Bridget Angear, founder craig and bridget,  talked about the business case for humour in advertising and started by explaining that laughter is good for us, it makes us feel better. Laughter also helps us remember things. Data from Kantar showed that of all the different levers brands have to be remembered, humour is a very powerful lever. As long as the humour connects back to the brand.

Bridget presented IPA data going back 10 years and showed that business cases that used humour demonstrated greater positive business effects (generating value, volume and profit) compared to cases that did not use humour.

Why in that case is humour in advertising in long term decline? Bridget suggested there are three possible reasons; 1) Brands have increasingly wanted to talk about purpose. And there is a tendency when brands are talking about purpose to be quite serious. 2) Cost of living crisis meant brands were nervous of using humour. 3) Marketeers fear using humour, the fear of getting it wrong.

Audio is punching above its weight in terms of humour in that a higher percentage of brands in audio formats use humour compared to other media platforms because the medium offers a more intimate relationship with the listener. In conclusion, humour can be used more powerfully to drive memory and there is the business case to prove that it is effective.

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You can see a recording of Bridget's presentation or download her presentation deck by clicking the links below.

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