It’s a curious statistic: 88% of consumers are drawn to experiences that make them laugh, yet a staggering 95% of business leaders shy away from incorporating humour into their advertising (at least according to Oracle).
Whether this statistic is true or not, I have the impression that a lot of companies prefer to stick to professional, sterile designs. But I’ve got a few thoughts I want to share about humour in branding and the importance of play in the branding process.
How some quirky teeth sparked debate
The notion of brand playfulness has been a recurring subject in our team ever since I drew a specific set of illustrations for a vitamin chewing gum with dental benefits called The A-Day.
At the time, we were faced with a challenge: how to make the densest part of our website—the dental page—not just informative but also engaging.
The illustration shown was my attempt at the time to turn each of the benefits that were drowning in a wall of text into separate characters that visitors could explore.
Each character represents one of the dental issues that the gum can prevent, and the interactive bar allows page visitors to slide to reveal the full before and after pictures.
After adding these teeth, the page that was largely ignored suddenly became the centre of attention from advisors and proofreaders looking at our website draft.
Many advocated for removing the teeth, though, even though everyone was humoured and delighted by discovering them – that the illustrations were too whimsical for a serious brand.
The arguments for play in branding
From the many conversations in our team, I’ve identified two main arguments for norm breaking in marketing.
Firstly, it serves three key purposes: 1) capturing people’s attention, 2) maintaining it, and 3) ensuring they remember you.
Novel and entertaining content cuts through the noise. This is especially relevant in today’s world, where consumers are inundated with a plethora of stimuli. Breaking norms allows a brand to stand out initially by daring to deviate from established patterns.
Once attention is secured, norm-breaking plays a crucial role in sustaining it. Novel, unusual, and playful elements disrupt patterns and foster deeper engagement. We tend to remember what stands out as unique and novel.
Secondly, norm-breaking can be leveraged as a demarcation strategy and a potent tool for brand building. Brand managers often liken ‘brands’ to individuals—they possess a personality, a voice, and an aesthetic.
If an ‘innovative and disruptive’ brand was personified, wouldn’t it also be a rule-breaker charting its own path?
I contend that brands aiming to be perceived as authentic should particularly consider incorporating more playfulness and norm-breaking in their marketing and communications strategies. It’s erroneous to assume that people have greater trust in sterile and impersonal brands, especially among younger demographics. This is why word-of-mouth and influencer marketing are among the most effective strategies—they exude authenticity.
Breaking norms is a demonstration of independent thought and personality, which, in turn, accentuates your brand’s authenticity.
Dare to play
In the end, we did not use the teeth illustrations at the A-Day.
The reason was not that we decided they were too wild, but rather a shift in our target audience and brand strategy.
Even so, the same positive culture that allowed me to draw a set of teeth has also allowed me to do some of my best copywriting, design, and graphics to date (I will share more about the actual result in another blog post).
Scientists Meredith Van Vleet and Brooke Feeney define play as: A behavior or activity carried out with the goal of amusement and fun that involves an enthusiastic and in-the-moment attitude or approach. Play is being carried away and saying “yes…and?”.
I firmly believe that bad ideas are necessary to find the good ones – and that bad ideas are usually a hairwidth away from brilliant ones precisely because norm breaking is such a powerful communication strategy.
At The A-Day, even the sceptics of the teeth illustration were praising our willingness to think outside the box.
A Learning Experience
Norm-breaking communications isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. Ultimately, it’s about understanding who your target user is and creating a brand experience that appeals to them.
Though the A-Day illustrations were shelved, they were far from a waste. They sparked lively conversations about humor, playfulness, and norm breaking – as you can tell from reading this lengthy blog post about a set of illustrations that were ultimatelly scrapped.
