Bud Light is looking to fill a novel corporate position: chief meme officer or CMO.
The new role will help pitch the brand's hard seltzer line in an increasingly crowded marketplace for bubbly, low-calorie alcoholic beverages.
"We have a great tasting hard seltzer and we just want to get the word out there, and we think a great way of doing it is by hiring a chief meme officer to create some great memes and some great sharable content," Conor Mason, senior director of digital for Bud Light, told Cheddar.
Social media firm Doing Things Media is helping Bud Light develop the CMO position, which will emphasize the importance of humor and positivity in product marketing.
"I think humor is more important than ever right now," said Todd Anderman, president of Doing Things Media. "We're going through such a challenging time in the world, and there's a lot of division, a lot of politics. If you look at your feed and look at everyone's individual feeds, there's not as much happiness as could be there."
The chief meme officer's job will be to "infuse a happy moment into someone's day," he added.
In many ways, consumers are meeting Bud Light halfway. Seltzer drinks already have a devoted following of customers, many of whom share their love of favorite drinks on social media.
"It's a category that now has mass awareness," Mason said. "Consumers are really picking it up at a rapid pace, and it's growing."
Now the goal is for Bud Light Seltzer to compete with established brands such as Truly, White Claw, and Bon V!V.
"Our goal, for now, is to get people to really just pick up the product and try it," Mason said.
Bud Light is accepting applications over the next few weeks. But don't expect a normal interview process. The brand is providing templates for applicants to test their meme-making skills.
Over 1,600 have applied so far, according to Mason.
"We're really just looking for originality and creativity," he said.
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