3 Monkeys and PR Moment present: How brands are creating engagement through humour

In partnership with: #lolcomms

Jonny Excell Social Media Manager

O2

In partnership with:

Funny business in engagement Jonny Excell @jonnyexcell

What we do… Where it all began and how our approach has evolved… How we get funny when the time’s right… But not too funny…

Across all our channels we probably have on average ten thousand incoming messages

every week.

All people *seeking solutions

*complaining

This is how we do it…

Head of social

Social media marketing

Community management

Customer service through social

Press team

Directors

High level complaints

Business HR

Marcomms

Online

CSR

Helpful

Funny

Informative

*Our philosophy

*borrowed from Twitter

Try to be more than

one of these at once

It started with a network outage…

What happened when our network didn’t work…

200,000 angry people *seeking solutions

*complaining **very

A lot of them were **pretty mean

We didn’t realise it’d be a social media

opportunity

How we turned the tide using humour

Answer like a human being

Judge the situation for what it is. Respond formally when needed

Don’t come across cocky or arrogant

This was nothing new. It was just

done in a more high profile setting

Best. Graph. Ever.

Every interaction is an opportunity to entertain

Enter Tunde

Helpful + funny

Speaking to people in the way they speak to us

Allowing our people to have the

freedom to act on the opportunity

Enter Alexa

Seeking out these opportunities proactively

The whole team looks out

for these

Enter Ashleigh

We aim to be with you within fifteen minutes

Given the public nature,

these things happen all the time

Customers can come and

go because of them

Proactively using humour

Sometimes it’s a dangerous world out there

Knowing when and when not to

Gets away with it

Doesn’t get away with it

Gets away with it

Doesn’t get away with it

Low post sensitivity

High post sensitivity

Low post sensitivity

High post sensitivity

At the end of the day. No brand would want to be seen as the playground bully.

Playful and mischievous, yes. But there’s

no need to be mean.

The secret to humour is surprise - Aristotle

Takeaways

Give your people the creative freedom to interact in the way they think’s right in the moment Be funny. But be helpful. Try to be surprising and do something unexpected. Don’t pick on people.

Thanks @jonnyexcell

Stuart Yeardsley Creative Director

3 Monkeys Communications

In partnership with:

HELLO!

#LOLcomms

Stuart Yeardsley

3 Monkeys Communications

Brands and banter: The science and art of using humour to engage

and entertain

Why brands need to get more creative to engage audiences

How emotion (humour) kindles the fire

How brands are using humour (emotion) to connect with audiences

EXPECTATION ECONOMY

HEDONIC TREADMILL

BLADE RUNNER EFFECT

“Surrounded by unpleasant world events, people

are jumping at the first opportunity to escape.”

Trends theorist Jeffrey Miller

Satire

Slapstick

Surreal

Surprise

Soft

Great examples of humour past and present

And more recently…

Kindling the fire: the science of physiological arousal

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you

said, people will forget what you did, but people

will never forget how you made them feel.”

Maya Angelou

CONTAGIOUS CONTENT

Multi award winning @ Cannes Lions: Humour to communicate a serious

message

Humour to make an otherwise dry subject engaging

Real time humour: an alternative perspective

Real time humour: News creation

Real time humour: Engaging with your audience

Driving reappraisal through humour

Turning the everyday on its head with humour

Madame Tussauds hires first

tissue attendant

Humour: Become an entertainment brand

Humour: Tell your story visually

When humour isn’t funny…

When humour isn’t funny…

When humour isn’t funny…

What are the lessons here?

Understand your audience

Be careful with humour: most things that are funny can offend someone

Quite funny doesn’t cut it – does it pass the ‘banter’ test?

Be joined up across communications

Be authentic

If unsure, chuck it out

Remember entertainment can take many forms

Entertain me and I’ll spend time with you