Humor can add excitement to anything that is otherwise boring. But it’s quite risky. It can either add fun to your marketing message leaving a lasting impression on your audience or can fade away the core theme entirely.
For some marketers, humor acts as seemingly effortless and quickly breaks the ice with the readers while for others the message is completely buried under the content, creating a mismatch between wit and meaning.
Nestle’s comes up with really funny television ads for its KitKat chocolate. Their latest KitKat Dancing Babies commercial fully serves the purpose and keeps the humor and significance of the product intact. The theme remains embedded throughout the ad, which focuses on taking a KitKat break despite your busy work schedule and experience something that you have never imagined.
By such funny ads, Nestle doesn’t directly focus on the utility of product; rather it focuses on stealing a light moment from hectic schedule that can re-energize you. Without sounding salesy, they give reasons to their audience to laugh out loud and feel better with their product. The best part is that they don’t lose track of their original message and is unshakable throughout the TV commercial. It seems so flawless and effortless and is able to engross the audience in just a matter of seconds.
Before you attempt to crack a joke in front of your audience, it is important to craft your message well. Be relevant ensuring that your message is not tossed or sided in favor of comedy. Below are a few points that you should consider to properly execute the humor in your content, keeping your audience coming back for more.
1. What Pleases and Irks Your Audience?
Knowing your audience and understanding their likes and dislikes is important. Find out through your social media pages and blog comments what kind of humor they like read, watch and share. It can be a great starting point when you’re planning to throw humor in your content mix.
2. Point Out a Hardship
By this time, you must have understood the pain points of your customers. So, why not point out a hardship and put humor in it. That’s a great effort if you’re trying to make your audience feel light but make sure that your product can back it up and pull it through alleviating the discomfort, hardship or annoyance. Showing how your product can help customers feel light or deal with the hardship is a great way.
3. Know the Rules of Delivering a Joke
What makes you laugh the most when you’re told a joke? Undoubtedly, the way it is told. Work on its presentation, language, punctuation and placement of incidents and of course the supporting graphics. If a single element is missing, you will hit the jackpot of negative reactions. In case you’re not sure how it will be taken by your audience, consider running it for your close friends and their reactions will say it all.
4. Do not Offend Anyone
Well, you have the liberty to say a few no-to-be used words or gestures when telling a joke. But remember, here you are targeting an audience having different religious and cultural sentiments. So, offending them will not be a good idea. It may bring the tag of unprofessionalism. Although humor is all about perspective but still the rule of thumb is to avoid saying anything offending.
Humor mixed with content can make or break your relationship with your audience. So, be relevant and appropriate and use it in a way that ignites your message.
Share with us if you have any tips for embedding humor in content marketing.