Comedy is serious Brand business

Does the comedian represent the newest and most compelling skill set a brand needs to help chart is success journey?

Have you ever wondered why you instantly burst into a laughter or why your eyes suddenly sparkle when a comedian cracks one of his witty, unsuspecting lines? Have you ever wondered why is it that you feel “connected” to someone on a distant stage, with 10 minutes of “meeting” him for the first time? And have you ever wondered how you start connecting with him almost individually while actually being only a part of a much larger audience that he is performing to?

I have. And while I am not a comedian, I think I understand how good comedy and the class-act comedian works. It works because behind every seemingly un-suspecting humorous line, every joke that splits you up, there is an underlying context, a “reality” that you subliminally connect with. A secret truth, something you didn’t know anyone else outside of you knew.

But how does a comedian pull off this truly marvellous, exciting feat? I think an accomplished comedian is one who very keenly observes what is happening around him and makes sense of it. He doesn’t just see the world like most of us do, he deconstructs it. He meticulously studies the “why” and the “how”, behind what is happening around us and how we respond to it, in a spoken manner or otherwise. He picks up what is often felt but left “un-said”.

Think of this disarming comedian as an expert data scientist – one who consumes and processes data, painstakingly drawing out broad patterns and broad truths. Patterns that have been fed by is people (consumer) understanding. Patterns that feed into generation of consumer Insights.

Laced with these consumer insights, he devices his communication package – that line or two that suddenly cracks you up and makes to feel connected to him. Forming a bond of trust and acceptance in unexpectedly quick time, one that leaves you subconsciously happy and bewildered, all at once!

Comedy is serious business. I believe that a stand-up comedian ‘performing’ to a packed audience is amongst the finest examples of a strategically considered, communication intervention. It is a masterful class act that could broadly be split into two parts: Content of the message and its method of Broadcast. Both of them are governed by his deep understanding of the world his audience lives in and the overall “language” of the contemporary narrative.

As I see it, this is clearly one of the best examples of an Insight-driven communication strategy – something every brand has aspired to have as an ingredient into its success. Traditionally, brands have hired brand strategist and agency planners to do this for them. And while they have delivered on this charter with arguable degree of success, there real question is whether the successful comedian is better suited to do this instead because he quite clearly does this a part of his core routine, every day, to ensure he succeeds to perform another day.

For brands and their custodians, it would be rewarding to deconstruct the comedian’s mind and his methods – how he prepares to execute an insight-driven positioning and communication strategy. In other words, all the hard work that he puts in before he gets on stage to nail another compelling performance, one that is greeted by a standing ovation and results in his advocacy.

Identify and understand your audience. The audience is spoilt for choices. They have other comedians and shows to choose from, and options beyond comedy for them to choose to let their hair down. Therefore, before the comedian throws his hat into the ring, he must be single-minded in identifying the core audience he wants to target: men, women, adult, children, big cities, small cities, English-speaking or otherwise with what kind of spending profile. All these are inputs into creating his product, identifying his market and positioning himself to audiences who would be willing to choose him over all the other options they have.

Understand the opportunity and make it yours. Once the comedian is sure about the existence of a market for comedy, he must carefully identify the nature of comedy where the opportunity most exists. He identifies that niche within the overall canvas, that need state which currently is not being adequately met with the current options available. It is that opportunity that he must prepare himself to capitalize on, that which will define his own unique style. Thereafter, he goes about perfecting his product and launching it on stage for potential audiences to buy into it and advocate.

Position yourself and stay Still. The successful comedian then gets to be known for his unique style. He continues to build on it with a long term vision and with every new performance of his, he continues to cement it. Clearly his style is not meant for everyone. So while it works beautifully for his intended audiences, it doesn’t work for others whom he does not target. So the successful comedian polarizes audiences and opinions and it is exactly this that helps him build his core followers and loyalist.

Stay still and yet topical. Comedy is all about living in the present – being topical and yet not losing the core essence or tone of what you represent. Fundamental reason behind a comedian’s success is his ability to connect with his core audience. As they evolve, so must he but this is done very carefully. While fleeting “fads” give him an opportunity to introduce new topical content, what he manages very well is to still remain honest and committed to his larger narrative – a certain promise of what he stands for which endeared him to his core audiences in the first place. His growing intuition of his audience’s expectations helps him prepare for his extended association with and relevance to them.

As I see it, a comedian both aspires prepares for the same things that every consumer facing product brand seeks to achieve as well – clear purpose, differentiated positioning and being most preferred amongst all options available to consumers at large. The successful comedian, through his intellect and rigours seems to have cracked the formula to achieve success. His “method” makes him an unparalleled reservoir of consumer understanding and insights, that is refreshed and updated on an in-going, continuous basis. He is continuously immersed with his audiences; more hands-down with his sleeves rolled up, if you like. He is driven by his quest to succeed in uncertain times and actually walks-the-talk in an unpredictable environment with new challengers, every day. The only time he is in an air-conditioned environment is possibly when he is actually the most vulnerable – facing potentially un-forgiving audiences on the stage. But that is also what makes him both battle-hardy and battle-ready.

So is the successful comedian the specialist the brands seek for expert advice in their quest of writing their success stories? Are they better equipped answer a brand’s call and pose the greatest challenge to the existing set of arm-chair brand strategists that have often included the agency planners? Or should creative agencies too hire comedians to script the next stage of performance of the brands they work on? And while the final word has not been spoken on this one yet, it is about time that we consider hour humble humorist in more serious light!

#BolderMarketing

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