Marketing professionals often shy away from using humour in campaigns. The general thinking is that funny marketing is risky and is best left for brands with nothing to lose.
But that is not true.
Almost any brand can leverage the power of humor to increase audience appeal and drive sales. However, it is important to understand the implications of humorous marketing before launching a campaign.
This article will explore the link between humour and marketing and discuss best practices for using this marketing tactic.
Five Reasons to Use Humour in Marketing
Here are five ways creating laughter-worthy marketing content can help your brand:
Grabs Buyers’ Attention
The marketplace is now very saturated with far more products and companies than we had 20 years ago. Brands must cut through the noise and grab the customer’s attention — or they risk losing out to competitors.
Think of brands that achieved viral status after creating a funny advert that resonated with people. If you get the humour right, your brand can rise above the pack and draw interest from customers.
Bolsters Engagement With Customers
Many companies use humour in their marketing campaigns to appeal to younger demographics — and they often succeed. Funny ads that “click” with the audience increase brand appeal and influence customers to buy your products.
Things can get boring if you run the same “serious” advertisements over and over. A lighthearted, comic ad can endear you to customers, especially if the story mirrors their experience.
Creates Marketing Buzz
Virality is the lifeblood of social media marketing. Once your marketing campaign achieves viral status, your impressions will skyrocket. Here’s why:
People love to share funny content, whether with their friends or family members. On social media, funny marketing materials often create a buzz around the company and spark conversations.
An example of a viral marketing campaign that capitalised on humour is the famous “MTN Saka Adventures” featuring local comedian Afeez Oyetoro. The first video, released in 2019, garnered an impressive 1.8m views on YouTube. A second video advert released a year later already has 1.9m viewers as at the time of writing this article.
Enhances Brand Uniqueness
Most brands are already doing similar things; infusing your marketing with humour can differentiate you from competitors. The case of MTN demonstrates humour can make you stand out from competitors.
Research shows that customers can form neurological associations with products — for example, a funny advertisement may trigger happy feelings in a customer. If the customer is exposed to the marketing repeatedly, they’ll likely associate your brand with positive emotions and make it their first choice.
Improves Advert Comprehension
Humour can be a powerful tool for expressing ideas in language that audiences understand. Companies often use humor to enhance audience comprehension of the message of an advert.
Encourages Higher Recall of Advertising Messages
Humour has been linked to the higher recall of marketing campaigns. Your marketing is likely to be remembered by your audience if it amuses them or makes them laugh.
Is Funny Marketing Always Effective?
As with every marketing technique, comic advertising has its downsides. Funny marketing is a tool that requires proper planning. Here are five reasons comic elements in marketing may be problematic:
It May Reduce Conversions
Many brands miss the point of using humor in messaging. No, a funny ad isn’t to get your audience doubling over with laughter and clutching their bellies. Humour should tell a story — one that demonstrates why the customer should buy your product.
Some brands overdo things, creating funny punchlines that tell no proper story or communicate the value of a product. Such marketing messages may inspire some good-natured laughter without driving any conversions.
This is called the “vampire effect,” referring to what happens when the content of an advert or marketing material sucks attention away from the message. The end result is that your audience may laugh, but they literally won’t remember what the ad was trying to sell.
It Can Generate Controversy
Sometimes, humour can get out of hand, and the backlash is intense when it does. In an age where brands get cancelled for the barest mistake, making a poor joke in your marketing may cause more problems than you want.
There is no manual for avoiding poor jokes, but it is often better to avoid certain topics. This includes topics on body qualities, tribes, or any controversial topic.
Testing the message on select target audience members is a useful way of knowing whether a joke is appropriate. Don’t be the brand that tells a tasteless joke and says in its defence: “We thought it would be funny.”
Timing Can Get Tricky
One of the best ways of telling great jokes is learning when to tell them. You want to ensure that the timing is right before you greenlight a funny advert. For example, posting jokes on social media while your company is embroiled in a PR crisis is not a good idea.
It May Irritate Customers
Have you ever come across an ad and felt it was trying too hard to be funny? Instead of amusing the audience as intended, ads that employ forced humor may irritate the target audience.
We have seen cases of brands trying to cash in on funny Twitter trends — and failing woefully at it. Sometimes, it is the fault of creatives who refuse to do their due diligence. Or overzealous brand managers hell-bent on imposing their creative vision for a campaign, against the advice of creative professionals.
Before you use a popular joke, ensure to understand its context. There’s nothing worse than telling the wrong joke to the right audience or the right joke to the wrong audience.
It May Be Inauthentic
This is the year 2021, and every brand wants to create funny marketing materials and be seen as trendy. What marketing managers ignore is the tendency for customers to associate brands with certain identities.
Over the years, certain brands have carefully built their identities through consistent messaging and branding. As such, using humour in your content may feel inauthentic if your brand is rarely associated with funny content.
4 Tips for Using Humor in Marketing
Understand Your Target Audience
What one person considers funny may seem tasteless to another person. Before launching your campaign, ensure that the message does not contain elements that your audience may find offensive or tasteless.
For example, Kraft found itself in hot water after buyers accused the food giant of sexualising its product by asking people to #SendNoods.
Evaluate The Product/Industry
While humour works in many areas, there are a few exceptions. Typically, marketing humor may not be ideal if your product is unknown, risky, expensive, or sensitive. Picture a firm selling defense weapons using a funny ad to sell missiles — sounds weird, doesn’t it?
Refine The Message
The ultimate aim of marketing is to drive sales, so ensure that your clever ad is created with the intent of persuading consumers to buy the product.
We advise making the content extremely relevant to your brand. By tying the message to what you’re selling, you have better chances of recouping your investment.
Understand The Timing
It is important to consider timing before choosing to make people laugh. Festive seasons are some of the best periods to go all out with funny marketing. The mood is relaxed, and everyone is down for a chuckle or two.
Final Thoughts
Humour can help your brand create memorable marketing campaigns that delight customers, improve brand image, and generate conversions. It is, however, important to consider your audience, amongst other factors, before you start making people laugh.
Written by Emmanuel Awosika