If it seems like “extremely online” culture is showing up in mainstream marketing outside of social media, — that’s because it is, according to agency execs. Social media trends are infiltrating other media channels as is the language that originated on social feeds.
“This appears to be the next evolution in cross-channel advertising,” said Holly Willis, founder and CEO of creative agency and marketing consulting firm Magic Camp, in an email. “Now, we’re embracing broader cultural trends that originate online and integrating them into above-the-line platforms.”
Perhaps the most obvious example is Lemme wellness brand’s out-of-home campaign in New York City, recently posted by X user @JoeHolder. The copy reads, “I’m just a girl” with the product appearing next to it. Which, if you’re not chronically online, “I’m just a girl” flicks at a recent TikTok trend where users offered satirical takes on societal expectations and stereotypes for women set to No Doubt’s song “Just a Girl.”
Another example is the Brat Summer trend, sparked by pop singer Charli XCX’s album release and embraced by Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ social team. Agencies have been pitching the trend to clients to be leveraged in OOH placements, organic and limited paid social activity, referencing the album’s lyrics and lime green sleeve.
Meanwhile, the “very mindful, very demure” viral TikTok sound by TikToker Jools Lebron is showing up in email inboxes PacSun, IT Cosmetics and Miaou women’s clothing brand, X user Michaela Okland points out.
Embedding elements of social media culture into mainstream marketing isn’t exactly a new phenomenon. Brands regularly feature influencers, X/Twitter user posts and viral catch phrases in marketing campaigns geared toward a general audience. What’s happening now is TikTok microtrends, like Brat Summer, demure, coastal grandmother, girl dinner, girl math, delulu (short for delusional), Roman Empire and the list goes on, are showing up in marketing that should appeal to a broad audience.
Considering how fragmented and siloed digital communities can be while producing these trends (and how quickly they come and go), it begs the question: Is it a pointless endeavor to bring a niche, extremely online culture into mainstream marketing for a general audience?
“There’s a thin line between acknowledging what’s happening in pop culture and what’s happening in social media,” said Michael Miraflor, chief brand officer at Hannah Grey VC, an early-stage VC firm. “I don’t think a lot of people inside and outside of marketing realize that it is a different language. It’s the native language of the internet.”
Miraflor posed the question on X, noting the trend was limiting to those outside of digital echo chambers.
For the first noticeable time in our lives, extremely online culture is affecting above the line, real world marketing in a way that is IYKYK but also limiting bc it doesn’t resonate to those outside of our digital echo chambers.
An inversion of traditional media diffusion. https://t.co/VDZtNZxPds
— Michael J. Miraflor (@michaelmiraflor) August 13, 2024
Brand ethos often drives whether marketers shell out dollars to bring a viral internet meme into marketing that lives beyond social, according to the seven agency execs Digiday spoke with for this piece.
“The more realistic answer is probably [that] it’s brands that have a strong digital and social presence with a younger audience, just because they’re the ones that are going to get it,” said Elliott Bedinghaus, vp of creative and partner at Spark marketing and ad agency. Meanwhile, bigger, more established brands may face more red tape to work through with legal approvals that could make it difficult to get creative turned around fast enough to catch a trend. And that’s where the trouble starts, per agency execs.
Once outside the realm of digital media, viral online moments don’t necessarily translate to a broader, more generalized, passerby audience, said Noah Mallin, a digital marketing and Gen Z consultant, and former chief strategy officer at IMGN Media. It could create an ‘If you know, you know’ moment, excluding shoppers who aren’t endlessly scrolling through social media, he added.
“It doesn’t necessarily resonate if it’s out of context, and that makes a big difference,” Mallin said. “Then it becomes not really an effective use of whatever media you’re playing in.”
That’s not to tell brands to abandon ship, per the execs. But there is nuance to the memeification of marketing. Internet trends move quickly, taking over and then dissipating within the span of a week. To get more mileage out of a viral moment, Anne Buehner, head of creative at Code3 digital marketing agency, says her agency pushes clients to the tap into the context of a viral trend instead of the viral trend itself.
For example, for the so-called clean girl aesthetic trend, which emphasized a polished, chic look, Buehner suggests leveraging a minimalist look in a brand campaign as opposed to the ad copy reading “Clean girl aesthetic” to key the audience into the trend.
The same applies to songs, too. “Give It To Me,” a song by producer Timbaland that was released in 2007, went viral with a dance on TikTok back in the winter of 2022. Discover Card, a client of TBWAChiatDay creative shop, picked up the song as part of its “Cash Back Match” last February, seemingly quietly tapping into the trend.
“We can start to take notes in a way that helps us tap in the culture without overtly having a ‘If you know, you know,’ kind of trends,” she said.
Ultimately, by the time a brand catches wind of a trend, it may very well be on its way out of the cultural zeitgeist, said Steve Denekas chief creative officer at Crispin, a media and creative agency. “It’s the concept, not the moment,” he said. “It’s like you’re in the know, but you’re not hitting it over somebody’s face.”
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