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Please Like and Share With Your Friends: An Investigation of Humour Styles and Consumer Engagement in Meme Marketing

Shahbaz, Alek LU and Braubach, Aaron Kyle LU (2026) BUSN39 20261
Department of Business Administration
Abstract
In the contemporary marketing era dominated by social media, internet memes have emerged as a powerful tool for brands to generate consumer engagement. Memes successfully combine two important entertainment aspects: culture and humour. Whether and how different humour styles lead to greater engagement for brand memes has remained relatively unexplored. Therefore, we investigate this using today’s most popular media format, short-form videos. Specifically, we analyse memetic Instagram Reels posted by brands to explore potential differences between the effectiveness of varying humour styles, while uncovering the underlying mechanisms that contribute to their ability to elicit likes, comments, and shares. Through the application of Cue... (More)
In the contemporary marketing era dominated by social media, internet memes have emerged as a powerful tool for brands to generate consumer engagement. Memes successfully combine two important entertainment aspects: culture and humour. Whether and how different humour styles lead to greater engagement for brand memes has remained relatively unexplored. Therefore, we investigate this using today’s most popular media format, short-form videos. Specifically, we analyse memetic Instagram Reels posted by brands to explore potential differences between the effectiveness of varying humour styles, while uncovering the underlying mechanisms that contribute to their ability to elicit likes, comments, and shares. Through the application of Cue Utilization Theory, different humour theories, and Schema Theory, we contend that self-defeating humour is the most effective humour style because it acts as an intrinsic cue that signals authenticity and relatability. In line with previous studies regarding memes on different platforms, we show that self-defeating humour significantly elicits the highest engagement rates. Furthermore, we build upon the existing research by discovering that authenticity and relatability mediate the relationship between self-defeating humour and consumer engagement. Our findings contribute to the growing literature on meme marketing and provide brand managers with a new understanding of how to effectively utilise memes for communicating on social media. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Shahbaz, Alek LU and Braubach, Aaron Kyle LU
supervisor
organization
course
BUSN39 20261
year
type
H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
subject
keywords
Meme marketing, memes, humour, Cue Utilization Theory, self-defeating humour, authenticity, relatability
language
English
id
9240396
date added to LUP
2026-06-22 15:33:52
date last changed
2026-06-22 15:33:52
@misc{9240396,
  abstract     = {{In the contemporary marketing era dominated by social media, internet memes have emerged as a powerful tool for brands to generate consumer engagement. Memes successfully combine two important entertainment aspects: culture and humour. Whether and how different humour styles lead to greater engagement for brand memes has remained relatively unexplored. Therefore, we investigate this using today’s most popular media format, short-form videos. Specifically, we analyse memetic Instagram Reels posted by brands to explore potential differences between the effectiveness of varying humour styles, while uncovering the underlying mechanisms that contribute to their ability to elicit likes, comments, and shares. Through the application of Cue Utilization Theory, different humour theories, and Schema Theory, we contend that self-defeating humour is the most effective humour style because it acts as an intrinsic cue that signals authenticity and relatability. In line with previous studies regarding memes on different platforms, we show that self-defeating humour significantly elicits the highest engagement rates. Furthermore, we build upon the existing research by discovering that authenticity and relatability mediate the relationship between self-defeating humour and consumer engagement. Our findings contribute to the growing literature on meme marketing and provide brand managers with a new understanding of how to effectively utilise memes for communicating on social media.}},
  author       = {{Shahbaz, Alek and Braubach, Aaron Kyle}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Please Like and Share With Your Friends: An Investigation of Humour Styles and Consumer Engagement in Meme Marketing}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}