Why humor in your animated video can be a real sales tool

As a famous philosopher Henry Bergson wrote, “Laughter had ‘a knack of baffling every effort, of slipping away and escaping only to bob up again, a pert challenge flung at philosophic speculation’. Believe it or not, but his contemplation on the subject of humour actually has a lot to do with… selling and acting at the market.

Making people laugh always pays off. Literally. Imagine a simple situation in your everyday life, at work, or in any other part of your life. Humour always works as a relief or thing that would break the ice. Well, the same works in marketing. Knowing how to use humour in sales could be a great way to implement another efficient tool in your marketing campaign.

Haven’t you had some thoughts about this? You’ve probably noticed how many successful advertising campaigns were at some point turning to humorous manifestations of the product or services. The reason why remember that is not your need in these services. The thing is quite simple: among so many other ads only this one sticks to your memory. Most likely, because of all the humour. If you can balance engaging, professional content with some humour, – for example in startup video – you are halfway to make your way to the customers’ hearts. There are plenty of cases when humour makes a brand’s reputation impeccable.

In relation to animated videos, humour can be a real game-changer, because the subtle nature of animation with just a bit of humour that fits into your tone of voice is an ideal combination.

Pieces of evidence?

Many scientists claim that humour in sales increases the level of likeability. The last one, actually, is one of your main powers, let’s say so. People act on likeability, it’s one of the superior unconscious triggers. Wouldn’t you like those that make you laugh or at least leave you with a nice, warm feeling after hearing even a slightly humorous phrase? Basically, a kind of humour you have to use in marketing is affiliative humour. In the very essence of it is an endearing effort.

You are giving people a reason to like your brands, showing something except the product itself. The attitude.  In order to show a so-called “human side” of the brand, founders, marketers and other staff involved in the promotion use lots of tricks. One of these is jokes, light humour, something that is keeping the atmosphere at the appropriate level. 

Does it add something?

…to the value of your product? Well, for sure! First of all, you are getting memorable. Most of the emotions make things and events memorable. Since humour – well-crafted jokes – provides people with pleasant emotions, your product becomes memorable. It is hard to get out of the head “that service or product or app that was so funny”. It catches you, creates the state that later – if the product will justify itself – could be a real bond. Humour indicates and supposes a bunch of positive emotions.

Humour adds viral potential. Think of this: the meme culture is actually blooming right now. It has evolved into something bigger than just funny stuff, but also gave us a great field of references and allusions to be made. And nothing is more viral than memes, just because people were laughing at it, sharing, and sharing more. Best viral commercials are funny.

The tone of voice and humour

Any brand should have its own voice. Depending on your product, a target audience, your goals and so on, you will have to develop it. However, sometimes you need just an inch of humour in it, while in other cases you have to base the tone of voice on humour. Anyway, there is a right time and place to be funny when it comes to the voice of your brand. There are topics that are better to talk about with serious intentions, leaving your humorous part of brand identity behind.

Even if you identify your brand as one with a slightly humorous tone of voice, there are cases when you have to change it a little bit. That will be your big advantage – the ability to sound differently, but keeping your main tone of voice.  If you can orchestrate both your jokes and neutrality, you’ll win them over.

Connecting customer’s issues to the humor

Anything could be turned into humorous material. That is why we have dark humour here, right? But let’s get to the point. The customer’s biggest needs and problems can be encountered with lots of humour. It gives a wonderful perspective to the issues but also connects you to these people. Stay away from sensitive topics (unless your main area is sensitive, and your tone of voice requires talking about sensitive things – well, in that case, you should rock!), learn feedback from your attitude and correct it, if needed.

Some types of humor to get approval from Henry Bergson  Observational, everyday humour.  This requires a perfect understanding of your audience. You need to know what their everyday life consists of, typical situations that happen here and there, habits they are likely to have or see around them. This type of humour is based on familiarity. Once people recognise themselves in whatever you are trying to show, it creates a bond.

Lewis Caroll-kind-of-humor. In other words: absurd humour. Absurd humour breaks the boundaries of what you expect to hear and brings out something incredibly interesting – sort of new meaning to the familiar. An ideal way to make people that watch your animated video laugh and wonder about the meaning after your cunnings. 

Topically-relevant humour. If you know what is out there that coincides with the information horizon of your target audience, deal with it. People will laugh, of course, but what is more important, they will remember you and maybe start to follow you on a constant basis. If you can take a simple problem that your prospective customers are facing and use humour while demonstrating a solution — you are going to make them fall in love with you. 

Words-to-play. Wordplays are essentially a great part of the humour. Think about it for a minute and try to remember how many commercials you’ve seen for the last year didn’t at least at some point consist of wordplays. Wordplay is always funny, weird, and freeing: it gives a space for flexible meaning. 

Summary: humor, animation, and sales

Animation can move you at a pace faster than other visual mediums of our age. But what creates a sense of travelling through the object is the right tone that accompanies you while watching. This is clearly what humour is for when it comes to talking about animation. It gives a viewer this incredible sense of a journey.

Yes, humour is a sales tool. But what is more important, it creates a feeling of easiness that is natural to the friends. Isn’t it what you want to achieve with your customers?