XXX-X-XXXX-XXXX-X/XX/$XX.00 ©20XX IEEE The Implementation of Internet Memes to Build Brand Awareness of E-Commerce in Indonesia Elfira Fauziah Faculty of Computer Science Universitas Indonesia Depok, Indonesia elfira.fauziah@gmail.com Putu W. Handayani Faculty of Computer Science Universitas Indonesia Depok, Indonesia putu.wuri@cs.ui.ac.id Qorib Munajat Faculty of Computer Science Universitas Indonesia Depok, Indonesia qorib.munajat@cs.ui.ac.id Abstract— This study aims to assess the potential of memes to be used in advertising to improve the brand awareness of an Indonesian e- commerce business, Fabelio. The method used in this study is experimental - quantitative. The experiment was conducted using Instagram posts. To answer the research question, this study measured the memes virality and the brand awareness of the respondent. There are two respondent groups involved in this experiment which are respondents who follow Fabelio’s Instagram account (control group) and respondents who like the memes but do not follow Fabelio’s Instagram post (experimental group). The brand awareness level for both groups were compared using t-test. The result of this study shows that the brand awareness level of the experimental group is similar with the control group which shows that memes is as effective as traditional ads in improving the brand awareness. In addition, the type of meme that has the highest virality level is silliness and sarcasm type. This finding could be used as consideration for business to implement memes as form of ads. Keywords—Internet memes, brand awareness, virality, and e-commerce I. INTRODUCTION E-commerce business is getting more competitive each year. To win the competition of getting customers, e-commerce businesses are required to build a strong brand. The strong brand helps customers to decide which brand to buy. Furthermore, strong brand results in higher revenue streams for both short term and long term [1]. Strong brand is often measured by brand awareness as it is one of the key determinants in brand equity [2]. Therefore, it is important for business to improve brand awareness since it can affect consumer in making a purchase decision [3]. To boost brand awareness, advertising (ads) is one of common methods used in business. Ads nowadays can be performed in various mediums and in various forms. Regarding the medium, social media is becoming more popular for ads as indicated by increasing budget of social media ads [4]. Regarding form, humor is one of the form that is frequently used in ads. Humor is commonly contained in ads it has been used in ads on TV, magazine, radio, and online ads. Humor is used in ads as it is believed that humor would attract more attention from the audiences because it has a persuasive effect [5]. Humor can loosen the resistance of audiences in accepting the information. Humor in ads is also claimed to increase preference and create positive moods of the audience. Although the usage of humor in ads is a common practice [6], the humor itself is a complex topic that has been studied for ages. The effectiveness of humor in ads is affected by two factors: humor relatedness and humor complexity [5]. Before we decide to add humor in ads, we should decide what the communication goals are, which type of humor that will be used, what medium that will be used, what message that will be sent, what product that will be advertised and who will be the right audience. Therefore, study of humor in ads is important especially with the widespread of internet that influence the evolution of humor. In Internet era, the form of humor is changing. Internet meme or meme is one form of humor that emerges and popular due to Internet. Davidson defined an internet meme as a piece of culture, typically a joke, which gains influence through an online transmission. The meme was first defined as a unit of conceptual replication which identifies topics, ideas that spread through a culture [8]. By years later the definition of memes has evolved. Meme is defined as a piece