Mediacorp hunts for a meme-in-chief to sit under digital marketing

Mediacorp is on the lookout for a meme-in-chief, otherwise known as social community manager. According to its Facebook post, the appointed individual will be tasked to curate and create memes and manage its social media channels. The individual should be someone who is highly creative and spontaneous, the post added.  At the time of writing, the post has garnered 98 positive reactions, 372 shares, and 164 comments. Among the comments were mainly netizens encouraging their friends to apply for the position, as well as some cheeky responses to the job posting in- yes, you guessed it- memes. For those still wondering, a meme in this context refers to an image, video, or text created that is humorous in nature, and shared widely on social media and the internet. 

The position will be under Mediacorp's digital marketing unit, which is part of Mediacorp’s marketing and communications team. The team is led by Oliver Chong (pictured), head of marketing and communications at Mediacorp. The Mediacorp spokesperson also said that the launch of the meme-in-chief role is the company's latest milestone to create personalised "Made For You" experiences designed around consumers’ preferences and consumption habits. "In hiring a meme specialist, we are putting a new spin on Mediacorp content by turning them into memes to engage with social media-savvy audiences," the spokesperson added.

Meanwhile, Chong said the Memediacorp initiative aims to enable the media company to engage with younger audiences in ways that "naturally appeal" to them. It also looks to show that the company does not mind taking itself less seriously sometimes, by leveraging its own proprietary content for memes.

“Memediacorp is about taking what you know about Mediacorp and putting a lighthearted spin on it. After all, we’re in the business of entertainment," Chong added. True to its job title, Mediacorp has asked interested applicants to apply for the position by creating a meme from any of its content drama productions. 

Mediacorp is not the only company looking for a meme creator recently. In the United States, beer company Budweiser is also looking for a "chief meme officer" for its Bud Light Seltzer portfolio. In a press release, Budweiser's parent company, Anheuser-Busch, said that "a hard seltzer is only as good as its memes" and that the brand wants to bring their creative to the next level. Therefore, the brand will be recruiting the best "memers" to join the brand’s marketing team for the next three months to help curate "epic Bud Light Seltzer memes".

Separately in January last year, Facebook was looking to launch a feed of memes called "LOL" in a bid to target the younger generation of users. The memes comes in the form of videos and GIFs. In a statement to Marketing then, a Facebook spokesperson said that the team was running a small scale test and the concept was in the early stages. Facebook declined to comment on which markets the new offering will be launched in and the reason behind the launch. 

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