Collaborating like a Wow! Why brands are drawn to viral sensations
Riding on these trends is a good way for brands to maintain relevance, say experts, but viral meme sensations aren't trained influencers and can backfire for the brand
Brands are ditching conventional marketing formats these days in favour of moment marketing and viral memes to stay ahead of the game. Instagram was buzzing over a Delhi entrepreneur Jasmeen Kaur whose catchphrase "So beautiful. So elegant. Just looking like a Wow" went viral. A news clip of a man who innocently answered "Bhupendra Jogi" to an unrelated question went viral not too long ago. Even the endearing "aayein" and "baigan" from Aditya Kumar, a class 6 student from Bihar, tickled the funnybones of netizens.
These videos have tremendous virality, reach and recall, three things that brands can greatly benefit from. Recently two brands took the brave step of collaborating with these influencers. Sunfeast collaborated with the "Wow" lady, Jasmeen Kaur, capitalising on her viral catchphrase for its products.
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Real estate company 99acres also collaborated with Bhupendra Jogi for a quirky campaign about Bhopal.
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Brands collaborating with such unusual ‘influencers’ who don’t come under the traditionally imagined definition of an influencer is an interesting new chapter in viral moment marketing.
Why it works
e4m reached out to experts to understand how such collaborations work out for brands and how they position brands amongst audiences when they use viral memes to promote their products.
“In my opinion, the Internet has effectively democratised content creators and access to breaking through the clutter, bringing everyone to an even starting point. We have a fantastic opportunity where if you have a good concept, it may become a sensation: if it clicks and you are in the right place at the right moment. The true issue in a situation such as this is how to maintain your popularity beyond it, build on it, and expand your audience once you become well-known or have achieved one viral sensation”, says Roycin D'souza - Vice President - Only Much Louder ( OML Entertainment).
Similarly Vikarm Kari, Senior Director at The Goat Agency (INCA) a part of GroupM, WPP spoke about such collaborations not affecting the brand positioning but even highlighting the fact that the brand is aware of popular culture, hence working out for the brand. He said, “I believe, brands recognize these as moment marketing opportunities. In an age where brands need to regularly put out high-quality content to engage with their audience, riding on these viral trends is a good way for brands to maintain relevance. Creating memes around trending topics or entering collabs with these meme-worthy creators show brands’ nimbleness and awareness of pop culture. I don’t believe that these one-off collaborations have the potential to define/change a brand’s positioning.”
Shradha Agarwal, Co-Founder & CEO of Grapes, said, “With the rise in influencer marketing, brands know how important it is to keep up with the emerging trends. These viral sensations are creating their own trends on social media and gaining a lot of followers for their content. This is the major reason brands leverage them and their popularity to communicate their message to the audience. The virality and influence of these people on social media is aiding the brand in establishing a significant impact and a relevant public perception for its products.”
Cons of the collaboration
While such collaborations do bring traction to the brand and keep them in the limelight, the engagement is often not in a positive manner with the comment section echoing negative talks. Viral sensations aren't trained influencers, so how can such collaborations backfire on the brand? We discussed this with experts.
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Uber recently collaborated with the ‘Aajao Boss Dikha Dunga’ sensation, speaking about their new camper facility
Aditya Premani, Co-Founder and Head of Social, Social Pill spoke about the collaborations and how sometimes they can backfire. “What this strategy does is successfully gain more eyeballs on the brand by piggybacking on something that already has a lot of traction. Whether this is good positioning for the brand or not, depends on what the meme is, how the brand approaches it, and the relevance of the overall communication”, he explained.
He cited Sunfeast Yippee's Collaboration with Jasmeen Kaur: "It was, in my opinion, too direct and didn't add anything to the existing meme. If you see the comments on the post and what the community thinks about it; it's not great feedback. That being said, it could be argued that such posts guarantee an engagement through the roof and as the saying goes, there's no such thing as bad publicity.
On the other hand, Red FM's Collaboration incorporated her personality and the essence of why the meme went viral into a content structure that they already do.
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The feedback on the comments is overwhelmingly positive. That being said, performance-wise, it has not done as well as the Sunfeast Collaboration.
“This could be due to the fact that Sunfeast has done a paid collaboration with Jasmeen and has put a certain amount of budget behind the post but also how the consumer behaviour is working where people are more likely to engage and share content they like to hate on. This brings up an interesting question. Do you create content that is guaranteed to get great engagement, but not positive engagement, or create content that will get good engagement, but positive engagement?” Premani added concluding the comparison.
Sadaf Khan, Head Brand Partnerships, TTT Terribly Tiny Tales, said that brands can be perceived as insincere with such collaborations. She said, “There might be challenges in just blindly jumping on the bandwagon. If not executed thoughtfully, it could come across as forced or insincere, potentially harming the brand's reputation. They should thoroughly check about the association with anything trending on the internet and the association should be in sync with the brand's overall ethos and should be customized to match the brands' TOV so that it is not jarring for the consumers because a meme is short-lived, the brand is not!”
Echoing the same thought, Sapna Sharma, Co-founder & COO Efficacy Worldwide said, “One significant drawback is the risk of association with controversies or negative developments related to the viral personality. Public sentiments can change quickly, and if the individual falls out of favour, the brand may suffer as a result. Additionally, there's the challenge of maintaining authenticity. Audiences are quick to discern when a collaboration feels forced or insincere, which can harm the brand's credibility. It's crucial for brands to conduct thorough research on the chosen personality and to stay vigilant to potential risks.”
