Uses of humour in marketing communications
Barry and Graça (2018) found that humour is typically employed in low-involvement categories and is most frequently used for what they call ‘little toys and treats’ (snacks, drinks, small value items). It is used less frequently for ‘big toys’ (high-involvement purchases such as cars and luxury holidays – although Skoda’s long-running ‘It’s a Skoda, honest’ campaign played on the car’s perceived poor social status to great comic effect).
Elsewhere, Cline and Kellaris (2007) found that humour is less effective at building brand awareness and is more effective when deployed by established brands where the focus is on the creativity of the message itself rather than the need to convey information.
Humour is also very subjective and what is funny to one person is not to another. As such, testing creative themes with the target audience is especially important in humour-based campaigns to ensure that the message resonates with audiences. Likewise, humour is also culturally specific, so a single-voice message in an international IMC campaign may not be as effective as it would be in more regional messaging. Finally, as with sex appeals, it might be the case that consumers remember the advert but not necessarily the brand.
In the following activity, you will analyse different adverts and evaluate their use of humour-based appeals.
Activity 6 Humour appeals in advertising
Watch the following adverts and make a note of the ranking of the adverts from the most effective to the least effective use of humour. Then write a short comparison of these adverts.
Advert 1
Video 11 Rocket Mortgage advert [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] (make sure to open this link in a new tab/window so you can easily return to this page).
Advert 2
Video 12 Hyundai advert (make sure to open this link in a new tab/window so you can easily return to this page).
Advert 3
Transcript: Video 13 Dark Gummies advert
[The sound in this video is limited to background music. There is no speech.]
Advert 4
Video 14 Specsavers advert (make sure to open this link in a new tab/window so you can easily return to this page).
Advert 5
Video 15 Snickers advert (make sure to open this link in a new tab/window so you can easily return to this page).
Click ‘View interactive version’ below to see results of ranking.
What did the advert you ranked first do well that was lacking in the advert you ranked last?
Feedback
When ranking the adverts above, what method did you use? Did you apply a strategic approach to assess or try to measure the use of humour, or did you just go with what you thought was and was not funny? Thinking about the likely target audience(s) for each of these adverts, to what extent do you think they are aimed at someone like you? What conclusions can you draw from this activity?
The notion of fields of experience Is important in creative execution; overlapping fields of experience can be an important part of a successful campaign. That is, the closer the creative team are to the target audience in terms of shared experience, the more likely their theme is to resonate. This is especially important when dealing with emotional appeals: fear, guilt, shock, sex, humour. Our personal thresholds and moral standing on these issues are not universal but subjective. If the creative team understands the field of experience of the target audience, the campaign’s messages are more likely to have the desired effect.
Reflecting on this activity and your personal position in relation to them is an important skill that will help you not only as part of this course but also in your professional capacity, where the ability to reflect on and clearly articulate your position in relation to contentious or subjective issues is a fundamental skill.