The 5 Rules For Marketing Using Comedy

In a World where people are perpetually consuming content, brands feel the need to work harder than ever to cut through the fog.

 A generation of ‘skippers’ (whether that be ads or intros) put a vertigo inducingly high tariff on attention. It’s no surprise then, to see more brands turn to comedy to add personality and entertainment to their content. Comedy is still the most engaging form of content on social platforms.

There’s a huge upside. Create something that ‘goes viral’ and you’ve got serious value for money. How much would you pay for a video that garners 27,000,000 views? Dollar Shave Club shelled out the measly sum of $4,500.

Comedy sells. An individual’s attitude to a brand is highly correlated to their purchase intention (Eisend 2009), and humorous content is proven to enhance perception of a brand. But there’s a lot more to consider. 

In particular, the perception that comedy is risky has been proved correct in recent studies, and it turns out it’s not as simple as avoiding dead baby jokes. There are more subtle impacts on audience attitudes that can be simultaneously funny and damaging, but they can be swerved.

Here are the 5 rules brands should follow to harness the power of comedy to enhance their brand, avoid the pitfalls and make the World a little bit funnier.

1. Know Your Audience

Brands can now target with greater precision than ever before. For right or wrong social platforms afford a window well beyond the basic demographic data available previously. When it comes to comedy, this specificity is key. 

Demographics are important, but cultural differences are pivotal. It’s possible, though not easy, to craft humour that has appeal across genders, ages, education (and as we’ll discuss later this inclusivity is crucial). It’s not so easy, however, to reach across linguistic and cultural divides. 

“We may all laugh, but what makes us laugh very much depends on where we’re from, the language we speak, and the historical context with which we’re most familiar”

Christian Blauvelt (Arts Journalist)

Trying to predict comic appeal can be a fool’s errand. The film ‘Airplane!’ leans heavily on English language specific jokes such as…

“Surely, you can’t be serious?”

”I am serious, and don’t call me Shirley”

… and yet the film polls higher amongst Latin American critics than any other group! Go figure.

How can this be navigated? One solution is simple and humble. Crowdsource it and crowdtest it. In the Comedy Crowd’s 10,000 strong global community of creators we’ve realised that it’s far more effective to set a brief and have a diverse community make content that they love (and that people like them will love). What you find is that creators bring their own cultural specific interpretations and references to the comedy. This gives you a bank of content that can be shared with the audiences who identify with it. A far superior strategy to putting all your eggs in the basket of one creator.

2. Understand your Product

I’m sure you understand what your product does, who it’s for, why it’s great. 

There’s another element to factor in when you’re deploying comedy.  In a 2006 study Gulas and Weinberger proposed 4 different types of product, each requiring a distinct approach when it comes to comedy. Products are classified according to their ‘involvement’ and the extent to which they are functional (practical) or hedonic (enjoyable). Involvement refers to the degree of importance that a viewer listens attentively and understands the key information about the product.

This is a useful consideration when thinking about how comedy could work best for your brand, but it’s only a guide, and there are always exceptions to the rule.

The types of products are summarised below:

Type	Involvement/Risk	Functional / Hedonic	Example
White	High	Functional	Medicine
Blue	Low	Functional	Toaster
Red	High	Hedonic	Vacation
Yellow	Low	Hedonic	Chocolate

Humour can be used in all cases, but it’s effectiveness varies, and the comedy has to be tailored, particularly if there are important messages about the product that need to be conveyed. A meta analysis by Martin Eisend (2009) suggested the following approaches were optimal for each type of product:

White goods – It is most important that the audience accepts and understands the key messages. It is not necessary for them to like the content, though this doesn’t cause harm to the brand. Comedy can help particularly where it is ‘issue relevant’, especially where it helps the processing of the key message.

Blue Goods – There should be a focus on how the product solves a problem so use of comedy has to complement this aim.

Red Goods – It is key that content is authentic and emotive. In this instance it is important whether the viewer likes the content, and so humour can assist, both where it is relevant to the product or a more general device.

Yellow Goods – Effectiveness depends on creating an emotional appeal for the product that is unique to the brand. The viewer must like the content. This is the most fertile ground for well executed comedy.

This demonstrates that it is important to identify how comedy fits in the overall aims of any brand related content. Brands may need to dovetail humour alongside the need to convey information or stir emotion, and this will impact on the style and emphasis of comedy required.

3. Make It Funny

Obvious? Yes. Easy? No. 

We’ve already discussed that incorporating humour into a message is not a ‘free hit’. It can distract from other messaging, which might be a price worth paying if it improves perception of the brand, but if the joke falls flat it compromises the whole endeavour. Failed attempts at comedy will hurt.

The way to avoid this reputational risk is of course to make something that is genuinely funny to the audience you are targeting. The quickest shortcut to getting this right is volume and testing. Lots of ideas and lots of feedback, both of which need to emanate from your audience (see Rule 1).

The starting point for comic ideas is startlingly simple. Take a normal situation and reinterpret it with an incongruity. This incongruity can be referred to as a violation because it ‘threatens a person’s well-being, identity, or normative belief structure’ (Veatch 1998). Amusing violations might manifest as a social violation (fart in a lift), cultural violation (wearing a tuxedo to a skate park) or just plain old fashioned tickling. Each is a threat of some sort, though arguably the confined flatulence is somewhat more grave than the others. Here are some examples of violations in created content:

• Linguistic – (e.g. a pun or mispelling) – ‘The only thing flat-earthers fear, is sphere itself’
• Physical (e.g. violence) – Terry Tate, Office Linebacker

• Logical (e.g. heightened reality or absurdity) – The Ministry Of Silly Walks

There is quite the arsenal to choose from, but comedy is polarising and difficult, so volume and testing are your friend. And when you do find something hilarious, there are a couple more rules to adhere to…

4. Make it Inclusive

Funny alone isn’t enough. These last two rules explain a couple of elements that your comedy content must have if it is to have the positive effect you desire. These are drawn from a 2016 study by Caleb Warren and Peter McGraw ‘When does humorous marketing hurt brands’.

The first refers to the target of the violation. Your comedy can be inclusive or exclusive depending on who is the ‘butt’ of the joke. This consideration is separate to how funny the joke is. Exclusive comedy could be very funny to your audience, but they will still form a negative association with your brand if they recognise a mean spirit. 

Comedy is rooted in traditions of mocking the powerful, and pushing the boundaries of acceptability – but that strand of comedy isn’t a prudent approach here. The net result will be that the viewer likes the content, but has a less favourable attitude to the brand. Here is an example from that 2016 study – spot the inclusive and the exclusive violation:

This is a pretty extreme example as it’s both exclusive and offensive (though in the study the sexist example did score well for humour). Here’s a neat summary of what you should be looking for:

‘Inclusive violations tend to focus on the absurdity of a situation, the foibles of the world, or the imperfections of human nature’ 

(Warren & McGraw 2016)

This definition of inclusivity isn’t about brands virtue signalling or trying to associate themselves with images or themes of diversity that might seem totally irrelevant to the product. Rather, this is about embracing humour that makes fun out of something that doesn’t single out a particular group. And there’s one other thing…

5. Avoid Avoidance

Some of the violations that induce laughs also create emotions of disgust, fear or shame. These reactions are actually more harmful to your brand than anger, envy, or confusion (Carver and Harmon-Jones 2009; Chapman et al. 2009; Lerner and Keltner 2000) because they prompt avoidance.

This is another scenario where content can be funny, but have the opposite of the desired effect from a branding perspective. In particular, content that includes what is termed a ‘purity’ violation was found to induce a negative reaction to the brand (moreso even than a ‘harm’ violation). This is particularly true for food and drink products. Take a look at the examples below:

The image on the left is pretty distressing if you have an affinity to limes. You might think that the violence depicted would have a very negative effect on the brand. In fact it is the image to the right, based on a purity violation, that was most damaging despite being deemed to be the funnier of the two.

The lesson is to look for comic opportunities that steer clear of creating any sense of avoidance through disgust, fear or shame.

Summary

In spite of the hazards, Comedy remains an unrivalled method for enhancing the perception of a brand and it’s products. It simply requires a more specialist, considered approach that is often absent when brands seek to create something shareable, especially on social media. Seeking virality by making something remarkable can do more harm than good if the violations are not deftly crafted.

Funny alone is not enough, but by tapping into a large pool of skilled creators from diverse backgrounds, brands can create content that enhances their reputation, resonates with their audience and makes the World a more amusing place.

Interested in using humour with your brand? Get in touch to see how The Comedy Crowd can help.