It was only a matter of time before the “Be Like Bill” meme, which has overtaken the Internet over the past few weeks, came to be deployed by brands to promote their products. On Wednesday, Pizza Hut India jumped on the bandwagon with this Tweet:
The “Be Like Bill” meme, like other things that catch up
exponentially on social media only to disappear as quickly, has picked up much
traction in the past few days. It has been around since last year, but turned
viral after a Facebook page devoted to it appeared earlier this month. The meme
narrates a short, haiku-like story about a character called Bill, who does not
fall for silly stuff that other, less smart people are doing. Consider the
following:
Anti-Bill Brigade
Once it took off, it was dissed in equal measure which, in the paradoxical nature of memes and other social media, added to its cachet. Here is a sample of the anti-Bill brigade, which resulted in the “Kill Bill” meme.
Brand Plug-In
Due to the high-traction nature of social media, where anything can go viral—and we still do not know why one thing does when another does not—the Bill meme was picked up by even respectable brands to plug their products. Apart from Pizza Hut India, Apple Music and Sixt, a car rental service, have also employed the meme on Twitter:
Brand Management Through Memes
To be sure, not all memes lend themselves so easily to brand
plug-ins. Remember the “Dress” meme from last year when the internet went crazy
deciding whether a dress was white and gold or blue and black? Purists debated
over the outfit’s colour for days, until science stepped into the picture and
explained it as an illusion of sight. It was great fun while it lasted until
the next meme arrived.
The question is, would the “Be Like Bill” meme work for brands? Social media traction can be an unreliable beast when it comes to converting hits into revenue, but the buzz so generated can help the company get eyeballs and win much-needed mindshare.
At any rate, traditional marketing has always relied on word-of-mouth to sell products. Coke and Pepsi are examples of a product category where there is little distinction between the products on offer – both colas – yet their rivalry is the stuff that business school case studies and public perception is made up of. This is down to little else but marketing which builds up what is essentially sweetened soda as something worth aspiring to.
Instant Connect with Social Media
Social media marketing has taken this “brand connection” one level further, targeting individual customers who can be reached via their Facebook and Twitter feeds, rather than the more generic media such as television and print that have been used in the past to bombard audiences en masse.
Increasingly, old media is being relied upon to create celebrity-flavoured buzz, as rising endorsements by stars for nearly every category stretching from biscuits (Shilpa Shetty for Priya Gold) to tyres (Sachin Tendulkar for MRF) show.
It is on social media where an instant connect can be created with the youth, prime drivers of an increasingly consumer-focused economy where they comprise close to half the population. Sure, most such memes do not have a long shelf life and it is almost certain that “Be Like Bill” too would not be around for long. Yet, with little investment and good returns in terms of buzz, memes are likely to stay around as social media darlings which burn brightly but briefly, yet end up sprinkling stardust on the brands that woo them.
(The writer is a freelance journalist)
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