Grin and Share It: How Humor Brings More People to the Table

The need to boost sales and brand buzz is no laughing matter—or is it? It turns out that humor can be a powerful catalyst for business growth and market penetration. Tickle the funny bone and you can trigger a viral moment, tap into a broader audience and turn prospects into customers.

Savvy public relations professionals know that if a company or brand fails to grasp the emotional connection humor can make with consumers, the joke is on them. “Humor does more than make people laugh,” said Meghan Flynn, director of public relations for The Food Group. “Done right, it makes people feel good about a product or service. It builds trust and makes your brand memorable and relatable.”

Fifty-five percent of executives agree that humor is more effective than no humor, while 72% find it draws consumers to new products.¹ What’s more, a whopping 90% of consumers are more likely to remember funny ads, and 72% favor humorous brands over the competition.¹

“Strategically employed, humor is one of the most effective ways to differentiate a brand in a crowded marketplace,” Flynn continued. “It can deliver high levels of consumer engagement and social sharing, with enhanced recall and purchase intention.”

Humor Reaches New Heights

Humor has proven to be such an effective advertising and marketing tool that Cannes Lions, one of the advertising industry’s most prestigious international awards festivals, now has a category dedicated to it. In 2023, Cannes Lions saw a 43% increase in entries for humor-driven ads¹ — a clear statement about the mass appeal of advertising that makes consumers laugh.

Be sure to closely monitor what is trending or making headlines with trend-tracking tools and customized feeds like Feedly, so you can capitalize on hot topics and consider humorous takes on them that tie back to your brand. Proactively following trends and news items can help you seamlessly integrate opportunities for humor into your PR and marketing initiatives while avoiding pitfalls. 

Also, keep in mind the importance of timing. For example, campaigns that joke during a crisis or make light of a serious news item can easily backfire and tarnish your brand’s reputation. Humor must always be well-timed and carefully calibrated to maximize your chances of success.

This year, Ogilvy (a WPP sister agency of The Food Group) won the Cannes Lion Grand Prix for Social & Influencer for its Michael CeraVe campaign, which ultimately debunked the rumor that A-list actor Michael Cera masterminded the skin care products that bear his name. The campaign, which culminated in a hilarious Super Bowl commercial, delivered 30 billion earned impressions and a 25% increase in sales.¹

Noteworthy examples of humor in food and beverage marketing include:

• McDonald’s served up supersized laughs when its Hamburgler mascot stepped up his burger-filching game in his never-before-seen Burgercuda getaway car. Fans who spotted the custom 1970 Plymouth Barracuda could scan the code on it and make off with a McDonald’s gift card and Hamburgler-inspired swag.
• Social media ate up the laugh-out-loud Edible Pop-Tart mascot publicity stunt, when a walking frosted pastry named Strawberry was lowered into a giant toaster during a college bowl game—and out popped an actual ready-to-eat Pop-Tart. The winning team feasted on the sacrificial Pop-Tart, which was forecasted to earn more than $12 million in exposure.³
  
  
• Rather than react with anger at the shameless, endless emulation of its iconic logo and brand positioning, KFC used humor to turn it into a positive. After all, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. But the fact is, you can only get KFC at KFC, as its “Chicken Town” campaign showed so well.

Humor can be equally effective for B2B campaigns, as Ogilvy demonstrated with its “Rockstars” campaign for the finance and HR platform Workday. The ad poked fun at the corporate tendency to dub standout employees “rockstars” and showed various actual rockstars hilariously taking umbrage with stretching the definition of the word.

In the end, being attuned to the timing and trends that align with brand objectives and the caliber of the creative approach are what determine the effectiveness of humor-based campaigns. For more insights into humor as a marketing and PR tool, dig into “A Feast of Fools: Best April Fools’ Day Pranks by Food Brands.” For custom marketing solutions, reach out to The Food Group now.

1 “The Power of Humour as a Marketing Strategy: Pros and Cons (+10 Examples),” Brand Vision, January 23, 2024

2 “The Ingredients for Memorable Restaurant Advertising,” Lavidge, 2017

3 Barton, Kaitlin, “Why the Edible Pop-Tarts Bowl Mascot Will Live On in Marketing,” Adweek, January 5, 2024