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05/05/2014 by
9271 views

How CMOs Can Master The Art Of Brand Comedy?

How to master the art of brand comedy? Well there are many ways to create memorable content online, but using humor is by far one of the most effective methods.

How CMOs Can Master The Art Of Brand Comedy? Guest story by Ali Lawrence for ViralBlog.com

Think about it — who doesn’t love to laugh? After a long day at work or school, there are few things more stress-relieving than watching a funny video or TV show.

Humorous content is something people actively seek out, and they’re always left wanting more. Just like comedies are often the most popular movies, humorous ads can leave the greatest impact on viewers.

More and more businesses are finding that humor not only works in TV commercials, but also in memes, YouTube videos and status updates.

Here are some great examples of how businesses have successfully used humor in marketing and branding.

The Art of Brand Comedy: Charmin

Charmin takes toilet humor to a whole new level. The company has over 34,000 followers on Twitter for good reason — most of its tweets are just downright funny.

The Art of Brand Comedy: Charmin. Guest story for ViralBlog.com

A few weeks ago, Charmin posted a series of humorous tweets about toilet etiquette. One of them read, “If you don’t want a beat down, always put the seat down,” and included a picture of the Charmin bear putting down the toilet seat.

Charmin also stays up to date with trending hashtags on Twitter. In doing so, it stays visible and relevant on the site while continuing to attract new followers with comedy.

Using the trending hashtag #ReplaceaMovieQuotewithaBrand, Charmin tweeted “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You used my Charmin. Prepare to die.” This tweet likely brought a chuckle to a number of Princess Bride fans.

Havahart

Havahart’s Facebook provides several good examples of humorous memes that help with branding.

Havart Branded Comedy

Havahart sells anti-cruelty animal traps, so many of its posts involve cute animal pictures and facts about wild animals. Havahart often incorporates humor into its animal posts.

One meme features a cat climbing into a fish-shaped basket and saying, “Look mom, I’m a catfish!” In another, a chipmunk whose cheeks are swollen with acorns says, “You have the wrong idea — I just had dental surgery!”

Similarly, in a post titled “skunk love,” one skunk asks his mate, “Have I ever told you that you stink to high heaven?”

Popchips

Love. Without the handles. Popchips also has a pretty funny Facebook page.

Brand comedy by Popchips, starring Katy Perry. New story on ViralBlog.com

In one Easter-themed photo, there are numerous eggs with a basket full of popchips in the center.

The caption reads “the hunt is over.” Another post features a sack race, but participants are racing in giant popchips bags instead of the traditional burlap sack.

The use of humor helps with branding, as it helps portray pop chips as a fun and yummy snack.

Burger King

Burger King recently released an interesting video called: Stop the Boring Pre-Roll Ad:

YouTube Preview Image

In creating the video, Burger King was marketing to young men who like YouTube, but aren’t fans of the pre-roll ads that precede videos. To appeal to this demographic, Burger King created 64 different pre-roll ads with a twist.

Each ad, which was customized to the content of the video, consisted of people making fun of YouTube pre-roll ads.

These ads were very successful, because they were creative, appealed to what customers wanted, and were amusing to watch.

To help with branding, the actors in the ads were eating Burger King.

My Opinion

All of the above are great examples of how comedy can be used to promote your business. When using humor, just remember there’s often a fine line between being funny and being offensive.

Never use humor in poor taste, as this can do a lot more bad than good. PR faux-pas are unfortunately all too common. In general, it’s probably best to avoid topics like war, natural disaster, disease and politics.

Before posting content, it’s also a good idea to test it with your peers. Don’t post it if anyone finds it even slightly offensive.

When brainstorming humorous content, it really helps to know your audience, like Burger King did when it created the pre-roll spoofs.

Just like Burger King incorporated food into the ads, your jokes should also relate to your products and services to help with branding.

Ultimately, by using comedy, you can really attract vast attention and expose readers to the rest of your content.

What About You?
What are your best examples of brand comedy? I’d love to see your picks in the comments.

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About the Author
Alicia Lawrence is a content coordinator at an Internet marketing company. In her free time, she writes on her blog MarComLand.com and is furthering her education online.