Instagram Thinks 2022 is the Year of Video Memes

But What is a Video Meme?

Today I learned that Instagram has a “Head of Memes.” Today I also learned that Meta/Instagram held MemeCon (called Global Meme Summit last year) on May 10. Bizarrely, I can’t find an official communication on a Meta or Instagram website, but according to Tubefilter and The Information, it did indeed happen.

I get why it’s happening. It feels like a push to get more creators to create Reels and bolster the ecosystem against TikTok, and Instagram is already a huge hub for static memes. But it feels weird that there aren’t any officials comms about MemeCon or this push. I wish some of the panels were recorded and shared. What type of content are they trying to promote?

At Kapwing, we helped proliferate the “video meme” over four years ago and have decided to broaden our target use case since then, and for good reason. I’d love to hear what Instagram considers a “video meme.” The reason memes proliferate so quickly is because of how easy it is to create them, you take a screenshot and you add text, images, emojis, etc. The same thing works for video memes - instead of an image you take a clip. Reddit is home to the majority of the internet’s video memes, but they don’t fall into Adam Mosseri’s definition of the future of video on Instagram (not 9:16).

Early Kapwing in 2017

So I’d love to know what Meta/Instagram considers a video meme, and what type of content they’d like to see more of on their platform. Is it the typical starwarsprequelmemes, where you take a movie or show clip and add text? Or is it like TikTok, where a “trend” or sound is like a video meme? I feel like that’s what they actually want, but they’re calling it a video meme. I dunno, but I’d like to know! If you or someone you know went, I’d love to hear about it!