The BJP may have bagged the Capital prize after 27 long years, it is the meme creators who struck rich by churning out more than 100,000 posts in a day, as Delhi election results were announced on February 8.
The BJP scored a famous win, ending the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party’s decade-long reign by winning 48 seats in the 70-member Delhi assembly.
According to MemeChat founder Taaran Chanana, these memes translated into significant earnings for digital content creators. MemeChat's top 100 creators made over Rs 3 lakh combined through their rib-tickling take on the polls and the outcome.
More than 10,000 creators made around Rs 4,000-5,000 each, said Nikhil Singh Sumal, chief executive officer (CEO) of Growth Jet Media, a digital marketing platform.
Every election is like a World Cup in itself, he said.
The Lok Sabha counting day, June 4, 2024, saw around 1 lakh memes on MemeChat alone while the results of Uttar Pradesh alone landed about 10,000 memes.
“Memers had their fun day covering every bit of the (Delhi) poll in and out using all the trending meme templates,” Chanana said.
About Rs 6-7 crore is estimated to be made through meme marketing on Delhi election results.
Sumal said for political campaigns, a meme page with 100 million followers charges around Rs 6 lakh.
From posting a scene of the popular OTT series Mirzapur with a caption saying, “Bhari nuksan hogaya humara (huge loss of ours)’ to the famous clip of the movie 3 Idiots capturing the loss of AAP and Congress, a flurry of memes poured in on social media.
On February 8, the memes recorded 60 percent higher traction than a regular day.
“The traffic was double compared to regular memes. Shares and likes boosted the traction, which is always the case during elections. People are more active in watching the results unfold in memes and reels. That's how the GenZs get to know the results,” Chanana said.
Everyone loves a friendly rivalry, he said.
"Election atmosphere changed it all, with a full Modi versus Kejriwal narrative. People love a dramatic rivalry. Be it Ronaldo vs Messi, India versus Pakistan cricket, or now the elections. It gets a lot of engagement in terms of views, likes, shares,” Chanana said.
Every major event across the globe makes it to the viral trend list on meme pages whether it the US elections, Coldplay's biggest concert, the 2025 Budget or the recent Delhi Elections, said Archit Madaan, co-founder of The Indian Sarcasm, a platform for creators to post memes.
Humour and high traction are one of the few factors for the growing meme economy, resulting in brands paying lakhs to meme creators to create and distribute their content.
A creator who owns a meme page with 1 million followers makes Rs 2-3 lakh a month and those with 10 million followers for a meme page make Rs 20-30 lakh a month.
A meme page owner with 10 million followers charges Rs 30,000 per reel but prices go up 2.5x when the content is political.
From Swiggy Instamart to Zomato, several brands have taken the meme route to get the audiences' attention.
More brands are moving into meme marketing, with ad spending growth moving from single-digit levels when they first began dabbling in this pool to 30-40 percent currently.
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