1. Brand funny has to be target funny
Humor is not necessarily universal, and understanding what makes your target laugh is, naturally, a critical consideration when you use humor to reinforce or evolve your brand imagery. Even the broadest comedic concepts have their detractors -- not everyone even liked "I Love Lucy."
Even if much humor were universal, it still might make sense to focus on target-specific laughs, as these reflect an insight that might ultimately aid in honing the best brand image possible. Check out these examples of how target-specific humor really helped deliver for a brand.
Suave and Sprint: In the Motherhood
One of the chronic problems in the ad biz has always been men writing ads for themselves, thinking they were going to resonate with women. The most glaring example in my career was the development of an animatic for drain opener where the drain was left so open that it sucked the entire house down the plug hole.
And what did the research tell us? Women didn't want their houses sucked into the sewer. They like their homes, thank you very much, and found the ad -- which was conceived of, written, art directed, animated, account managed, and approved by men -- irrelevant at best and violent at worst.
The people at Suave and Sprint are clearly much smarter than we were. Their "In the Motherhood" series generates millions of voluntary views, driven by the quality of the stories and the decidedly female POV. By humorizing the daily lives and situations mom faces, "In the Motherhood" rings the bell for brand relevance and fondness.
Command and Conquer 3: Conquer This Life
From Draftfcb came this wonderful, completely bizarre viral website for "Command and Conquer 3." I don't understand it, but I do know it received giant traffic and that game sales have been brisk. Game marketing largely boils down to showcasing graphics and gameplay, and this site does that. But it does it in a way that clearly resonates with core and noncore strategy gamers alike.
