subject: Why Internet Memes Like "2204355" May Be Great For Business [print this page] Why Internet Memes Like "2204355" May Be Great For Business
What On Earth Is An Internet Meme?
Controversial British scientist and author Richard Dawkins first coined the word "meme" in his book, The Selfish Gene. The concept of a meme is the evolution and dissemination of ideas and cultural phenomena. Examples of memes given in his book include catch-phrases and fashion/clothing trends.
The phrase "Internet meme" is used to describe a trend that spreads quickly on the web. The content of a meme can be a multitude of things. Some examples of potential memes could be a rumour, a doctored photo, a complete website or a video clip. Memes have a tendency to evolve and be spread extremely quickly by other users via social media sites, forums, instant messengers, blogs or e-mail.
Companies Harnessing Internet Memes To Create A Buzz
Internet marketing professionals and enterprising filmmakers have harnessed Internet memes as a form of viral marketing, creating marketing buzz for their movie, company, product or service.
One of the earlier, most successful examples of this would be the viral promotion of the indpendent film "The Blair Witch Project". Made for just $22,000 dollars, by the end of its worldwide cinema run it had cashed in a stonking $248 million dollars at the box office. The success can be largely attributed to the fantastic pre-release buzz created on the Internet. The filmmakers spread rumours in chat rooms about three college kids who got lost in a wood while making a school film project. The kids were never heard from again only their camera was found. The film was restored, so the story went, revealing the horrifying journey to their deaths. Suddenly, news groups and websites started popping up all over the place. Some created by the filmmakers, leaving further strange clues, some created by people trying to piece together the story. Could the story be true? Either way, their plan worked.
In more recent years, movies like Cloverfield and Snakes On A Plane have tried to replicate the success of The Blair Witch's Internet marketing campaign.
2204355 The Most Recent Crazy Internet Phenomenon
2204355 According to Google Insights, the search term '2204355' is the 2nd most searched breakout keyword over the past 7 days. When you enter the term into the Google search engine and click the 'I'm feeling lucky' button you are taken, rather strangely, to an animated dancing man eating chicken. Is there some deep philosophical meaning behind this amusing occurrence? Does it cryptically tell us when the end of the world is, or is someone just having a bit of fun?
Top Memorable Internet Memes
All Your Base Are Belong To Us A phrase that came about as the result of the spread of a flash animation that depicted the slogan "All Your Base Are Belong To Us". The text is taken from the opening cut scene of the 1991 Sega Mega Drive videogame Zero Wing, which was (quite obviously) poorly translated from Japanese. It was popularized by the Something Awful forums, and soon every g33k was spouting the phrase at random.
Rick Rolling A person is sent a link, claiming it is relevant to the topic at hand, but when the recipient clicks it, they are taken to a video of Rick Astley singing 'Never Gonna Give You Up'. The expression 'You've Been Rickrolled' was coined from this prank.
Numa Numa Dance - A webcam video of a guy called Gary Brolsma of himself miming and dancing to the song 'Dragostea din tei' (otherwise known as 'Numa Numa'). The video was watched (enjoyed??) by millions of people worldwide.
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