Bringing humorous marketing to business

Those of you who have seen my postcards will know that I'm great fan of using humour in business marketing.

It doesn’t take away from a business being “Professional” or “Corporate” - I believe it’s simply a more empathetic way of attracting attention.

The secret is to tread that delicate balance between the humour being appropriate and it not being of the “geddit geddit” variety…

I recently devised a humorous advertisement for a client’s presence in Yellow Pages. He was pleased with it at the time but we hadn’t recently talked about it, so imagine my delight (and amazement) when he happened to mention that he was getting between 10 and 20 enquiries a month on the strength of that ad. I was particularly pleased as this had been a medium that was delivering less and less business.

By the way I’d like to think my surprise and delight was perfectly in step with being described by another client as a “very humble marketing guru” in her introductory email to another potential client.  My husband nearly died laughing and said he had never heard the word “humble” applied to me – huh!

Anyway humour plays a central part in many businesses - think about the Carlsberg ads, (take a peek at their 2012 ad which was an amusing take on the film “The Great Escape” ). Fosters Lager is equally consistent in placing humour at the centre of their brand - in fact they even sponsor the Edinburgh Comedy Awards.

The Lush catalogue has long been a favourite of mine with their witty descriptions of products. Here’s their website description for products relating to hands and feet “Let's give a big round of applause and show some support for those hardworked bits of our body that so often get forgotten”  

I also love the Innocent Drinks packaging – in fact you can enjoy a whole gallery of these - they may give you inspiration! 

Thanks to Mannaz on Flickr.com for a great photo