Twenty
to thirty years ago, humor was commonly used to sell low-priced
products. We remember Mr. Whipple squeezing the Charmin and
Clara Peller asking "Where's the beef?" Today, when you watch
TV, you're likely to see humor being used to sell automobiles.
Over the years, advertisers have gained a greater appreciation
of the value of humor for feeling good, building relationships
and selling products. And so have speakers come to appreciate
the more sophisticated value of humor for selling their message.
As advertising campaigns become more expensive ($2.6 million
for a 30 second Super Bowl ad), we realize that the success
of humor goes far beyond the question of humor or no-humor.
And as speaker, the importance of our speech has also risen
as the cost of holding the meeting soars. Although humor definitely
helps with getting attention, getting remembered, getting
repeated, building trust...it's really a complicated process
as one goes from the writer's pen to actually making the sale
or selling an idea.
1. Target Market
The right match to the target market is critical. A humor
piece that falls flat to the general public but which is mostly
loved by your target market, is not a bad thing, it's a good
thing. Customization of the humor to your target market is
part of what will make the humor click. If people outside
your target don't get it, that's not a major concern. If your
target market doesn't like it...we have a problem. And in
speaking from the platform, it's also humor customized to
the audience that hits the home run.
2. Brand Identification
The linkage of the product being sold to the commercial advertisement
is often missed in humor ads. Having an advertisement which
people love is good, but if nobody remembers what product
was being advertised, that's very bad. A television commercial
I have enjoyed three or four times is one that features a
businessman making a phone call to his wife from a new car
or a rental car. He's using a hands-free phone to make the
call and at the same time is using a GPS to give him directions
to his hotel. The wife hears the GPs computer synthesized
woman's voice over the phone. "Is that a woman's voice?" The
computer then says, "The hotel is on the left." The wife hangs
up. The driver speaks into the hands-free phone, "Call florist."
Cute commercial, and afterwards I thought it was selling a
car (not a GPs system or a cell phone), but even though I
had watched it several times I couldn't remember which brand
of car. I saw it again last night. It's a Toyota commercial.
I had to make myself pay attention to see what brand was being
advertised. Probably not a good thing. Brand recognition should
be viewer tested before launching the campaign. And maybe
it was and I'm the only one who missed the brand in the ad.
Make sure you don't lose the product in the middle of a joke.
And as a speaker, be sure that your message isn't smothered
by irrelevant jokes. The humor must help people remember the
brand and the message.
3. Relevant Humor
The challenge advertisers face is the same challenge public
speakers run into. Because speakers know that humor has a
certain power, they often force fit a joke into their talk
that has nothing to do with the message. Often it's the open-with-a-joke
formula that gets a talk off to a bad start as the audience
is thinking "why did he/she tell that joke?" Magician speakers
often fall into the same trap. They LOVE their magic and often
force-fit a magic trick into their talk linking it to a contrived
message. The trick, whether you're an ad writer or speaker,
is to make the humor an organic part of the message. It has
to blend in as a natural part of the storyline and product
message or speech theme so that it compliments it and does
not conflict or compete with it. When there is a disconnect,
although the audience might be somewhat entertained, they
are also confused and no points are scored. And nothing, neither
a product nor an idea, gets sold.
4. Culture Link
Another factor is the linkage between the culture of the operations
staff, the marketing people (especially the customer-service
front line) and the PR folks. A humor-driven advertising campaign
for a company which has a low score on the corporate-culture-sense-of-humor
scale is a mis-match. The prospect sees one thing on the ads
and another when contacting or visiting the company. The speaker
has the same challenge to walk-the-talk. If you're going to
use humor in your talk, let's hope you have a sense of humor
off the platform!
I've never had the task of finding an ad agency which was
great at advertising strategy AND humor skills. But from the
ads I've seen, I can tell that it would be a challenging search.
Being funny AND selling to your target market is not an art
easily mastered. Being a funny speaker with a message takes
work too. However, it's worth the effort!
(867 words)
© Copyright 2007 John Kinde
John Kinde presents workshops and coaching on humor and improv
skills for business. John is part of the Fripp Las Vegas team
and the author of a series of audio and video learning tapes.
You will find humor skills articles at http://www.HumorPower.com
