Why Marketing That Includes Cats And Bacon Is The Cat’s Meow

Why Cats and Bacon Are A Totally Pawsome Meow-kating Success!

If you've spend any time on social networks in the last 5 years, chances are you've seen first hand the immense popularity of anything and everything that includes cats and bacon. We could spend quite some time breaking down the science behind why cute little kitties and mouth watering bacon are so universally share-worthy, but in the words of Einstein, "If you can't explain it simply, you don't know it well enough." So, simply speaking, the secret behind the incredibly online popularity of cats and bacon is….

Cats are cute and bacon tastes good.

Meow that you know the truth, you may be wondering what to do with this information if you aren't in the business of cats and bacon. Don't worry, there are plenty of ways you can integrate these popular memes into your small business marketing plan (besides just serving bacon during client meetings. Though, obviously, we would totally recommend that.)

Here are 3 ways you can incorporate the magic known as Cats and Bacon into your brands marketing!

1. Organically Incorporate Them Into Your Current Branding

This tip can be very easily execute with a little imagination. Think about your product or industry and think about any possible way your product or its users could come into contact with cats or bacon. Then create an image around that idea which is relevant to your typical marketing or branding. For instance, you may not instantly relate cats to pizza, but Pizza Hut certainly found an easy (and cute) way to do it!

This ad by Pizza Hut is both simple and somewhat plausible – this could easily be your living room, your pizza, and your cat! You want to try a want to integrate these popular images into your campaign in a way that seems natural and organic, not forced. The key is to find a way that makes you look witty and intelligent for incorporating them into your marketing, instead of looking desperate by capitalizing on popular iconography by any means necessary.

2. Capitalize On Common Emotions Or Traits Associated With Them

As we already discussed, cats are cute and bacon is delicious (really REALLY delicious). So why not use these positive feelings to your advantage? For instance, take a look at this clever campaign by The Marketing Agents. Something is MORE seductive than bacon? Wow. It MUST be worth checking out.

Zyrtec-D also did a great job incorporating our famous feline friends into their anti-allergy campaign. Who doesn't love to pet cats? I don’t even like cats, and I like this ad. It’s hard to say no to something that cute and fluffy and now part of me wants to buy allergy medicine. Note: Along with not liking cats, I also don’t have allergies. That’s how powerful cat marketing is, my friends.

3. 3. Use Humor

Using cats and bacon within your marketing strategy is all about recognizing the emotions they stir up in people. Nostalgic memories of your mother cooking you breakfast, your first cat named Simba that waited for you every day after school, etc. These are positive, good feelings humans naturally gravitate to. The same goes with humor. People love funny! So why not incorporate feel good nostalgia with a bit of funny for the ultimate marketing campaign? Well, Enfapro Powdered Milk did just that. (Bonus points for the baby angle, Enfapro. That’s like a trifecta of marketing genius!)

Via digitalsherpa.com

Speaking of marketing genius, check out this ad from Scope that went viral earlier this year. Scope released this popular tongue in cheek (tongue in bacon?) ad earlier this year on April 1st, and encouraged sharing the joke with the hashtag #ScopeBacon. This is a great example of a serious brand not taking themselves too seriously; so don’t be afraid to follow suit! No one lost respect for Scope, the product wasn’t devalued by using bacon infused humor, and they probably actually gained a legion of new, pro-bacon fans.

Note: No cats were harmed in the making of this blog post. However, we can't say the same for bacon.