Tickle the funny bone with your next marketing campaign
Posted on 15th January 2022 at 12:44
The best marketing campaigns work because they cause an emotional reaction. It could be the heart string that your charity appeal tugged upon to try and raise those few extra pounds. It could be the awestriking jaw drop that your new technological fandangleberry caused. Or quite often, it’s the smile or laughter.
You see humour is good. You create a marketing campaign that makes your audience smile and then everything is cake. That smile, or laugh, cements positive feelings towards your product or service.
When you look at it like that it makes sense. Tickle the funny bone with your next campaign to help it become more successful. So, if it is that simple, why are so many people afraid to use it?
Humour can be divisive
People worry about humour going too far. Especially, humour used on Twitter or other forms of social media. There is a massive fear that once something is out there on the internet, it can never be taken down. So, in the mad scramble to stay politically correct, many people avoid using humour altogether.
Marketing campaigns without humour aren’t doomed to fail by any stretch of the imagination. Mirth isn’t the only emotion worth capitalising on. However, people remember things that make them laugh, so if you can be funny; there is no harm in doing so.
You just need to think about your delivery.
Be careful who your humour targets
Times have changed over the decades. What some might have considered acceptable in the 80s and 90s could get yourself in severe hot water now. It isn’t, as some would claim, society becoming more sensitive and quicker to offence. It is simply that tired stereotyping is finally being seen for what it really is. Cheap bullying.
But it isn’t difficult to avoid offending someone with your humour. If your humour doesn’t target protected demographics, then you should be fine. If you are trying to sell a car, insurance, or food, then there is no reason that politics, religion, race, or gender need to be the butt of your jokes anyway.
Tickle the funny bone, but keep it simple
The key to humour in marketing, really, is to keep it simple. You don’t have time for meandering shaggy dog tales, and convoluted jokes might just lose your audience. Then you just have a ridiculous post that nobody really cares about. Remember, you have only a few seconds to keep your audience engaged.
A 15-minute video with the text “wait until the end” isn’t going to get watched. It is annoying, and nobody remembers who filmed them in the first place. In truth, your goal is make your audience laugh without investing a major portion of your time, or budget, on a single marketing campaign.
Memes are good for tickling the funny bone
The newest language of the internet is memes. Often, they are anchored in popular culture, so people are already aware of their meaning and references. Your text is the only differentiator and that is what applies context to the ad.
There are plenty of free meme building tools, such as imgflip to use, and it doesn’t take a long time to create a meme that your audience will enjoy. You just need to make sure you know your audience first.
Knowing your audience is key
It goes without saying that not everyone finds everything funny. Let’s be honest if everyone liked the same thing, humour would be pretty boring, wouldn’t it? So, knowing your audience is critical. Some audiences will enjoy humour that is a little more off colour than others.
Before you plan your giggle-fest, research competitor brands, and other places you might find your audience to see what sort of humour they like.
We are always ready to have a chat with anyone who wants to begin a marketing campaign. If you would like some marketing advice, or to discuss using humour in more depth, contact us on 01604 698 948.
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