Memes everywhere: The effect of social media memes on consumers' attitude towards brands and their purchase intention

With the literally ever-lasting relevance of social media and the constant development of online communication, memes are more and more gaining popularity. So far there is only little scientific research on the advertising effectiveness of memes. This study aims to close this knowledge gap and tests, if memes have a positive effect on consumers' attitude towards the advertisement, towards the brand and on their purchase intention. Results of an empirical study indicate that ads with memes, despite being perceived as humorous, did not perform significantly better than control group ads.