Is Humor The X-Factor?
There was a time when advertisements simply served the
purpose of informing the customer that a product or service was available.
Billboards and print ads simply stated what the product or service was, what
it’s function was, and occasionally where you could find it.
Gone
are the golden years of simple advertisement. Advertising budgets have
skyrocketed during the last few decades, primarily due
to the prevalence and aggressiveness of market competition. This holds true
for virtually all industries. Most corporations have immense advertising
budgets based on the idea that the more visible a brand is to a potential
customer, the greater the effect of the advertising. Although this trend is
beginning to change a bit with the advent of social
media, many advertisers are continuing to follow the established
advertising trend.
One thing that has become more popular recently is the use
of comedy in advertising. It seems that more and more commercials and print ads
are utilizing a comedic hook to catch the attention of consumers. This may have
some relation to the fact that our society has become more and more geared
towards social interaction. To this end, it is possible that companies hope to
display a more social and personally invested image than that of the faceless
corporations of yesteryear. This transition has been much
to the benefit of those entities engaging in humorous advertisement.
While pondering the success of humor in advertising, I found
myself wondering how this effect spilled over into other facets of business.
Almost everyone has known that person who has great career success despite
their markedly absent career aptitude, simply due to a moderately quick wit,
comedic timing, and a willingness to make an edgy and borderline inappropriate
comment. It is entirely possible that an individuals ability to be funny simply
makes them seem more relatable and disarming in a business setting, which
grants them upward latitude that the rest of us may be inhibited from. In
addition, appropriate comedic timing may be an effect of an underlying
ability to read people. This could indicate a much farther reaching
aptitude than would be evident initially. Whatever the case, it is apparent
that comedy and humor is something that, in moderation, can have a positive
effect across the board.
Interesting post. As you mention, the days when advertising was simple and straightforward are over. Marketing has becoming an expensive business itself. Just look at this year's past election campaign -the most expensive in history. Comedy is also a noticeable trend in advertising. What a lot of marketers try to do now is create a commercial or an ad and try to make it go viral. They post the commercial on the company's youtube page or post the ad on Facebook in hopes that many will share, and draw a massive amount of attention. This is done more often with humor. I'm interested to know whether or not you believe that the use of humor/comedy is always effective. For example, the Old Spice marketing campaign back in 2010. It drew great amount of attention, but it didn't necessarily raise the company's profits. Well done with your posts and blog!
ReplyDeleteHonestly, it's difficult to measure the effectiveness of humor in an advertisement context. Comedy is kind of one of those things that has it's own reward. Concerning cases such as that of the recent Old Spice marketing campaign, I think that it accomplished the goal of being entertaining, but did not have as much success on the marketing front. This happens fairly often these days. I can recall several occasions where a commercial will be tremendously hilarious, but upon it's completion someone in the room (usually my mom... sorry mom) will ask what it was trying to advertise. It's fairly simply to make a humorous commercial, but the difficulty (and genius) comes with successfully integrating the marketing message into the comedic content.
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