Brands don’t have to be boring!

What was the most memorable post you saw on social media this week? Our guess is that, whatever it was, it made you laugh!When it comes to humour, a little can go a long way. A study from the Global Survey of Trust in Advertising polled 29,000 internet users, in 58 countries, on the most popular form of advertising.  47% stated that humour is the most effective marketing tool, and we couldn’t agree more!

However, as any budding comedian would know, it’s not that easy to make people laugh, especially when you are limited to just 140 characters to impress your audience. Therefore, if you’re looking for some inspiration, here is how some well-known brands infused their social media with a strong dose of humour. 

Tesco has over 311,000 followers and they are actively tweeting everyday making them one of the most proactive UK brands on Twitter.

Tesco responded to Taylor Swift’s new found superpower after she managed to convince Apple to pay artists during consumer’s free trail of their new music streaming service. Tesco’s cleaver and witty tweet got 285 favourites and over 175 re-tweets.

Charmin have successfully built a personality around their product and have been voted as the ‘sassiest’ brand on twitter. With more than 67,000 followers, the brand has also created their own hashtag campaign #tweetfromtheseat. Here are a few tweets which made us chuckle.

Skittles uses social networking as form of entertainment to build relationships and their reputation with consumers. It’s surprising how little jokes can go a long way…

These brands have seen their humorous content go viral, but just because their tweets are funny it doesn’t mean they haven’t been carefully planned. Too many brands have found their flippant Tweets or jokes backfire and had to remove them hastily. While we love humorous content, there is a fine line between being edgy and crass. Here are a couple of examples of brands which didn’t quite make the cut when it comes to funny social media marketing.

Paddy Power’s advert offered a ‘money back if he walks’ guarantee for betting on Oscar Pistorius’ murder trial. This broke advertisement rules and received 5,525 complaints, as well as many concerned tweets, making it the most complained advert of 2014.

DiGiorno Pizza is one of the top brands on Twitter and is well known for their cheesy jokes and comical tweets. However, the brand slipped up at the end of 2014 by using the trending hashtag #WhyIStayed, discussing domestic violence, DiGiorno Pizza tweeted “#WhyIStayed You had Pizza.” The backlash was swift and the tweet was deleted within minutes followed by an apology for not understanding the context of the hashtag before using it.

So while you don’t have to be boring and stick to the usual obvious updates, approach humour with caution and make sure it is carefully planned!