Advertisers: Show Us Your Dank Memes

Even if you haven’t heard of a ‘dank meme’, you’ve probably seen them all over your social media feeds, from split personality Kermit the frog (‘treat yoself’), to ‘doggos’ (‘hello fren’) and Harambe tributes (‘Dicks out for Harambe’). If you were baffled by the fact that 11,000 Americans actively voted for the aforementioned dead gorilla in the latest US election, you’ve got dank memes to thank. So if you don’t know the term*, you should learn it quickly, as it is rapidly commandeering the digital space for engaging shareable content.

With brands continuing to seek out novel and engaging ways to communicate with their consumers, it’s no surprise that the commercial world is trying to make themselves heard in this space. However, with new channels and trends evolving daily, what real resources are out there to filter and define this content and ultimately render it effective in a commercial sense?

Recently, Jay Brooks and Brian Atton, founders of media-sharing solution, Simian, and Michael Chiavetta, co-founder of content consultancy, KIMBA, have developed and launched an app, called ‘Dank’, which aims to do just that. Inspired by the term ‘dank memes’, the app seeks to provide advertisers and the general public a resource to curate engaging shareable content that’s on the cusp of going viral.

Speaking to the trio from the US, it’s clear there is a huge gap in the market for a tech solution that can provide more detailed data, analytics and predictions about the way we consume online content. Having worked for TBWA/Chiat/Day as a senior social media analyst and strategist, Michael Chiavetta has a first-hand insight into the challenges of marrying data and creative quickly and effectively: “There’s just so much content out there that it’s difficult for advertisers to know where to start or what to use. More and more brands are using short online video content on a daily basis. The key to creating engaging content is speed and relevancy but the sheer volume of content we are experiencing can make it hard to know what route to take.”

“When I was working in an agency, a big part of our world was breaking down the silos between creative, data, planning and digital,” adds Michael. “It’s very difficult. It takes a lot of hard work and trust between different teams to get creatives to use data to inform on an idea. What’s great about Dank as a tool to break down silos, is that discovery and decision is still in the hands of creatives but the time consuming part of research and data crunching is mitigated by curation.  Ultimately everyone in an agency is trying to reach the right audience, make them feel something and get them to act on that feeling. We’re trying to make that accessible.”

One of the important features of Dank, according to the trio, is recognition of the creator and their source. “I don’t think any other platform seeks to credit the talent behind the films, the makers and the engagement statistics,” says Michael. “More people need credit for the content that goes out there, beyond just the post itself.”

The end goal is to have people sharing and submitting content directly through the app. “We want to be like a Reddit for this industry and have a saturation element that no existing app has,” says Jay.

“We’ve seen stuff added to Dank go viral one, two, three days after we posted it. It’s about knowing what the early signals are,” continues Michael. “The app is not only for entertaining consumers but revealing the priceless early identifiers to creatives, planners and strategists alike, so they can pinpoint what’s going to work in the market.”

However, it’s not just about what’s going viral, to which Michael adds: “The stuff that really has staying power, and should inspire the next commercial spot, is content that will resurface. We can now see in Dank content that may have been popular six years ago, but has become relevant and viral again for a second time. Take the John Lewis ad in the UK. There was a video four or five years ago of a jumping boxer dog, it started re-circulating. Then, since the release of the John Lewis ad this year, this content has come full circle and there is a viral reaction video of a family watching their dog re-enact the ad.” 

Jay and Brian completely agree: “That’s what you want your audience to do; to parody, rip off and react to your piece of content. That all adds to the virality of the campaign and makes it popular again. We only launched Dank recently but we’ve seen at least three pieces of content that have inspired broadcast commercials since. It’s reassuring to see that we’re pulling together the right content and that Dank is doing its job.

Currently, the content on Dank is sorted into 11 categories, including the likes of ‘Cute AF’ to ‘HahaOMG’ and ‘Dankest Ads’. Not aimed solely at advertisers, the app curates content that would appeal to anyone. “At the end of the day, creatives, strategists and planners are like any other internet viewer,” Michael explains.

The technology team at Simian have been building the app for several months, scouring the web for the best content from places like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and ‘anywhere that has great content’. “In the beginning we were scraping a lot of content by by hand, but now it’s automated and when it gets into our system, it hits our algorithm. We’re calling it ‘The Dank Bot’. It’s a huge endeavour but it improves and learns from itself daily," explains Jay.

Brian and Jay have developed this new project to complement their media sharing platform. “We’re more than just a review and approval media sharing platform,” adds Brian. “We’re partners for our friends in creative industries. We want to be a resource as opposed to a singular tool.”

According to Jay, Brian and Michael, the app is currently a minimum viable product intended to get consumers and audiences to engage with the content and provide learning for a more advanced platform that will launch in Spring 2017. “The app is really a soft launch for a larger and more comprehensive platform that will measure and curate content. We can’t say too much yet but what we can say is we hope to provide creatives with the data they need to make informed decisions on creating new content and measuring output. We’re making the data easy to use and helping to break down the silos which ultimately slow down the creation of content,” concludes Brian.

* Urban Dictionary defines ‘Dank Meme’ as ‘a term now used as an ironic expression to mock online viral media and in-jokes that have exhausted their comedic value to the point of being trite or cliché.’ [see examples of these in paragraph one] ‘The word “dank,” was originally coined as a term for high quality marijuana and is satirically used as a synonym for “cool.”’