Laszlo's presentation at the CEU Business School's NYC Modul, 6/10, 2014.

1. Presented by
B. Lazlo Karafiath, CEO
11.19.13
10 Rules of Memetic Marketing
A surprising journey into the world of memes
Presented By:
Balazs Laszlo Karafiath
Producer
CultureCulture Inc.
CEU BS NYC Modul
New York City, 6/10/14

2. 22
CultureCulture Inc.
! We use
Meme Science
for True Listening.
We find new
patterns & predict
what is possible.

3. 3
Our Partners
¤ Change-makers: enlightened leaders
of companies, political organizations,
communities, working toward
the global mind-shift
¤ Creating Shared Value
¤ Social responsibility
¤ Collective impact
¤ Sustainability
¤ Social potential
¤ Climate change
¤ Conscious co-evolution
Parent
Project:
re-­‐design
the
the
culture
around
learning
disabili5es
Sustainable
Brands
Conf.:
the
Sustainability
Meme
Research
/The
Rules:
re-­‐framing
the
global
poverty
debate
IWA
Interna5onal
Water
Associa5on:
re-­‐thinking
the
global
communica5on
around
water
JuniperPath:
spreading
the
memes
of
medita5on

4. 4
“Culture eats
strategy for
breakfast.” !
– Peter Drucker!

5. We are cultural designers.
We all are.
One billion of us.
We create our world through
thoughts.
We can change what is
possible.
It’s not about ‘going viral’.
It’s about changing the
collective mind.
Meme change is individual.
Behavior change is social.

6. 6
„Freedom
torches”
Edward Bernays, 1929!
“The
Business of
Doubt” !

10. erős
erős
nemzet forint

11. 11
Waves of Culture
splash
surf
shape
Memes as waves are our cultural life force,
they generate the flow of our thoughts&ideas.

12. 12
Memes are Cultural Genes
Memes as particles
The idea molecules
Essentially: memes are the DNA of culture,
business, communication & technology.
networks
+ memes
= spreading

13. 13
Culture is an Ecosystem
Ideas
Thoughts
Gossips
Theories
Opinions
Beliefs
Views
Behaviors Technologies
Clues
We don’t have common thoughts – we have common memes.
The meme is not the thought,
but whatever gets through to you hearing my thought.

14. 14
Memes in Minds
archetypes
memes
quotes
thoughts

15. 15
Memes Create Megamemes
Ancient gods
Hermes
Zeus
Apollo
Cultural Icons
Sherlock Holmes
Batman
Pac-Man
Brands
Coca Cola
Citibank
Facebook
…what we worship

16. 16
Recent Cultural Waves

17. 17
The Sharing meme?

18. 18
No meme-center to spread
OCCUPY SHARINGvs

20. Symbiotic MemesDefining MemesHostile Memes
Memes that cannot
be fought with the
“memetic immune
system” of our own
meme.
Memes that define
your meme from
the negative or
shadow side.
Memes of the
external world
that threaten
the existence
of your meme.
Memes that
undermine or
inhibit the
spread of your
meme.
Parasitic Memes
Memes which depend on
our meme for their
existence & spreading.
Memes that
specifically
define your
meme. Your
‘forté’.
The memes that
differentiate
you from any
other meme
construct.
Reinforcing and
complementary
memes that exist
together with
your meme.
The blue ocean
of memes.
Integrate many
of them.
Shadow Memes
Culture2 Meme Ecology
©2004-2014 Darwin’s Marketing Evolution, Budapest – Culture2 Inc., San Francisco

21. 1. Cultural Evolution. There is a paralel evolution that is
going on, darwinian selection in culture and technology,
and it does not favors the genes of humans.
2. Culture is physical. There is an interconnectedness that
creates a media-meme-mind space that you can regard as
a biological system, an eco-system.
3. Find your niche and grow it. Learn your memetic makup
and control your meme. Otherwise others will.
4. Marketing as „gardening” & Epidemiology. The key is to
indentify the „cultural genes” of your message, and then
start the evolutionary development: design, spread, refine.
5. We are equipped with the Big Brain, full of mirror neurons,
humans think about other humans! And 90+% of consumer
behavior is imitation, what spreads with imitation can be
called a meme.
21

22. 6. Memes spread in networks, humans live and think in
social networks. There are hubs and treshold effect. There
are differences between humans by the quantity and the
quality of their connections (Gladwell) in the social network.
We all do social grooming in villages of 150 (Dunbar)
7. We are tribal. We think in in-groups and out-groups. People
will connect with the memes of the product and will stay for
the community. They will join your tribe – or won’t.
8. Archetypes rule memes. Human biases, the hero’s
journey, the cognitive dissonance reduction, emotions, the
environment around memes in the mind.
9. Ego is a memetic construct, it is a narrative
10. Emergence. That is the holy grail. Our consciousness
explained. New stories grow. The ant and the anthill.
Swarming. If it emerged, it is too late.
22

23. 23
Insights & Surprises
• Why we should stop
spreading the meme of
climate change?
• Is Coca-Cola the next
Philip Morris?
• Is make-up about beauty?

24. Culture2 Inc. presents
Analysis of the
Coca-Cola Meme
on Twitter
A QUICK RESEARCH REPORT

25. Somebody please tell me:
why am I suddenly in love
with the song on the
cocacola commercial?
World of coca cola is
an amazing museum
and entertainment.
Coca Cola supports animal
abuse! Help stop this!
People are using Coca-
Cola to clean their
toilets and saying it
works really well.
5000+ memes collected from tweets in Aug, 2012
I like your lips like I like
my Coca-Cola, yeah. Oh
how it pops and fizzes
Your nails
would
dissolve in a
cup of Coca-
Cola in about
4 days.
Coca-Cola played both
sides during World
War Two, they
supported the
American troops but
also kept making soda
for the Nazis.I hate when people ask dumb
questions like "Why do you smoke
kush", I usually answer with "Why
do you drink coca cola? my dads
insane, they
say im to
blame & my
brothers on
the coca-cola.
Can I have a
Coca-Cola
Please? Is
Pepsi ok? Is
monopoly
money ok?
When it originally appeared in 1886 -
Coca Cola was billed as an "Esteemed
Brain Tonic and Intellectual Beverage".
That guy who found a
condom in a coke bottle,
should be thanking
cocacola for protecting
him from cancer.
Coca-Cola Company
sponsors 100 students for a
summer entrepreneurship
Coca Cola and Ice,
admit it, no matter
what your age it's
always been one of
the best things ever. I'm chilln like
a polar bear in
a coca-cola
commercial...

26. • The following slides showcase the results of the memetic discovery and
details the perception of the Coca-Cola meme in the mind-space of the
tweeters in August, 2012.
• This is a preliminary report. The full report mapping the meme space
will include language guidelines, messaging recommendations,
communication strategy suggestions about how to build a better meme
Culture2 methodology and results

27. Prestige
Hatred - Love
Emotions
Low – High
Sincerity
Cultic
Legends – Facts
Dishonest – Honest
Meme Dimensions of Coca Cola
• Four memetic dimensions were found that explain 62% of the variance
among the memes (this is good, textbooks say that above 60% is fine)
• All the four dimensions were quite well interpretable
• These are the drivers of the perception for Coca Cola
32%
13%
9%
8%

28. Weighted
Sta5s5cs
for
Meme
Dimensions
0
-­‐100%
+100%
Dishonest
Honest
Hatred
Love
Low
High
Emo5ons
Facts
Legends
Pres5ge
Cul5c
Sincerity
• Coca
Cola
is
more
loved
than
hated,
in
spite
of
the
many
hatred
memes
• According
to
the
memes,
its
pres8ge
is
rela8vely
lower
than
how
much
it
is
loved
(posi8ve
emo8ons
more
influen8al
than
cogni8ve
aspects)
• It
is
accompanied
more
by
‘legend
memes’
than
by
‘fact
memes’
• In
spite
of
the
love,
it
is
considered
rather
dishonest.
This
is
a
very
real
mid-­‐
to
long-­‐term
risk.
The
Coke-­‐meme
can
flip!
Dimension:

29. Take-­‐Aways
The
meme
landscape
for
Coke
is
deeply
ambivalent
and
conflicted…
crea5ng
uncertainty
and
risk
about
its
future
prospects
as
a
global
brand.
• Look
for
the
8pping
points
in
culture.
At
these
resonance
point
culture
will
change
• Here
one
can
create
a
mul8plier
effect,
these
points
act
like
meme
aGractors.
• Memes
can’t
be
stopped
but
the
memespace
can
be
altered
• Meme8c
fitness
is
important,
contextual
consistency
is
crucial,
good
memes
fit
their
informa8onal
environment
• If
you
don’t
control
your
own
meme
somebody
else
will
try!

30. People
have
no
direct
experience
with
climate
change.
It
is
not
an
object
they
can
touch
to
confirm
that
it
is
real.
And
so
it
only
lives
in
the
minds
of
people
as
an
idea
–
a
very
threatening
idea!
THE CLIMATE MEME RESEARCH

31. • Some
people
have
been
“infected”
with
the
global
warming
meme.
• Their
minds
then
tried
to
fight
it
off
by
either
ac8vely
denying
the
meme’s
existence
or
striving
to
rid
the
world
of
it
• Both
of
these
groups
represent
a
small
percentage
of
the
larger
society.
• The
majority
of
society
have
not
been
infected.

32. If
you
think
the
economy
is
more
important
than
the
environment,
try
holding
your
breath
while
coun5ng
your
money.
Friends
don’t
let
friends
date
climate
change
deniers…
“I’m
definitely
going
to
change
this
year.”
-­‐-­‐
Climate
Happy
to
agree
that
climate
change
exists.
Not
sure
if
reality
exists
though.
We
began
with
5000+
memes
from
TwiZer
and
harvested
during
MemeHunter
Hackathons
in
San
Francisco
and
SeaZle.
Global
warming
=
the
result
of
the
sun
trying
to
give
the
earth
a
hug.
Global
warming
is
increasing
UM
NO!!!!
We
cannot
control
the
weather
The
most
effec5ve
green
house
gas
is
not
carbon
dioxide,
but
water
vapor.
The
trend
of
co2
in
the
atmosphere
is
following
the
rise
in
temperature,
not
the
other
way
around.
If
climate
scien5sts
find
any
evidence
of
global
warming
then
their
funding
throughout
eternity
will
be
assured.
It
would
be
great
if
assault
rifles
could
shoot
climate
change…
The
Doha
climate
conference
made
more
hot
air
than
global
warming
Remember
when
a
Tornado
was
just
a
Tornado
and
not
a
commercial
for
global
warming?
One
of
the
main
weapons
of
the
power
elite
is
climate
change.
People
are
supposed
to
be
panicked…
If
we
all
just
got
real,
as
a
culture,
then
we
would
fix
it…
Don’t
believe
in
climate
change,
rap
fans?
Tell
that
to
Vanilla
Slush,
Water
Cube,
and
LL
Warm
J.
Adjust
your
spine,
adjust
your
actude.

33. Meme Dimensions of Climate Change
•
Five
dimensions
were
found
that
explain
63%
of
the
variance
among
the
memes
(this
is
good,
textbooks
say
above
60%
is
fine)
•
All
five
dimensions
can
be
interpreted
clearly
to
reveal
strategic
insights
•
These
are
the
drivers
of
percep5on
for
climate
change
17%
15%
12%
11%
8%
Harmony
Disharmony
—
Harmony
Survival
Ex5nc5on
—
Survival
Coopera5on
Disintegra5on
—
Unity
Momentum
Stall
—
Advance
Eli5sm
Populist
—
Vanguard

34. The
popula8on
infected
by
the
ClimateMeme
virus
represent
about
5%
of
humanity.
Whatever
messaging
worked
to
infect
them
will
not
work
on
the
larger
popula8on.
We
need
to
discover
how
they
differ
from
the
mainstream
popula8on
to
design
different
messaging
strategies
for
the
rest
of
society.
All
People
Infected
Popula8on

35. 35
It only creates anxiety!
• Are we out of
harmony with nature?
• Is it going to kill off
everyone we ever
loved?
• Does this mean
there’s something
wrong with us?
• Do we have the
power of gods to
shape the planet in
such profound ways?
It’s good it doesn’t spread!

36. 3636
It reached the minority…
Images from Archetypes in Branding by Margaret Hartwell

37. 3737
It reached the minority…
archetypes
reached &
activated:
hero, outlaw,
warrior,
explorer,
adventurer,
pioneer
Images from Archetypes in Branding by Margaret Hartwell

38. 3838
The majority is not activated
archetypes not
reached/activated:
innocent (+others
from the majority:
everyman, citizen...)
Images from Archetypes in Branding by Margaret Hartwell

39. 39
Challenges to core beliefs

40. • New dissemination strategies
• Work with memes that live
• Work with monies that are out there
• Build bridges between memes and networks
• Sometimes invisible bridges
Our strategy is to finance spreading of existing memes
in the heartland of America by existing donors on the
bi-coastal bubble.
Example: www.creationcare.org
40

41. 41

42. 42
Belief: System: Change
You never change things by fighting the existing
reality. To change something, build a new model
that makes the existing model obsolete.
– R. Buckminster Fuller
“
”

43. B. Lazlo Karafiath, CEO
lazlo@culture2.com
facebook/culture2.com twitter.com/culture2 www.culture2.com
Our Memes Thank You for Your Attention!
facebook.com/culture2inc twitter.com/culture2inc www.culture2inc.com
Balazs Laszlo Karafiath
laszlo@culture2inc.com
CultureCulture Inc.