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Is Laughter the Best Form of Advertising?

There are lots of reasons to consider a humorous approach for your marketing. It can elevate your brand recall in a short space of time if the campaign resonates, but it can also be a minefield and result in underperformance. If you’ve thought of using humour other people have too – and back-to-back-to-back ‘funny’ ads will have more losers than winners.

Which brings us to this report claiming Australians want funnier ads. There’s more clarity offered when the study goes on to refine humour as ‘playfulness’. 

As the report says …Against a backdrop of global tension, the world can feel gloomy.

No-one’s arguing with that. But the notion playful marketing campaigns are the mood lift the world needs is misguided at best. This was a quantitative and qualitative study with over 2,000 New Zealanders and Australians with an emphasis on marketing and advertising, leading to that being – obviously – the focus. Humour is risky, the writers say. Playfulness is offered as a proxy, and we’re told playfulness leads to a stronger connection between brands and consumers. And that is a sweepingly broad statement.

Come Out and Play(ful)

Things then get even more insular and industry focussed. We’re told people think playfulness makes them feel better about an organisation and that the majority of people actively want more [playfulness] in our lives, in our culture and, importantly, from brands and this is because people still seek joy.

Let’s stop there. If I were to give you 30 seconds to list the ways you ‘seek joy’ in your life, would advertising, marketing or brand experiences be there? Nope, thought not.

This notion of it being a way to genuinely make consumers feel good is somewhere between disingenuous and ill-advised. Worse, it skews the idea of effective marketing with potentially disastrous results for any businesses who lean into what the report tells us – and get it wrong.

Can’t Buy Me Laugh

What can you take from this report? Remember, big brands have more scope to experiment and ride out mistakes. For SMEs it’s more a data point to store at the back of your mind.

A playful marketing approach might be exactly the right way to go for you, but keep in mind these tips:

• DO make it organic to your brand or service.

Forced humour sounds clunky at best.

• DO consider media placement.

Time of day and placement of spots matters. Is playful appropriate?

• DON’T let your message get lost.

Attempting playfulness could mean losing focus. You’re advertising for a reason.

• DON’T expect offbeat humour to work on a broadcast platform.

There’s a reason The Big Bang Theory is more popular than The Mighty Boosh.

This report essentially tells us 2000 people would like more creative, funny ads. But the idea marketing and brand experiences genuinely bring people joy is fanciful.

It’s worth reading the report in full for context, and to potentially spark ideas. As always, talk to reps at media outlets around you to get a sense of what can work best for your brand. Humour and playfulness are great – but don’t always make for great ads.