Humour is often used to make an advert engaging.  What’s less well understood is that it also helps to create positive emotions which are then unconsciously associated with the brand or product concerned.

The tricky part is that humour is a relatively personal thing and if your ad isn’t funny to enough people the strategy can backfire in exactly the same way.

I had hoped to show you a recent Barclays Bank advert, but You Tube let me down – it’s there but with no sound (and the soundtrack makes this particular ad work).

Instead here are two examples.  The first is an ad that you’ve probably seen before – it spread superbly when it was first released onto You Tube because it’s extremely funny (at least many people think so).

And here’s another for a rival credit card that was shown repeatedly in the UK and seems, to me at least, entirely devoid of anything positive to connect with the company concerned at any conscious or unconscious level!

It can be difficult for brands to make an advert that is light-hearted or humorous and works well.  There is a need to balance the credibility of the unconscious associations they are inviting the consumer to make with something that will engage their target market and make them smile. 

Often a brand manager or marketing director isn’t personally representative of their target audience, invariably their understanding of their brand and product isn’t anything like typical.  Some would take this as a justification for asking consumers what they thought of an advert (or the script) in advance.  Unfortunately, this usually just leads to an invitation to consciously appraise the ad, and consumers will never sit and watch it in such a critical and judgmental mindset.  As a result, what’s reported back is usually misleading.

Philip Graves

19 Comments

  2. Philip Graves

    @Steve Chambers
    I suppose I can’t connect the idea of using a credit card with fun: buying is fun but the process of payment is just that, a process.

    Perhaps my issue is that the cognitive dissonance created in my mind betwen the fun of the amazing slide and the process of paying for something alienates me. Since the fun part doesn’t result in anything humourous it is a vehicle purely to symbolise the ‘fun’ of paying with this new contact-less technology.

    Philip

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  5. Yann Vernier - ProfitsTactics.com

    I am skeptical about your point that positive emotions are unconsciously associated with the brand. The ads may be funny but won’t viewers remember the joke much more than the brand?

    And most importantly, will the ads get those brands more business as a result of the ad being funny? Admittedly, it is probably difficult to measure but it seems boosting business should be the core objective of an ad…

    All the best,
    Yann
    How to Get Organized, Stop Procrastinating, and Set Goals for Small Business Success

    reply to comment→
  6. Philip Graves

    @Yann Vernier – ProfitsTactics.com
    The traditional view of advertising is that it must sell. Of course, it must. But the mechanisms it will use to do so are not widely understood.

    The only reasonable correlation that the research companies who collect masses of tracking data have found with product sales (when they’ve had access to that information, which often they don’t) is ratings for ad likeability.

    Not product or message likeability. Not product appeal. Certainly not intention to buy.

    Other studies have found that where people are subliminally or just indirectly exposed to an advert in a magazine they go on to respond more favourably to the product it contains, even though they have no recollection of having seen any advertising about that product.

    Neurologically-speaking, the available evidence suggests that consumers are influenced by brands when environmental factors (however peripheral) activate associations that they then connect with the product concerned. All of this happens outside of conscious awareness.

    It’s also known that recall of an event is stronger when emotions are more powerful.

    So, when an advert is genuinely funny, you trigger an emotion and, in the same place, show your product or brand. As a result, someone looking at that brand will be slightly more likely to have developed neural paths to the positive emotions linked to that happiness than to other associations. The brand feels good.

    How people then post-rationalise their choice of having reached for a particular credit card in their wallet rather than another may or may not be accurate.

    Sometimes there will be a good reason to choose one over another, but at other times the choice will be less obvious. At that point, emotional factors can tip the balance and, with a big enough market, make a difference in terms of sales.

    That’s how I see it.

    Philip

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  15. Bereavement, Divorce, and Grief Counseling and Support, Henderson, Las Vegas, NV, Nevada

    Maybe it’s more of an American thing… but I found the latter one better. Of course the first was a parody. Just. sigh. not really that GREAT a parody.

    I FELT the music – positive feelings. fun. easy. easy to make purchases. just swipe. LIke a FUN water slide. tee hee. only one time is there a hold up or little glitch.

    Maybe it’s also more female as we are a major consumer and emotionally driven by fun feelings market.

    that’s it. blame it on… I’m a girl!

    Best regards,

    April Braswell

    Dating Quick Start Expert, Relationship Success Coach

    Divorce Support and Bereavement Counseling Outreach Workshop Henderson, NV, Nevada, Las Vegas

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  16. Duane Cunningham

    Hi Phil,

    I love those mastercard ad’s but do i own a mastercard??? Nope! I have a visa why? Because visa showed me the peril of leaving home without it!

    Fear and pain are much more persuasive than fun! Why do you think insurance companies make so much dough!!

    Duane

    Super-ADVANCED Persuasion Techniques & Sales Training Proven to Quickly Create a Flood of Money
Constantly & Continuously Flowing into YOUR
Bank Account Like the Niagara Falls…
100% GUARANTEED!!

    Discover Secret Influence Skills that Work Like Magic by Tapping Into the Psychology of the Mind with The Worlds Leading Persuasion Trainer Duane Cunningham!

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