Video Content for the Win: How Brands Are Using Humour to Connect with Audiences

In today’s fast-paced marketing world, video content rules the roost. From TikTok to YouTube, video is now the go-to medium for brands to promote their products and services in an increasingly competitive environment. There are billions of videos out there, making it difficult to stand out from the crowd meaningfully. One impactful way to appeal to viewers is to create humorous content.

But before we delve into how brands create humorous videos to stand out from competitors, we need to talk about video production. Creating high-quality video content requires technical expertise, high-quality equipment and considerable time investment. While some businesses do have the resources in-house to create videos, many small businesses do not. This is where outsourcing video production to an established video production company is preferable—they have the experience and expertise to create something truly impactful for your brand. CoolBox – video production Brighton, says that it’s vital for businesses to captivate their audience through video and create a relationship between the viewer and their brand.

Why Humour Works In Video Content

Humour is a powerful way to help you engage with your audience and increase brand awareness in the process. Here’s how:

It’s memorable

If a person makes you laugh, you’re probably more likely to remember them. The same applies to video content. If your brand’s video makes someone laugh, they’re more likely to remember your brand and what it does.

It makes your brand more approachable

Not only do humorous videos make your brand more memorable, but they also make it more approachable and relatable. Using humour shows potential customers that your brand doesn’t take itself too seriously and that you understand their pain points and provide a solution.

It solicits emotional responses

Humour is a powerful emotional trigger that will help to create a deeper level of engagement with viewers. By making people laugh, you create a positive emotional response that they will associate with your brand, meaning they are more likely to interact with you and take action.

How To Inject Humour Into Video Content

We’ve established that using humour in video marketing will help to make your brand more memorable and relatable and create an emotional connection with viewers. However, there is a right way and a wrong way to inject humour into video content. Here are our top tips:

Keep it light-hearted

When using humour in video content, it’s important to keep it light-hearted and suitable for any audience. Avoid controversial or offensive topics, as they may be poorly received by your audience, who may then have negative associations with your brand – also keep a touch of professionalism.

Know your audience

To ensure your humorous video content is effective, you need to understand your audience. Make sure the type of humour you use in videos aligns with your brand’s tone of voice. Otherwise, it may not resonate with your audience. 

Think outside of the box

Some brands have mastered humour on social media by thinking outside of the box. For example, Innocent Drinks regularly lights up social media channels with humorous posts that make people smile because they seem endearingly unprofessional but incredibly relatable. Netflix also posts funny video content relating to the streaming platform’s films and original series regularly to engage viewers.

Try not to overdo it

We know that humour can be incredibly effective in video content, but it’s important not to overdo it. Too much humour can distract from your brand’s message and seem unprofessional. You will know that humour is appropriate if it serves a purpose and is relevant to your brand messaging.

Tell a story with humour

One of the most effective ways to incorporate humour into video content is to use it to tell your brand’s story. Use funny anecdotes to showcase your brand’s personality and core values to create content that is memorable and impactful. 

Three Brands That Have Mastered Humourous Content

One of the best ways to demonstrate how impactful humorous videos can be is to look at some real-life examples. Here are a few brands that are successfully incorporating humour into video content:

Klarna

Swedish fintech company Klarna caught the internet’s attention when they released a video of rapper Snoop Dogg encouraging viewers to make ‘smooth payments’. More recently, Klarna has partnered with internet comedians to capture the attention of millennials and Gen Z. Most recently, the brand has collaborated with Bretman Rocks, who is known for his humorous social media content. 

Tesco

The grocery and retail company Tesco is also known to incorporate humour into its content to create memorable and relatable videos. Most recently, the ‘Food Love Stories’ campaign perfectly combined humour and wholesome moments of people bonding over a love of good food. 

Compare the Market

Arguably one of the most famous brands for humorous content is Compare the Market. Most people will have heard of the brand’s memorable mascot, Aleksandr Orlov, a meerkat that is now a household name in the UK. The meerkat’s memorable sign-off, “simples”, is both funny and memorable, creating plenty of brand awareness. 

Fun Ideas To Try Or Expand On

Below are just some fun examples on how you can incorporate humour into brand video:

1. Pick your favourite TV show, let’s say it’s The US Office. You could create a spoof around one of the episodes that maybe fits in with your brand perfectly, so not only will your video be humorous and about your company, but will spark engagement with your audience through pop culture references.
2. Maybe you’re recruiting/hiring, and you create an ‘Awkward Interview’ series of comically awkward or hard to answer interview questions and scenarios, making light of how daunting interviews can be. This will show your future employees through your ad that you are an upbeat company to work for that will keep their staff engaged, and will also resonate with your audience if they have ever experienced any random interviews themselves that they can laugh about.
3. The Day in the Life of an Employee: You could create a mockumentary video that features a typical day in the life of your employees, complete with dramatic or over-exaggerated situations and humour.
4. Corporate Talent Show: Try inviting your employees to show off their unique and fun talents, from singing to stand-up comedy, and film the performances to create a hilarious talent show video. If your company has a ‘jingle’ or strapline, you could jump on the TikTok trend and get each employee to have a go at singing that one line separately, making everyone laugh.
5. Maybe you’re a clothing or ecommerce brand where you could hold a fashion show in the office, where employees can show off their unique sense of style (or lack thereof), using your own staff to showcase your products, getting them to catwalk up and down the office!

What’s great about brand video production, is there are never-ending opportunities and ideas to come up with and film! And what makes these videos really come to life is the production of the video itself – lighting, sound, environment, etc. The length of the video is important too, most ads are typically 60 seconds long – short and sweet.

Humour In Film & TV

Just like in the FIlm Industry, no matter how tense, dramatic or action-packed a movie is, a little humour goes a long way to lighten the mood and draw away from any sad or tense scenes. Laughter is a stress relief and cools down your stress response, which is why when a Director is filming a tense or sad scene, soon after they will break the tension with something light hearted to bring the audience back – this is called Comic Relief. It is used in many forms of media and also applies in video marketing. The purpose of this is to help an audience process the emotions they have just been through with a brief moment of levity. A great example of this is The Marvel Cinematic Universe – anytime there is a death, fight or stressful scene, usually a character will make a funny comment or joke before it cuts to a tense scene again to maintain balance.

Final Thoughts

Humour is an effective tool for brands looking to create memorable and relatable video content. By using humour in a light-hearted way, brands can connect with audiences of all ages and increase brand awareness through memorable content. If you are considering injecting humour into your brand’s video content, make sure to use it correctly by understanding your audience and keeping it relevant to your brand’s core messaging. The key to creating impactful video content is to tell your brand’s story with humour, as we’ve seen several of the UK’s biggest brands do.

So whether your brand is a small business or a large corporation, humorous video content is a powerful way to build brand identity and create a lasting emotional connection with your target audience. If you are keen to create humorous video content but you do not have the in-house capabilities to do it well, consider working with a professional video production company. Outsourcing to an experienced video production company will give your brand the tools and expertise to create humorous video content that resonates with your audience and increases brand awareness.