There’s a rising demand for them in the film industry, politics and even in the hospitality sector

Political parties, social media firms and the entertainment industry in Tamil Nadu are head-hunting for a new kind of talent – meme engineers. These engineers work round the clock creating engaging content in the form of photo/ video memes. What’s more, they earn salaries on a par with IT employees.

“We put out a meme on social media saying we are looking for meme engineers and received over 100 resumes from across the State. We shortlisted the candidates based on creativity, passion for news and ability to think spontaneously,” said Lokesh Jey, CEO of The Sight Media, who coined the job title called ‘meme engineer’.

His take: “We have mechanical, civil, aviation and automobile engineers. We decided to create a post called meme engineer because people are expressing their views, ideas and opinions through memes.”

Hotels, malls, film industry, aviation and politics are some of the key sectors where meme engineers are much in demand. According to social media managers, on an average, 7-10 memes are created in an hour in Chennai. The number shoots up to even 500 on a politically happening day.

Promoting products

“Even big brands are approaching us saying that they want to promote their products through memes,” said a media planner, who wished to remain anonymous. “To execute this, we had to find a meme specialist part-time. If you browse any job site, it will throw up a lot of openings for meme specialists.”

P. Ram Kumar, founder, The Social Media Doode, said, “If you look at social media, the average age of the audience is less than 30. For them, a message communicated through a meme is more powerful than a huge statement.” Ram has a team called Meme Media Marketing. “There have been instances where we spot something really innovative on social media and we reach out to the person who posted it and offer a job,” he said.

Social media managers of the two big political parties in Tamil Nadu say they have an exclusive team that works only on memes. They go by the name of meme boys and not engineers. “If the opposition party communicates something, we try to counter attack with innovative memes. The boys in our team should know the film industry and politics well to work with us. They should also know to add the humour element in the photo and video,” said the social media manager of a party.

At the entry level, meme engineers earn anywhere between ₹5,000 to ₹18,000. “At times, it goes up to ₹25,000 per meme,” said Aspire K. Swaminathan, the former IT wing secretary of the AIADMK, who is now with the OPS camp.