Success in advertising - creating an internet meme!

The ultimate achievement in branding is if a business is able to brand their product so successfully that the brand name itself becomes a commonly used (or generic) word for the product. Examples include Sellotape, Post-it notes, and Xerox. Every time someone thinks of or mentions the brand it is promotion that the business does not have to pay for.

But is there an equivalent in advertising – a promotion so successful that people reference in everyday language and / or use it as an internet meme?

One recent example is the Snickers campaign – “You’re not you when you’re hungry”. This has been very successful across a number of countries, with Snickers keeping the main idea the same but tailoring it to different countries by using celebrities that local consumers will identify with - a form of global localization. Versions from the U.S, U.K and New Zealand are shown below.

But the real success of the campaign is the resulting outbreak of the "snickers meme" of which there are many different versions. My favourite is shown below and is obviously very topical.

U.K version

U.S version

N.Z version