Of Modi, memes and moolah: June 4 turns a busy day for meme makers

Memes flooded the internet on Lok Sabha 2024 election results day.

Meme creators didn't have a busier day in recent past than June 4, when the world's largest democracy decreed in favour of the Narendra Modi regime for the third time in a row.

"On any average day, close to 1 lakh memes get shared from our platforms to other places. This number crossed 2.7 lakh on June 4 and 5," said Taaran Chanana, who founded meme platform MemeChat.

The counting day was nothing short of a thriller and memes jumped to capture the mood of the nation, made people's day with hilarious digs on the election results.

Scenes from recently released web series Panchayat on Prime Video flooded social media. One scene in particular from the show became more popular featuring two of its characters discussing whether they should order another cup of tea in order to enjoy the drama that unfolds at the Panchayat office. A scene from the movie Phir Hera Pheri, where actor Paresh Rawal says, "Mereko toh aisa dhak dhak horela hai? (I feel jittery)", was another favourite of meme creators, bringing out the sentiment of netizens.

Traction on MemeChat jumped around three-fold on the election results day. "Since the battle was nail-biting and going on till the very last minute, people were constantly making memes on win/lose situation of both parties and the future ahead. For example, the voting results of Uttar Pradesh alone landed about 10,000 memes. The traction was huge, since this election was more about the social media game of both the parties. The impact of memes and digital media was next level. From political parties to teenagers to corporate companies, everyone was involved in engaging or re-sharing meme content on their socials," he said.

The Lok Sabha elections emerged as one of the biggest events for meme creators with over 50,000 meme creators making close to Rs 3 lakh on MemeChat in a month, said Chanana.

"The cost (of making memes) was actually lesser because of the quantity of content flooding in, but of course since the numbers were heavy, it landed up to a good total cost. Such events are historic for Indian markets, hence, it's a spectacle to watch. Previously, we saw similar engagements during World Cup and lockdown announcement," he said.

Other meme platforms too remained busy with hundreds of funny memes on the 2024 Lok Sabha election results storming the cyber space.

"June 4 was an eventful day as the trends kept on swinging both ways. That is why the frequency of posting was much higher than usual. We had to post 50 percent more content on the result day in comparison to our normal days. The traction is always higher on events like these because of the increased sharing. Since we posted not only for one but every party and every candidate, their support base was quick to jump on the bandwagon and share our content with our followers. This is why the engagement remained high throughout the day," said Gourav Gola, co-founder, Growth Jet Media, a marketing firm that also runs meme pages.

The deeper engagements ostensibly led to deeper pockets. "Political campaigns allow us to earn more, however, it also results in losing some followers, because supporters sometimes unfollow us after seeing the content. The cost is almost double when it comes to political posting. We have run campaigns that made us around Rs 50 lakh," Gola said.

Archit Madaan, co-founder of The Indian Sarcasm, a platform where creators post memes, news, do the fact-checking, also saw high traction.

"Millions of memes were created and the traction was pretty good as it is the quickest source of information for GenZ (people born between 1997 and 2012) and youth," he said.

Memes are a type of content like a picture, video or a phrase, that is often humorous, are getting monetisation opportunities for their content.

"In India, on an average, a meme page with about 1 million followers can easily earn up to Rs 5-10 lakh a month. Generally, we are not paid per post but we are paid for the campaigns that we run. If we have to post 100 carousel or single posts for a campaign then it earns us about Rs 3.5 lakh a month, taking a single post costs up to Rs 3,500," Gola said.

He highlighted that freelance content creators design content and platforms like NW Network that run meme pages act as content distributors, disseminating the content worldwide.

Gola added that although life of memes is short-lived, the traction and engagement it generates through its impact is unmatchable to any other form of marketing.

Brands pay in lakhs to meme creators to create and distribute their content, said Chanana.

"Meme creators on our platform make anything between Rs 5,000 and Rs 50,000 a month, depending on how big they are on other social media platforms. A new creator can easily start earning a quick pocket money and lead his way up to a livelihood once a good following is built," he said.