Ohm 1 Sarah Ohm Professor Rhonda Sandberg

Ohm 1 Sarah Ohm Professor Rhonda Sandberg English COMM 1007 31 March 2014 Humour Proves To Be A Leading Contender In Advertising Campaign Success The most effective advertising or marketing campaigns are the ones that are memorable to consumers, some organizations run heart-warming campaigns around the holiday season, while other organizations run a series of television commercials with a memorable main character to connect with their targeted consumers. There are a number of ways of creating a lasting impression on consumers and humour should be considered a major contender among the other strategic tactics implemented by marketers. Organizations can leverage the lasting effects that humour has on consumers through direct puns or creating real life scenarios with humour to connect with the consumers on a human level. There are multiple ways to include humour in a marketing campaign effectively. Humourous advertising can be equally, if not more effective than other, non-humourous forms of advertising campaigns if implemented correctly to consumers. Forbes.com recently put together a list of “The Most Unforgettable Ads of 2013”, which included 2 advertisement campaigns that used humour to portray their message to consumers. The most popular was a television commercial run by K-mart promoting the service Kmart provided to consumers to have their purchases shipped to their home free of charge. The advertisement was titled “Ship My Pants” and included family members acting shocked to find out that they could “ship their

Ohm 2 pants” or “ship their bed” to their home for free. The reason this advertisement was so effective is because it is something that consumers would not expect to come from a company such as K-mart. Due to the play on words and the humour behind every customer in the commercial using the play on words in a different context, the advertisement is extremely memorable for consumers and actually went viral with the hashtag #ShipMyPants. Social media played a large role in this particular advertisement going viral due to the fact that consumers enjoy sharing content such as this with friends and family, and due to that reason the advertisement could reach consumers who would not have necessarily seen the advertisement on their television screens. “In many ways it’s a throwback to yesteryear, reminding us all that creating an entertaining ad that hammers home a key value proposition for the brand (in this case free shipping) is as valuable today as it was in years gone by. In fact even more so, because with social media it has a longer shelf life and reaches an unexpected and unintended audiences in ways that might actually broaden the brand’s appeal” (Smith par. 26). Another great example of how humour has effectively been used in advertising campaigns is with insurance companies. In 2010, the insurance industry spent $5 billion in marketing alone, and the 4 big companies (Allstate, Geico, Progressive and State Farm) all use humour in their advertising campaigns (Adding Humour 38). Allstate Insurance ran an advertising campaign called “Mayhem” where one man was portrayed in multiple television commercials as “mayhem” and caused accidents in several different, yet very relevant to the average consumer, real-life scenarios. They have concluded that the reason the advertising campaign

Ohm 3 was so effective is because Allstate has a large online presence and with the use of social media, the “Mayhem” commercials went viral among consumers, typically of younger age. “Humour tends to attract a more youthful audience. It’s something they can relate to and respect; it seems real rather than forced or fabricated” (Adding Humour 38). Humour can also be a very effective approach when a company is looking to rebrand a product or service. A recent example of this is the company Old Spice and the rebranding of their body wash with use of the “Old Spice Guy”. The series of commercials features a charismatic and charming “ideal man” speaking directly to women informing them of how Old Spice will change their man into an “ideal man”, and the character speaks to women in a humours and cleaver manner. “According to AdAge, the campaign had 40 million views its first week online, and since the campaign launched, Old Spice body wash sales have gone up 107 percent” (Doran 21). In all cases, running an advertising campaign requires that a company provide an incentive for consumers. In the case of humour, the company running the advertisement is offering free entertainment to the consumer in exchange for taking the time to watch the advertisement (Cowan 85). An argument one might have against the use of humour in long-term marketing and advertising campaigns could be that the more the same joke, or in this case commercial, is played for consumers to view, the quicker it becomes old to consumers, and looses the appeal it had when the campaign first launched. If a company chooses to use humour in their advertising campaign, they have to be prepared to update the campaign often and provide consumers with new content on

Ohm 4 a frequent basis. “We often hear that a joke that gets repeated too often ceases to be funny, so you run the risk that the advertising message will start to wear out fast” (Adding Humour 38). Another issue that would face companies when trying to use humour in advertising campaigns would be proper execution. Humour can definitely be an amazing way to get the message of a company into the minds of consumers; however if it is executed poorly then it could damage the entire reputation of the company, and the company may have to go to great lengths to make up for any offense that was taken by consumers. A prime example of this happened with the company Popchips. The company launched a television commercial featuring a celebrity actor who played the role of 4 different bachelors on a television dating show. As one character, the actor’s skin was painted brown, the actor used an Indian accent and the actor danced as though he was a Bollywood actor. The character was perceived as racist by consumers, and Popchips then pulled the ad video and issued a public apology saying it was meant to be a spoof and cause a few laughs (White 2). Not only did this advertisement cost Popchips a lot of money to produce, it ultimately ended up causing consumers to look down on the brand as opposed to thinking of the brand in a positive way. Fortunately for marketers, planning for obstacles like this while preparing a marketing plan is something that can easily be done. Going back to the example of the Mayhem commercials run by Allstate Insurance, they produced and released over 20 different Mayhem commercials knowing that variety is key to ensuring success in this particular advertising campaign. In order to prevent the problem of

Ohm 5 having a humourous campaign running dry, there has to be a wide variety of advertisements that consumers see and take note of on a regular basis. Poor execution is a bit more difficult to try and plan for as a company does not usually know of poor execution until backlash has already happened, and because one advertisement might be taken in perfect context to some people, but may be perceived completely differently to others. It can prove as extremely difficult for companies to figure out what will be funny for their average consumer. Humour is an extremely subjective topic, and what is funny to one person may be the complete opposite to another. “The difficulty is, the special alchemy that makes some campaigns funny and others duds is hard to define” (Cowan 85). Humour has proven itself over and over again to be a successful approach when it comes to designing an advertising campaign. There are many examples of how humour has been effectively used to portray a message from one company to millions of consumers, and how it has successfully helped companies increase sales exponentially. The way Kmart used a play-on-words to add humour to promote their message of free shipping and how Allstate Insurance used everyday scenarios to relate to their customers in a humourous manner are perfect examples of how companies have used humour successfully to yield amazing results. Although humourous advertisements may run dry if there is a lack of variety, or may be executed in the wrong manner, companies can usually implement strategies to forecast and avoid such negative consequences. Humour has proven itself to be extremely effective, if not more effective, than non-humourous advertisement campaigns.

Ohm 6 Works Cited "Adding Humor To The Advertising Mix." Best's Review 112.9 (2012): 38. Business Source Complete. Web. 29 Mar. 2014. Print. Cowan, James. "Viral Ads That Smell As Good As This Guy." Canadian Business 83.7 (2010): 85. Academic Search Premier. Web. 29 Mar. 2014. Doran, Ryan. "Advertising Success Loosens Traditional Ties." Westchester County Business Journal 46.50 (2010): 21-23. Small Business Reference Center. 29 Mar. 2014. Web. Smith, Jacquelyn. The Most Unforgettable Ad Campaigns of 2013. http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2013/12/17/the-mostunforgettable-ad-campaigns-of-2013/, 17 Dec. 2013. Web. White, Martha. What Were They Thinking? 10 Ads That Sparked Controversy. http://business.time.com/2012/07/05/what-were-they-thinking-10-adsthat-sparked-controversy/slide/more-lists/, 1 Jul. 2012. Web.