It's time to take humor in advertising seriously

70 years after the launch of the Cannes Festival of Creativity, humor made its grand entrance at Cannes in 2024 with its own awards ceremony. And it was about time: Kantar data shows that the share of ads using humor as a creative strategy has fallen from 53% to 34% worldwide and across all channels since 2000, and even more so in digital/social – an unpleasant surprise considering that most of the social media universe and most successful content is dominated by humor.

The use of humor in advertising over time

To understand why it matters and what's fun, we hosted a session with new insights from Kantar, TikTok comedy superstar Rob Mayhew, McCann's Effie-winning Global Head of Effectiveness Jamie Peate and IPA Grand Prix-winning CSO of VCCP Claire Hutchinson.

So why have brands lost their meaning?

One theme from our session in Cannes was certainly that the global recession and pandemic have made brands more aware of the need to play it safe. In difficult times, brands can feel that comedy is inappropriate and out of step with the cultural mood – yet all evidence suggests that consumers feel the opposite. The tougher the economic context, the more we crave escapism and light-hearted diversion.

Jamie Peate made another compelling argument: “Brands and the industry focus on themselves rather than the audience and the people – it's like there's a collective existential problem of not being taken seriously and like there's an internalized idea that if we're funny we won't be taken seriously.”

This type of thinking can lead to a shift away from the “craft” and a fixation on finding a magic formula to achieve effectiveness, often making it harder to simply relax.

The point is, there is no magic formula for creativity. The real magic happens when brands break these conventions by using humor and making people feel good. Even the less “fun” industries can manage to effectively captivate their audience.

For example, Thai housing brand Sammakorn had a problem where people confused them with Sanpakorn, the country's tax authority, and kept contacting them about their tax issues. The brand won a Golden Lion in the Film category for its use of humour with the campaign 'Sammakorn Not Sanpakorn', which brilliantly tackled its brand problem with self-deprecating humour. A great example of where creativity can take you when you choose a playful approach to tackling your brand's challenges.

Sammakorn “Sammakorn not Sanpakorn”

Another potential obstacle is the fact that modern campaigns no longer originate on TV first. They are interconnected and live and breathe in the ever-evolving ecosystem of channels, so they flow “at the speed of culture”.

That's a harder and more complex task. But it also means campaigns are created at a much faster pace, leaving less time for the most important ingredient of all: craft. The most brilliant creative work – no matter the medium – benefits from experimentation and refinement. And then more refinement. Brilliant work shines because it's polished – and some of the most impressive work shows that humor can be the glue that holds a multichannel campaign together.

Late last year, Uber launched the multi-asset campaign ‘Trains, now on Uber’ in the UK to promote its train booking feature. This campaign included various types of content including TV, video, out-of-home (OOH) posters and paid social media collaborations. The common thread across these various assets was the use of humour. The ‘Gina’ and ‘Mark’ ads from this campaign won Gold Lions in the film category this year for use of humour. Kantar had tested ‘Gina’ alongside two influencer-created TikTok assets from the same campaign as part of Kantar and Affectiva’s joint attention webinar earlier this year, which demonstrated how humour can be the secret ingredient to grabbing the attention of different audiences with your multi-channel campaign.

Uber | Gina Campaign Performance

What makes humor valuable?

One factor that has changed in recent years is that in a social media-driven culture where everyone and everything – including brands – is relentlessly scrutinized, marketers' sensitivities are heightened. As Claire Hutchinson, chief strategy officer at VCCP, pointed out, navigating the currents of cancel culture requires a delicate balance.

The key here is a strong partnership between client and agency and a creative culture where teams feel encouraged to take these risks and accept their vulnerability.

The commercial benefits to the brand are transformative. Humor is a great tool for creative effectiveness and arguably the most powerful tool in the creative toolbox. It helps to stand out creatively, increases the entertainment value of an ad, emotionally engages viewers and, crucially, leads to stronger brand recall in the consumer's mind.

Pretty incredible, right? You'd have to be brave – or crazy – not to want some of that effectiveness sauce for your brand.
But as with all creativity, humor is not always the same. Recent Kantar LINK data shows that to be effective, humor needs to be connected to the brand. A strong connection to the brand creates a massive impact multiplier effect, ranging from average to strong, for both short-term and long-term effectiveness.

Humor must be associated with your brand

An example of this is one of the most awarded campaigns at Cannes: “Michael CeraVe for CeraVe”, which received 9 Lions. The campaign was created to generate excitement on social media by collaborating with content creators, as Michael Cera is the mastermind behind the CeraVe brand, leading to the big reveal at the Superbowl.

Kantar's LINK+ for Digital on Instagram shows that it uses the perfect balance between humor that's in tune with Michael Cera's own style and a core idea that revolves around the brand. The result: one of the most engaging ads in the US across our entire creative database. Database.

CeraVe | Performance of the campaign “Michael CeraVe for CeraVe”

So sure. Being funny can feel counterintuitive, challenging, and outside your comfort zone. But that's no excuse – any more than the best creativity can be used to build brands. And all the evidence shows that humor is actually too important not to take it very seriously.

The key is to tune into your audience, stay true to your brand and its core idea, and let it run wild by giving yourself and your creative teams the chance to relax and play. When you do that, you'll create more memorable and engaging campaigns that build strong brand sales and pricing power.

At Kantar, we help brands test in context faster and easier from early-stage ideation to final execution with our LINK+ advertising testing solution to ensure your brand's humor is received appropriately and effectively.

To learn more about how LINK+ can improve your ad testing, contact us and request a demo.