Virality and Memes: How Disney’s Baby Yoda Achieved Overnight Meme-Stardom

Going viral isn’t random, magic, or luck. It’s a science.

Jonah Berger

At some point, we’ve indulged ourselves by browsing memes or have seen how things posted on the internet become viral overnight. I feel that this aspect of virality has only become more potent with the dawn of social media, where things such as images, videos, people, topics, and items can take up the front stage of social media overnight.

One of the most popular topics that went viral last year was the ‘Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us’ event made on Facebook, which spawned forth many memes and merchandise that were then shared and sold through Facebook and on other social media platforms.

When I think of virality, the first thing that comes to mind is how fast something can proliferate onto almost every social media platform, and even mainstream media. Sometimes, virality is engineered whereas sometimes virality can come as a surprise. I feel that as a marketer, the concept of virality can be used as a powerful marketing tool to create buzz and demand for a certain product or service. In addition to virality, I feel that ‘mainstream’ memes are also intrinsically tied to virality. For a meme to become mainstream, it must first fulfill the aspects of virality.

In my opinion, an individual is more likely to share content (for it to gain traction and become viral) if it is something; that they can relate to, evokes positive emotions (amusement, happiness, excitement, surprise), and has novelty (new or unusual). This is where social media plays an important part in virality, as a tool to help the spread of content. Therefore, the perfect combination of memes and virality through social media can yield some very promising and profitable results for a marketer.

Meet Baby Yoda, the breakout character and meme took the Internet by storm at the end of 2019. The character appears in Disney’s newest Star Wars web television series, streamed exclusively through Disney+ (Disney’s streaming service), The Mandalorian. Officially, the character is named ‘The Child’, however he has been nicknamed by both fans and media alike as ‘Baby Yoda’. Baby Yoda has been attributed as one of the key parts in the success of The Mandalorian and Disney+, and has also been quickly cemented as a lovable character in pop culture and memes, having 2.28 million tweets featuring the words ‘Baby Yoda’ between 12 November and 5 December in 2019.

However, Baby Yoda’s success was not anticipated by the directors and marketing team of Disney’s The Mandalorian as the character was kept a secret and was only officially addressed on social media a week after the series debut, to avoid any spoilers regarding the reveal of the character. The directors had wanted Baby Yoda to be a surprise to viewers, however Baby Yoda’s fame has eclipsed that of his franchise. Disney’s marketing team was taken aback by the overnight fame of Baby Yoda, and was not prepared for the market demand for Baby Yoda themed merchandise. Due to the secrecy surrounding Baby Yoda as a character, products themed after the character were withheld months before the release of the series.

I feel that Disney’s marketing team, despite knowing the success and revenue Baby Yoda would bring them, should had not withheld producing Baby Yoda merchandise. A huge opportunity was lost due to the massive demand for Baby Yoda merchandise for Christmas 2019. In addition, it has been estimated that Disney lost around $2.7 million USD in revenue the delayed release of merchandise. Due to the scarcity of Baby Yoda merchandise in 2019, many unlicensed products were created and sold online, prompting Disney to issue many takedown notices due to copyright violations. As a marketing student, I felt that Disney should had taken the viral potential of Baby Yoda and make a strategic marketing move to secure greater revenue by releasing official Baby Yoda merchandise in sync with the launch of the Mandalorian.

With the high penetration of memes and virality through social media platforms, do you feel that memes can benefit marketers and companies? How else can marketers use memes to appeal to masses by being something that they can relate to, invokes positive emotions, and posses some quality of novelty? As social media is here to stay, do you feel that marketers should take virality seriously? Share your thoughts in the comments!