The age-old adage “laughter is the best medicine” no longer works in today’s digital landscape. Instead, it should be “laughter is the best marketing tool,” which is why many are using humour as a brand strategy. When done right, these ads have the potential to go viral and achieve marketing goals. This is why many brands use this as a way to increase brand awareness and capture customer loyalty.
If you’re pondering whether you should experiment with humour as a marketing strategy for your business, it’s important that you weigh your options.
Most importantly, you need to know the pros and cons of using this to build your brand. If done in bad taste, it could backfire and cost your business. This is why you need to carefully consider whether it’s something you should try or not.
In this article, we’ll talk about the pros and cons of using humour as a brand strategy. If you do decide to go for it, we’ll give you some guidance on how to do it properly.
Plus, at the end of this article, you’ll find __ examples of Singapore ads that properly used humour and the ones that tried but failed miserably.
Let’s go.
Pros & Cons to Using Humour as a Brand Strategy
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According to a study, 74% of people share memes among their friends on social media. In fact, people are 49% more likely to share funny over important content on social media. Since memes resonate more with social media users, more brands are using this part of their marketing campaigns.
A study also found that the use of memes in marketing can attract more purchases by 60%. If the use of humour to connect with your audience has that potential, why don’t more brands include this in their strategy? Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of using humour in your marketing campaigns.
Pros:
- It builds brand awareness and loyalty through an emotional connection
- It produces the best engagement since humorous content is shareable and relatable
Cons:
- A distasteful joke can destroy your brand
- The wrong use of humour can cheapen the marketing idea
- The humour may be seen as offensive
6 Tips to Using Humour in Marketing
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If you’re decided to use humour as part of your brand’s marketing strategy, you need to be creative about it. Here are some tips that you can use to doing this strategy properly:
1. Know Your Audience
Before launching a marketing campaign, you need to figure out who your target audience is, as well as the kind of humour they will find funny. You’ll also need to know the type of content they will enjoy seeing and find relatable.
The best way to do it is to use humour across generations, so that you do not offend a particular age group. Be as specific as you can in this approach so that the humour will not be lost and feel forced.
2. Don’t Take Your Brand Too Seriously
One of the safest and best ways you can use humour is to poke fun at yourself. This will allow your target audience to see a relaxed side to your brand that humanises your identity. This is usually how the audience gets to feel connected with the brand and see their content as relatable.
3. Get Inspiration From Trends
If you don’t know where to get ideas for humorous content, you can take a look at popular memes or trending topics. While controversial topics can also be a place to get ideas, it is generally not the best option as it can lead to a distasteful joke.
4. Think Of The Right Timing
If you’ve carefully thought of a joke related to a current theme, you may need to consider the right time to post it. There is always a right and bad time to post material online. A natural disaster is never a good time or idea to joke about.
5. Avoid Rehashed Content
These days, people are always on the lookout for the next content idea that has the chance to go viral. While these jokes can work when they are fresh, seeing it over and over again can become annoying. If your followers feel like the content you use has become overdone, they will easily get bored and look for other avenues for entertainment.
6. Tread Carefully
If you plan to use this strategy, be careful and make sure to plan it out meticulously. Deciding to include humour in your digital marketing strategy can be a great way to humanise your brand. But always remember to do it in a respectful and appropriate way.
Not all kinds of attention will work with your business. And to be honest, you don’t really need to go to extremes just to establish your brand. Here are some important tips to remember:
- Don’t try too hard to be funny. Keep it light and natural.
- Avoid controversial issues that touch on politics, religion, sexuality, or gender.
- Consider how your joke will affect people, you might upset and offend some.
Always remember that your joke will have a lasting impact on your brand. You wouldn’t want all the hard work you spent building your brand to be thrown away after one offensive joke.
10 Times Singapore Ads Tried To Be Funny And Wowed/Failed Their Audience
Now that you know the pros and cons of using humour as a brand strategy, let’s take a look at a few examples of how Singapore brands used this too.
1. Mocca’s Muscleman (Hilarious AF)
Image Credit: YouTube
One of the most recognisable ads in Singapore that a lot of people found funny was Mocca’s Muscleman ad in 2007.
The online classified ads service rolled out an ad for their website, which featured the ‘Mocca Muscleman,’ a nearly naked bodybuilder, who flexed his muscles as he tried to sell his house.
The ad shows the man in a small, body-hugging zebra briefs with a joyful smile on his face. In the video, you can see him showing off his muscles as he tries to point to the different areas of his green-walled home.
The ad worked because it was funny, direct-to-the-point, and light-hearted. The brand has also made an indelible mark on its audience.
Surprisingly, there are still people who are looking for the Mocca Muscleman guy, who turns out to be Ha Thanh Quang in real life. In 2021, Vice shared an article on the Mocca Muscleman and what has happened to him since his iconic ad.
2. Circles.Life’s Data Deprivation (Boo!)
Image Credit: Mothership
A Singapore ad that failed in its attempt to go viral is from the digital telco, Circles.Life, in 2017. The brand launched an ad that drew inspiration from humanitarian campaigns fighting against world hunger. But instead of this topic, it centred on how data deprivation was a serious issue.
Although it wasn’t a campaign that used humour as a brand strategy, this ad tried to go off the beaten path. When locals saw the ads, they quickly asked for sensitivity from the brand in dealing with the topic.
After that controversy, the brand was in hot water again after being called out by a former Miss Singapore Universe candidate and actress, Eunice Olsen. The digital telco had run a campaign that was “sexist and derogatory.” Olsen lodged a police report about the ad, which had already been taken down.
This just goes to show how the audience responds to ads that were done in bad taste.
3. Snickers’ The Best Comeback (LOL)
Image Credit: YouTube
Snickers’ “You’re not you when you’re hungry” campaign has been iconic for the brand. They are the classic example of a brand who has done a great job in creating an effective humorous campaign for their brand. The campaign has been ongoing for over 10 years and continues to deliver.
Inspired by this, Singapore ran a “The Best Comeback” campaign for the brand by featuring a Chinese opera singer giving a sassy comeback after a football player insults the way she has been defending the turf. After a bite of the famous chocolate bar, the woman transforms into a male goalkeeper, who’s ready to defend his post.
There have been other variations of this campaign in different parts of the world, which just goes to show how they have been successful in building their name, not like they need to anyway.
4. E-Pay’s Brownface Controversy (Yikes!)
Image Credit: Yahoo News
Campaigns that use racial stereotypes (like brownface or blackface) have never sat well with anyone, not just Singaporeans. The only time it did not cause a ruckus was when Robert Downey Jr. played an actor who played a blackface role in a pretend movie in Tropic Thunder. His role opened the public’s eyes to this practice, which excused him at that time.
So when actor Dennis Chew appeared in an E-Pay 2019 ad portraying various characters of different ethnicities, the public did not let it slide. The ad was heavily criticised by locals for the poor practice, especially since they did not show sensitivity to racial representation.
After the backlash, E-Pay took down the ad and an official police report had been lodged against it. Chew also took to Instagram to apologise for his participation in the ad by saying: “My role in a recent ad has caused much disappointment. For many days I held back what I have to say, afraid of making things worse. I feel terrible about how things turned out.”
5. Singapore LTA’s PCK Train Rap (Fun!)
Image Credit: Smong.net
Another Singapore ad that made headlines in a positive way is from the Land Transport Authority, which signed up Gurmit Singh to reprise his role from the hit sitcom, Phua Chu Kang (PCK). The actor did a fun rap on basic etiquette on board the MRT.
The campaign was a huge success because it helped improve the way people travel via the MRT. The song is also pretty catchy, with its main message standing out to viewers.
6. Singapore Tourism Board’s Surprise in Singapore (Oh no!)
Image Credit: YouTube
In 2014, the Singapore Tourism Board ran a campaign to promote the tiny island nation to more travellers. The ad featured a Filipino couple having a romantic trip at iconic destinations. At the end of their date, the woman gave her beau a “gift,” which turned out to be a positive pregnancy test.
When the ad first came out, it was met with positive reactions. But after a while, it gained negative attention, particularly from locals who found the ad done in bad taste, especially with its poor acting, voiceovers, storyline, and cheesy actors. The Board decided to pull the ad from airwaves, but some have managed to copy it.
The ad did not receive the reaction it expected, especially since many criticised it.
There are plenty of other Singaporean ads that failed to hit the mark in trying to be funny. But it’s also good to acknowledge the ones that were able to do a good job in using humour as a brand strategy.
As a business owner and marketer, we always have a role to fill on how we deliver ads to our audience. While our main goal is to become viral and to create buzz around the brand, we need to show sensitivity to controversial topics and potentially groups that we may offend.
If you are hoping to use humour as a way to uplift your brand, you should always do it with the right marketing group. At MediaOne, we strive for perfection and to help change your online presence. Give us a call today so we can talk about how we can use humour to highlight your business to both global and local markets.
We have worked with various Singaporean brands as we elevate their digital marketing campaigns with sensitivity in mind. Our background can help you achieve your brand’s goals through the right kind of humour that fits you and your audience.
