Some of the most evergreen marketing campaigns don’t seem like campaigns. They are just relatable jingles from our childhood that just kind of stick. Some of my favourite are “Washing powder Nirma” [Detergent product], A spin on “Baby Shark” [eCommerce platform] and “Kya aap closeup karte hai” [Toothpaste product]. These tunes are embedded in our collective memory.

While the fundamentals of psychology are static, what is changing is where we are getting our ‘stimulus’ from. In today’s meme culture, information travels at lightning speed through the internet. But the best marketers are looking at it very closely to get inspired to build the next big campaign. What is it that people are talking about? Where is the fandom being built? Are they the right target audience?

In India, Cricket is a religion. And Dhoni is one of the greatest and most loved cricket superstars of the country. The interesting story of how Dhoni was singing a viral meme song on an ad is both inspiring and amusing.

A lookalike of Dhoni sang “Bole Jo Koyal”, a tune that is so similar to a childhood favorite song embedded in Indian culture. That meme went so viral that it started playing in cricket stadiums, clubs and even Dhoni was filmed dancing to the tune.

EMotorad saw this as an opportunity to bring to life their EV Bike with Dhoni singing this song. And needless to say, all Dhoni and Cricket fans just LOVED IT! Seeing their favorite cricketer sing a song that was so closely associated with him, fans went GAGA! (You know if you know)

I believe that the best marketing campaigns will continue to draw on and contribute to popular culture. Understanding your audience and relating your product to them has been an age old formula but as audiences and their inspiration evolves, marketing needs to evolve at the same rate.

Are marketing textbooks teaching future marketers to study memes? Well, maybe not. But here is an example of the best of creativity, marketing and culture inspired by meme culture. I don’t know about what the Koyal would want to say (or sing), but the Koyal has been humming this song in my head for too many days now.