Don’t Laugh Off The Power of Humor in Your Marketing Strategy

The Digital Essentials, Part 3

Developing a robust digital strategy is both a challenge and an opportunity. Part 3 of the Digital Essentials guide series explores five of the essential technology-driven experiences customers expect, which you may be missing or not fully utilizing.

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At any given moment in our day we are in hearing distance, visual range, or just a finger tap away from an experience that may involve your brand. A commercial break while I catch up on the Downton Abbey Christmas Special, my cousin posting on Facebook how much she loves her new hair gel, a colorful bumper sticker while I drive to the grocery store… It’s no joke that we’re all on information overload.
In a world where brands are clamoring for the attention of the distracted consumer, we must come up with more cleaver ways to hold our user’s attention. I recently came across a white paper that addressed a disconnect that I think is worth sharing.
Turn, a company that delivers real-time data insights, partnered with Forbes Insights to measure the disconnect between brands and consumers. The survey included 250 marketing executives and over 2,000 consumers. They were both asked a series of questions about how they chose to engage with brands and what types of advertising caught their attention.
One of the staggering disconnects found in the study related to the subject of humor.
Simply put, consumers were asked what types of ads did they notice most, and marketing executives were asked what types of ad campaigns do you aim to make?
The consumer audience noted that the thing that gets their attention most is when an ad “is funny” with 67%. Yet marketing executives noted they only focus on making their ad campaigns intentionally humorous 14% of the time.Interesting…

As a User Experience professional I often find myself striving for what I call the perfect balance. That balance includes understanding my clients business goals and trying to find that magic place of how they can be achieved by giving their customers what they truly want and need.
Your customers are busy. Running around in a hectic world with marketing messages hitting them from every side. It’s honorable and understandable to be thought provoking, demonstrate brand promise, and showcase high design… but perhaps slipping on a banana peel and entertaining the crowd has more value that we originally thought.
Consider trying to give the crowd what they pay attention to in a way that still delivers high design and brand promise. They’ll take more notice when you do.
The full 26 page study can be downloaded here.