People consume more content today than ever before, often seeing thousands of advertisements per day in addition to whatever they’re choosing to watch or listen to. Because our culture is so saturated with media, it has become increasingly challenging to stand out from the rest and make sure your content truly creates an impact instead of merely adding to the background noise of your audience’s life. One way we’ve found to break through the noise is by using humor.
Funny Marketing Campaigns
If done right, using humor in your marketing campaigns can be very impactful. What works best for each brand will be different, but there’s a lot we can learn from recent advertising campaigns that tickled audiences’ funny bones and drove results.
Here are some examples of successful marketing campaigns that used humor to connect with their audience.
“The Unskippable Ad,” by Burger King
While YouTube ads used to be skippable after the first 5 seconds, more recently, the platform has integrated unskippable ads. These ads quickly annoyed users, who were used to skipping irrelevant content after 5 seconds but now had to sit through 15+ seconds of advertising before they could go back to the video they were watching.
Burger King took a humorous approach to this and, instead of just making their usual ads unskippable, leaned into the annoyance of viewers by breaking the fourth wall and relating to their frustration. Then, at the end, they direct this annoyance at the deal Burger King was promoting, talking about how frustrated they are at this “stupid, incredible deal.” This got viewer’s attention, related to them in a way that made them feel connected to the brand, then shared their value proposition, all in the span of a few short seconds.
The takeaway: Connect with your customers about their frustration in a direct, funny way, then redirect them to your valuable offer.
“The Honest Chocolatier,” by Awfully Chocolate
Awfully Chocolate is known for their high-end chocolate offerings, but without the frilly messaging that some chocolatiers use, which can come off as pretentious or exclusive. They used satire to point out this difference, mocking the complex descriptions and packaging of competitors and then bringing attention to their simple, top-notch chocolate.
The takeaway: Emphasize how you are different from competitors by satirizing their approach and contrasting it with your own.
“Soda Soak,” by Soda Stream
This ad fit perfectly into viewers’ enjoyment of April Fool’s jokes by making a false product and promoting it alongside Soda Stream’s real, primary product of carbonation machines. This new, pretend product, called the Soda Soak, would add the refreshing fizz of carbonated beverages to baths, and could be paired with bath oils in fragrances that match Soda Stream’s fruit-flavored water syrups.
The takeaway: Embrace the humor-related traditions of your audience and kick it up a notch with timely marketing materials.
Adding Humor to Your Social Media Strategy
Even if a funny marketing campaign isn’t for you, there are still ways you can create impactful, humorous content. Here are some ways you can infuse humor into your social media content so that it fits your brand voice and your audience’s needs.
Take an Unexpected Direction
One example of funny content we’ve enjoyed is the sentence “If at first, you don’t succeed, skydiving is not for you.” The reason this is funny is that it takes the start of the familiar phrase, “If at first you don’t succeed, try again,” and takes it in an unexpected direction. The surprise itself is funny, as well as considering the severe consequences of not getting skydiving right the first time.
To make this content fit in with your business, this could be left on its own as a #funfriday post, followed up with some things that practice can help people succeed at, or used to promote leaving some tasks to professionals like you.
Get Into the Weeds
Many businesses want to avoid controversy at all costs, and for good reason, but what if a little bit of controversy could get more people interested in your brand? Consider some niche arguments that only someone who is already familiar with your space would understand, like graphic designers who have hot takes about Canva. Another option, especially if you run a brick-and-mortar business, would be to get into some local-specific conversations, such as which park has the best playground.
These conflicts aren’t very consequential, and chances are that no one will pick them as a hill to die on. However, people are opinionated enough to want to share their thoughts, thus creating engagement with you and spreading your posts further. Getting into the weeds like this can also be a great place to employ sarcasm if that fits in with your brand voice, like “Obviously, the most important discussion we could possibly have as residents of this town is the superiority of the slides at Main Street Park.” Just be careful with sarcasm, as it can be misread through text!
Make Some Memes
While not all meme formats are business-friendly, many formats are, and can be customized to fit your brand image. One brand that has excelled in this area is Duolingo, a language learning app that has consistently made viral content by creating memes and using trending audio content on TikTok and Reels. They don’t jump on every trend, but when they see a way to take a popular format and square it with their brand’s messaging, they put in the effort and create content that is relatable, shareable, and easy to understand.
Not every brand can pull off meme marketing, especially if maintaining a specific image is vital to your brand or your B2B audience isn’t into edgy humor. If you aren’t sure whether memes are a good fit for your brand, it may be a good idea to consult a branding expert like Matcha Design. If memes aren’t a good fit for your brand, an alternative could be a tasteful graphic with an amusing quote from a leader in your industry.
Why Humor Helps Impact
There are many benefits of adding humorous elements to your marketing strategy, but they are often summed up by the statement that humor unites people. No matter someone’s age, background, or current life circumstances, there is inherent value in laughter and finding other people to laugh with.
Humor can also help to foster trust and diffuse tension, making it easier to repeatedly connect with the same people and build meaningful business relationships with them. People often remember the same information better if it is delivered in a comedic way, making it more likely that they will retain information about what your business does as they continue through their daily life after enjoying your humorous content.
Another way that humor helps with impact is by setting your content apart from AI-generated work, which usually either lacks humor or misses the mark. By its very nature, AI can imitate patterns, but it doesn’t have the unique human experiences and emotional capacity that are required to make something funny. As more and more businesses turn to AI to try to keep up with seemingly endless demands to generate content, using humor will help you stand out as a brand that has real, qualified people behind it, not just computers.
Build an Impactful Content Strategy
Whether you’re the funniest person in any room or struggle remembering punchlines, Matcha Design can help you build an impactful content strategy that thrives across platforms. To see how we can help your business thrive with unique, creative content, contact us today.
