If I Didn’t Laugh, I’d Cry

Crashing economies. Raging wars. The rise of the far-right. The continuing decline of the climate. And now, the Queen has passed too. The world is always a tough place, but 2022 seems to have it all. I haven’t even mentioned the C-word. 

As marketeers, our job in representing the brands we support, is to help them navigate these choppy waters. 

Of course, we cannot do everything. It is for our colleagues in commercial teams to find ways to alleviate, for example, the burden of rising costs amongst customers. 

However, what we can do is steer the comms. We can shape the ways that our brands interact with the consumers we serve – in ways that are meaningful to their lives. 

For some brands, one approach might be to lean into your comforting and, if applicable, British identity. The Guardian has reported on booming sales of Hovis and Kingsmill as people hanker for nostalgic semblances of security… and affordability.  

For others, the proven tactic of purpose marketing makes perfect sense. Where consumers are seeing so many challenges around them, a brand standing up and doing the right thing is powerful. 

… As powerful as it is challenging. In an environment where the likes of Patagonia’s Yvon Chouinard is literally giving the firm away to fight climate change, a brand must sincerely walk-the-walk (backed up by significant budget) if it is to escape cries of purpose-washing. 

Perhaps one alterative answer for brands lies in something we too often overlook. Simply, making people smile. Giving our audiences a brief moment of respite amongst the misery of the headlines that surround us. 

Laughter has always been a tonic to tough times. In November 2008, for example, Amazon’s sales figures for comedy DVDs were 41% higher than the same month the year before. Meanwhile, whilst hospitality venues at large were suffering, comedy clubs were full to the brim. 

Humour, however, is a declining tool according to analysis by Kantar, with a significant downward trend recorded, since the turn of the century, in ‘funny’ and ‘light-hearted’ content. 

A downward trend that presents quite an opportunity for the rights brands, given that 75% of consumers welcome humour in advertising, according to another Kantar study, carried out during the pandemic. 

Oracle’s 2022 ‘Happiness Report’, furthermore, revealed that 78% of people believe brands can do more to deliver happiness to their consumers and – remarkably – that 48% of people don’t believe they have a relationship with a brand unless it makes them smile or laugh. 

Enter, Make ‘Em Smile Marketing. 

Make ‘Em Smile Marketing’s raison d'être is to authentically provide moments of levity in consumers’ lives. It is an approach which respects how valuable the time and (if you’re lucky!) attention that people loan you is. It is an approach which delivers on an emotional consumer need state. It is an approach, if executed with the right touch, that can positively impact brand saliency and perception. 

Make ‘Em Smile Marketing doesn’t have to be laugh out loud funny. Cadbury’s Gorilla ad is a perfect example. Nearly fifteen years later, the ridiculousness and joyfulness of the great ape drumming along to Phil Collins, still makes me happy. 

You might not be a fan of said musical Gorilla. But that’s not a problem, because Make ‘Em Smile Marketing isn’t a silver bullet thing. Rather, it is about creating campaigns tailored to the attitudes and experiences of your specific target audiences. 

Hands up, Maltesers’ recent ‘Look on the light side’ campaign - which jokes about the sex lives of midlife and older women - doesn’t particularly connect with me. However, I am sure that it, like many a Maltesers ad before it, will strike the right chord with the people that matter to the brand. 

And whilst I’ve cited two adverts already, Make ‘Em Smile Marketing is by no means a purely ATL play. For Snickers and ‘You’re Not You When You’re Hungry’ it is a global brand platform that has spawned years of varied executions; from ‘Hunger Insurance’ in UAE (paying out in Snickers for hanger-related errors) to a hunger-related algorithm ‘Hungerithm’ in Australia. 

The ’Hungerithm’ – which tied the price of Snickers in 7-Eleven stores to fluctuations in social sentiment – might be the perfect theoretical example of multi-channel Make ‘Em Smile Marketing. An idea that tapped into the often hateful environment of social media and literally turned frowns upside down with the help of cut-price chocolate. 

And whilst these examples are all of the confectionary variety (a clue to what makes this author smile, perhaps) a look back into the archives reveals just how many of the brand activations we remember have leant into the art of making people grin:

‘You know when you’ve been Tango’d’. ‘Should've gone to Specsavers’. ‘Compare the Meerkat’. Budweiser’s ‘Whassup?’. KFC’s ‘FCK’ apology. The unbelievably cute Andrex puppy.   

Make ‘Em Smile Marketing comes in all shapes and sizes, for every audience out there. And, in this environment of doom and gloom, let’s keep the smiles coming. For the sake of your brand. For the sake of all of us.