Since social media stormed into our lives, quickly becoming an efficient and leading marketing tool that shapes our daily routines, people have been spending more and more time online. Given that the internet is flooded with endless information, and the competition for our attention intensifies daily, people have become much more impatient, discerning, and selective about how they process the information presented to them.
One consequence of this information overload is that people have become highly sophisticated in processing data and filtering information quickly. At the same time, they’ve become less sensitive, if not indifferent, to topics that were once mainstream in the advertising world—it simply doesn’t interest them anymore. On the other hand, advertisers strive to reinvent themselves daily with creative content and methods in an attempt to capture the target audience’s attention and make a lasting impression.
Anyone in the advertising world knows that creativity is key. It’s no secret, nor a groundbreaking discovery. I assume it won’t surprise you if I say that the combination of creativity and humor is an effective marketing tool. But what makes the combination of these two—creativity and humor—a winning tool? What is that extra dimension that will make a difference, grab the audience’s attention, and leave a lasting impression, all while becoming a viral snowball in the overflowing streams of social media content?
Studies unequivocally show a direct link between the quality of creative advertising and changes in sales cycles. Research conducted at Harvard University in the U.S. found that creative campaigns were significantly more effective. The research also revealed that certain aspects of creativity are more effective than others when it comes to influencing customer purchasing behavior. When proper segmentation is performed, the message and its nature can be tailored to the intended customer.
But wait, what exactly is creativity?
To understand creativity, we rely on research from the fields of social and educational psychology, which define creativity as “thinking differently”—the ability to find unique, unusual, and unorthodox solutions to a problem. One element that a creative marketing message (or advertisement) should include is originality. This means incorporating rare or surprising elements, something that doesn’t fit the expected or conventional.
Another important trait is flexibility. A “flexible” ad is one that links the product to a variety of uses or ideas that weren’t previously considered. For example, an ad for the coffee brand Jacobs showed a man handling various household tasks (like washing dishes, sewing a button onto a coat, and cutting onions) while a group of women enjoyed coffee together.
Another crucial feature in creating a creative marketing message is synthesis. This aspect of creativity reflects the ability to merge or combine two unrelated ideas and create a synthesis between them. For example, the American chewing gum company Wrigley aired an ad showing “pocket mice” eating bananas, berries, and melons, causing their pouches to swell up and turn into a big juicy fruit-flavored gum. The ad combines two unrelated elements, mice and gum, to create a unique storyline.
Another very important quality in creating an ad is artistic value. Creative advertisements are works of art in their own right. Such ads include verbal, visual, or auditory elements that appeal to the viewer’s senses. The goal is to make consumers see the ad as a piece of art or culture, not just as a blatant sales pitch. Studies show that most companies consider originality and artistic value to be the most important elements.
Another way to grab viewers’ attention is through the use of humor. Humor is an essential part of human psychology. With people constantly on their smartphones or distracted by conversations, advertisers increasingly turn to humor to capture consumers’ attention. Once the consumer is watching, the hope is that they will enjoy the content—feel excited, remember the message or brand, and even share it with others to spread the joy. Humor is an excellent way to achieve this.
An example of humor in advertising can be found in Nespresso’s commercial. The company, which sells espresso machines using coffee capsules in various flavors, featured the famous actor George Clooney, the company’s brand ambassador, giving up a luxurious Porsche for a coffee machine. (Granted, a mild form of humor, but memorable nonetheless.)
Here’s a great example of a Turkish eyewear brand ad, promising a solution for fogging lenses—a highly relevant problem in the mask-wearing era. It’s a winning combination of creativity, humor, originality, and synthesis of unrelated worlds, creating humorous, absurd scenes that effectively illustrate the problem. Enjoy, and don’t forget to share!