimad, the electric bicycle rental service of the Madrid City Council. “When Mariano Rajoy, Esperanza Aguirre and Cristina Cifuentes took the bike ride to inaugurate this project, we cut out their images with Photoshop and posted that composition on -the largest blog in Spain-. From there, anyone who wanted could make a meme and place them in front of whatever they came up with.
copy rejection
The experts consulted agree that the meme is something that is marked by spontaneity. However, there are also tricks and ways to anticipate events. From another advertising agency they recognize that they have a system that tells them what is going to be talked about on social networks in the following hours.
In this way, they can prepare content that benefits their different clients. However, it is a job that must be done with great delicacy, without noticing that there may be any trademark behind it, that does not leave a trace. “When a company tries to repeat or replicate something that has succeeded on the Internet and that has come out of the people, as something natural, then it usually fails. Everything that a brand copies on social networks is usually instantly crushed. People share something that It has been made by someone unknown or that has emerged from a social way, but not with the logo of a brand”, explains the creative director of Funciona.
Another advertiser admits that when a company has commissioned some kind of meme, the last thing they have tried is to make it look professional. “In those cases, we are not looking for a good typography or a good image that is well composed, because deep down, it has to give the impression that anyone has done it. If it is discovered that there is a professional process behind it, the meme will falls,” he warns. Precisely because of this underground character, the meme is not a communication resource that fits with all brands or types of clients.
‘Memero’, the WhatsApp profession
Why is the joke called a meme?
The Internet has copied the term introduced by the biologist Richard Dawkins in his book ‘The Selfish Gene’ in 1976. Originally it is associated with an idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a culture, in the style of how spreads a virus in a human body. In a way, it would be the equivalent of a gene, but applied to culture.
Dawkins himself recognized and (where the term associated with the network first appeared in the early 1990s) that the new ‘use’ of meme was very appropriate, since he himself used the virus metaphor to explain the concept. And one of the main characteristics of Internet memes is precisely their virality.
Can you make money with a meme?
You can earn money -if it is well orchestrated by a brand that is behind it- or votes… if the hidden person responsible is a political party.
Who made the first meme?
The first spread through ‘9gag.com’ or ‘cuantocabron.com’ -the name already warns about the nature of the intentions-.
How is this made?
90% is made very simply, with applications such as ” or ”. Just upload a photo and add a text.
How does it spread at viral speeds?
It has to be very close to the news, not leave everyone happy -that there is some confrontation or conflict- and that it contains a lot of humor, satire or irony.