Humor: The Key to Modern Content

How humour strengthens the bond between brand and audience

How can you turn a fleeting glance at your content into a lasting and delightful interaction? The secret lies in the use of humour. Create funny moments that will make your brand irresistible. In this article, we’ll examine how humour can revolutionise your interaction with your audience, giving them joy and deep affection. What exactly is it that makes content funny and easily digestible? What strategies can you use to ensure your content evokes the emotions and reactions you need for your brand’s success? We’ll look at these techniques so you can not only entertain and educate your audience but also build strong connections with your customers.

Laughter-bridging the gap between brand and audience

Humour goes beyond entertainment; it serves as a communication tool when you need to connect with your audience. Through banter, irony and clever wordplay, content comes to life, eliciting laughter and positive emotions that enhance people’s perception of your brand. Selected humour can relieve tension, reduce resistance, direct promotional efforts and even improve memorability of information. Recognisability refers to content that resonates with people because it reflects something close to them, such as situations, popular cultural references or universal values. When content becomes recognisable, it fosters a community around the brand. Consumers see it as a reflection of themselves and their ideas.

The psychology of laughter

Humour in content marketing can turn an indifferent audience into an engaged one. It does this by attracting attention, evoking emotion and encouraging audiences to engage through commenting, laughing, sharing content and other reactions. When using humour in their marketing strategies, brands need to be mindful of the perception of humour. It is necessary to choose a style of humour that fits the brand’s personality and the target audience.

There are types of humour, such as link-building humour, self-reinforcing humour (highlighting strengths), self-deprecating humour (playfully acknowledging flaws) and aggressive humour (using sarcasm or irony). Each type has its characteristics. They can be used to achieve specific marketing goals. Brands such as Southwest Airlines, Zappos and Oreo have effectively integrated humour into their marketing efforts without being disrespectful or offensive. This shows that even conservative brands can use humour appropriately. Social media platforms provide content-sharing opportunities as people seek entertainment and amusement when interacting with brands on these networks.

When laughter becomes a key strategy- examples of successful marketing campaigns

Many brands have found their voice by using humour and relatability to create meaningful content. However, it is essential to stress the importance of balance when using humour in marketing. The humorous aspect must be in line with topics relevant to both the brand and its target audience while respecting social boundaries. Failure to maintain this harmony can lead to consequences such as brand reputation and customer churn. The examples below demonstrate how brands can use humour and relationality to increase engagement and strengthen their marketing campaigns.

• Pringles cleverly integrates its chips into real-life scenarios, responding to fan feedback and creating content that is both funny and easy to relate to.
• Taco Bell playfully incorporates an element of fun into their advertising and social media campaigns. For example, they joyfully celebrated the introduction of the “taco” emoji, bringing ambience to brand interactions.
• Wendys used social media to engage fans in a campaign where they co-created a story centred around chicken sandwiches, resulting in relatable content.

However, it’s important to remember that humour can be a sharp sword and damage a brand’s reputation if misused. When using humour in marketing strategies, it is essential to consider the brand personality and preferences of the target audience to avoid any incidents.

Not funny: When humour crosses the line

Looking at instances of the misuse of humour in advertising campaigns, we come across clear examples where brands’ attempts to be funny or provocative have backfired:

1. Burger King’s “Where Herb?” campaign: Burger King launched a campaign that asked customers to find a character named Herb. However, due to age restrictions, the winner was disqualified, leading to disappointment and criticism of the campaign.
2. Pepsi campaign featuring Kendall Jenner: In an advert featuring Kendall Jenner, Pepsi attempted to portray how it resolves conflicts by offering a can of Pepsi to a police officer. Unfortunately, this advert provoked an adverse reaction as it was seen as trivialising movements and protests and lacking respect for those who have suffered and sacrificed for change.
3. Airbnb and San Francisco’s tax policy: One advertisement gave the impression that Airbnb suggested that the city allocate tax money for one purpose or another. This provoked a strong reaction from residents and city officials, resulting in Airbnb apologising and dropping the campaign.

Target audience understanding

Research your target audience to create engaging content with a touch of humour. Creating humorous content starts with understanding your target audience. Here are some key audience research steps:

1. Surveys and interviews: Interacting directly with your audience through surveys and interviews can provide insights into what makes them laugh and what type of humour they appreciate.
2. Social media analysis: Analysing which jokes and memes resonate most with your target audience in the media will help understand their preferences. Use listening and analytics tools to track reactions and engagement.
3. Audience segmentation: Divide your audience into segments based on demographics, interests and behaviour. This segmentation allows you to tailor humour that will resonate with each segment.
4. Trends and behavioural traits: Explore trends and behavioural traits that may affect the audience’s perception of humour.

Practical tips for creating memorable content

For your content to be not just funny but impactful, it is vital to develop a sense of humour and understand its basic principles:

• Humour starts with having your way of looking at the world. Ask yourself: what tickles your nerves? How do you perceive the things around you? Look for moments in life and incorporate them into your writing.
• Keep up to date with events and pop culture, take inspiration from memes and make observations. Humour that reflects shared experiences and interests has a good chance of finding common ground with your audience.
• Start a humour notebook where you jot down ideas and observations throughout the day. This can be either a document or a physical notebook where you collect all your inspirational ideas.

There are three aspects to consider when creating humour:

For a joke to be successful, it is essential to master these elements to make it understandable and funny. Create an expectation or anticipation in the audience and then break that expectation in a way that creates impact.

Steps to stay relevant

It’s important to analyse trends in humour and pop culture if you want to create content that resonates. Keeping up-to-date will help you stay relevant and effectively engage with your audience. To effectively engage with audiences, marketers and content creators should take the following steps:

Final thoughts

Humour and familiarity are not just tools of entertainment in content marketing; they are elements to connect with your audience. In our research into laughter and relatedness, we saw how these elements can breathe life into a brand and enhance the customer experience. We’ve looked at success stories that demonstrate the power of humour to reinforce brand messages, while also revealing the pitfalls of using it inappropriately.

Now you’re faced with the challenge: how do you incorporate humour and relatability into your marketing project? What stories will you share that will truly elicit laughter from your audience?

The answers to these questions can have a profound impact on how your content is perceived by your customers and the success rate of your future marketing initiatives.