With everyone turning to feel-good ad concepts this year, whether humorous or thoughtful, there is more noise to cut through than ever. Advertising with perfectly executed humor can be much more impactful than some businesses realize, especially during a universally challenging time. This is what humor can do for your brand:
Differentiate Amidst the Noise
Your product may be one of a kind or a better version of everything else out there. Regardless of what you’re promoting, you need to stand out, and incorporating humor allows the creativity and personality required to differentiate yourself. The current status of this year is evidence to humor coming with pros and cons that are dependent on audience, their tone, and the overall angle and timing.
Many brands have chosen not to include any humor this year. And this is for good reason at face value, however this collective flip in tone and message has still mimicked what we see in a “traditional” year: Many brands choose one route and stick with it, leaving messaging to sound the same across brands, contributing to fatigue and noise. However, some brands did choose to incorporate humor this year, many successfully. This is just another piece of the same crucial facet to truly understand your audience and grasping the foresight to take the message, content, and timing into consideration. When this is done well, you can easily differentiate yourself amidst the noise, positively.
Easy to Remember
People still talk about the best Superbowl ads of all time. While the Superbowl may be a commercial showcase, it goes to show how well spunky commercials are remembered across almost all markets. Funny and effective ads are easy to remember and even a joy to recollect, especially in a YouTube compilation.
As mentioned in the last point, it’s incredibly easy to create a message that quickly becomes forgettable when there’s a lot of noise that ultimately sounds the same. Although there are many tactics to achieve remembrance through creatively, humor is a proven way to keep the brand at top of mind simply because you were able to get a positive reaction from your audience.
Relationship Builder
With humor, you set up a comfortable way for your audience to relate to your product or service. You can build an even stronger relationship with the consumer in the exact same way a friend would. And that’s essentially the end-game point to the beauty, the work, and the benefit. You’re expressing personality. You’re relatable. You understand your audience and you’re not tone-deaf in an ivory tower. You’re building a relationship. We’re all part of the leaves of grass, after all. It’s time to embrace that.