An 'Internet Meme' is today's equivalent of the overly Xeroxed piece of paper containing a cartoon or joke passed along from hand to hand. In my profession during the late 1980s, it was usually a print or type salesperson who propagated the message from one office to another.

The introduction of the Internet version of this phenomenon has been traced back to the June 1993 issue of Wired magazine. By now, anyone with even a little social media experience will quickly understand the meaning of the term, Internet Meme.

In mid-2019, versions of the "Woman Yelling at a Cat" meme featuring, on the left panel, Taylor Armstrong and Kyle Richards, cast members of "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills." The right panel features "Smudge The Cat," seated at a table in front of a salad plate. This scene combination has provided a canvas for hundreds of versions, altered by individuals from around the globe, and cast out into viral cyber-space.

It was longtime EYMER BRAND Laboratories + Think Tank client, David Meerman Scott, who first introduced me to the phrase he coined, Newsjacking. As you will see on David's Newsjacking website, Newsjacking is the art and science of injecting your ideas into a breaking news story and generating tons of media coverage and social media engagement.

For local sporting goods retailer, The Good Sport, we decided that it might stir up some interest if we were to take both concepts and develop a Memejacking Campaign featured on The Good Sport's Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter feeds.

This social media laboratory experiment has been enormously successful in the responses that it has generated. Since our initial post late last week, there has been a constant buzz of activity, which is sure to increase in-store traffic, ultimately leading to a hugely successful holiday season for the area's favorite local sporting goods retailer!