If You Make Them Laugh, They Will Buy

 Business and comedy have historically remained on opposite sides of the fence; however, we are starting to see a shift in our world of shorter-than-ever attention spans.  Companies are starting to realize that content marketing, and more specifically the online content featured on their YouTube channels, Facebook and Twitter feeds is one of their biggest selling tools.  Customers today want to be entertained not informed.  With so many avenues for communicating your message, it’s critical that you get noticed, and that you do it quickly.  In a recent article, Fast Company featured 5 leading companies that are killing it through the use of humor to engage customers and boost sales. Companies like Twitter, Taco Bell and even the Oreo cookie are paying attention to what consumers want and responding with humorous content.

 “The Nielsen Global Survey of Trust in Advertising polled more than 29,000 Internet respondents in 58 countries to measure consumer sentiment on 19 forms of advertising formats. Forty-seven percent of global respondents agreed that humorous ads resonated most.”

There are other companies who are not only jumping on the comedy bandwagon when it comes to brand marketing, but also when it comes to employee retention.  I recently read about a company in Calgary who just launched a new role, Director of Humor.  They practice fun as a core value of the company, and they take it very serious.

“Really the plan is just to keep things fun,” said Lindsay Mather, vice-president of human resources for Rogers Insurance which has about 165 employees in Calgary. We believe in having fun at work and part of that is laughing at yourself and being around people who can have a good time. When you’re having fun at work, you’re in a better mood. You treat your clients better.”

It’s so refreshing to see the movement going on out there.  Business and comedy are intertwining and playing nice, very nice. Companies are realizing that people want to laugh, to have fun and to be entertained.  Who wants boring when you can have this or this or this?

Since most companies are not equipped to write and produce the funny, they are relying on outside resources to help them with their comedy based content marketing.  Companies like Second City Communications in Chicago and The Brink Improv (just a super tiny plug) in Atlanta, GA are making content marketing a big part of their business offerings.  By tapping into the local improv community, companies can produce customized funny videos to heighten their brand and boost sales.  It seems that a laugh is becoming the new tool in promoting your brand and getting more sales.  Are you funny enough?

Kristy West is the Founder of BraveSpace in Atlanta, GA. She shares her passion for applied improvisation with teams and people to help them communicate in more meaningful ways through interactive and engaging learning.