Is it legal for brands to use memes?
The latest news from StreamAlive and the world of online, offline, and hybrid live events.
Hi there!
In this newsletter…
Why we didn’t announce our recent ProductHunt launch
Why meme marketing (probably) isn’t legal for brands
Get up to $100 when you refer a friend
We launched our Chrome Extension on Product Hunt - but didn’t tell anyone
You’ve all seen the emails and social media posts:
“We’re launching on ProductHunt, please support us (ie. vote for us!)”
And yes, we’ve sent our share of “we’re launching on ProductHunt” 🙈
But this time we didn’t announce anything. We quietly launched our new StreamAlive Chrome Extension on ProductHunt and didn’t go out to seek ‘support’.
This is because of something we wrote about a few months ago after we launched the StreamAlive app for Zoom on ProductHunt.
We were so put-off by the bargaining and underhand tactics that are now being employed to gain upvotes.
It’s turned ProductHunt into a cash for votes platform instead of a place where meritocracy allows the best apps of the day to rise to the top.
The moment your product is listed, you are bombarded by people messaging and emailing you promising hundreds of ‘real’ votes in exchange for cash.
So we said that we’re not going to play that game anymore.
Then why did we still do a ProductHunt launch?
Two reasons:
Deadlines
User feedback
We love deadlines 😱
To launch a product on PH you need to create a bunch of marketing material. If you have a self-imposed deadline (ie. we’re going to launch this on PH on this date), then everyone becomes focused on creating the content for that deadline.
Anything that comes up that might side track the team gets put to one side.
To be ready for a product launch you need to have:
A description of your product, what it is, how it works, and who it’s for
A video demo of your product so people can see it in action
A self-guided demo of your product (we use LayerPath)
Screenshots to create a slideshow on the benefits your product has
A landing page for your product
It turns out that creating this content is super-useful for on-going marketing for your product.
So if it has been created, there’s no harm in publishing it all on ProductHunt as it’s free to do a launch.
But we love feedback more ❤️
The second reason for doing a ‘silent’ launch on PH is for feedback.
Sure, most of the comments now are AI-generated variations of the product description, but we’ve also had some incredibly useful and insightful comments.
Those comments have turned into new users, new features, and ideas for our roadmap.
It’s a great way to connect with people who are genuinely interested in new technologies and tools, and I don’t know of any other site quite like it.
There’s a lot that has gone wrong with ProductHunt, but there are still some core elements in place that made it such a success in the first place.
For these reasons, we’re going to continue silently launching our new apps, plugins, and extensions on ProductHunt.
Meme marketing, brands, and legality
We had a fantastic time in San Francisco at TechCrunch Disrupt and loved meeting fellow entrepreneurs and early-stage founders.
The energy in the room was electrifying, with everyone trying to make the world a better place in their own little way.
(Yes, that is a Silicon Valley reference!).
We thought a lot about doing giveaways at the event but in the end decided on making postcards with memes that might resonate with presenters, educators, and streamers.
That decision took us down a whole new rabbit hole.
It turns out that creating a meme for a brand is not as straightforward as you might expect.
All the popular meme images use copyrighted photos or stills from TV shows or movies that are copyrighted.
And stock photo sites like Getty are not shy about coming after you with a bill for hundreds of dollars for using one of their photos.
As a company, this means you can’t use them without buying a license to the image.
(The picture is a bit muddier around individuals sharing these images, but unless you’re using the image to generate revenue or promote your brand, you’re probably fine).
That meant going on Canva and using their huge library of meme templates (thanks, Canva!) to create alternative images to popular memes.
Luckily, we think the legally created memes came out great! People loved them, and lingered and smiled over them.
Now, here’s a few pics of our stand and the team at the event.
Give your friend 10% off StreamAlive, you get up to $100
We now have a way for you to gift your friends (colleagues, acquaintances, peers, social media followers, etc.) 10% off when they upgrade to any paid plan on StreamAlive.
As a thank you for referring your network, we’ll give you a 20% recurring commission of up to $100 on each user that you refer.
Our referral programme is open to every StreamAlive user (get your free account if you don’t already have one).
How to get started
Login to your account, find the Refer a friend option in the menu and you’ll get your unique referral link that you can share.
Good to know…
The referral programme is open to anyone who can accept PayPal or Venmo payments.
You’ll be paid at the end of each month for the previous month’s commissions
You can use your referral link on social media, in private message groups, on your website, or anywhere else you have an audience.
Got any questions? Email us hi@streamalive.com
Catch us on our social pages
If you haven’t already, check out our social media pages to stay updated on our quirky takes on the latest social media trends and the occasional piece of engagement-related advice.
All the best,
Peter and the StreamAlive team