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It usually surprises people to hear how unfunny comedy can be. I worked on this week’s marketing take a few years ago from The Onion HQ, so we’ve all been behind the scenes. An industry continues to be an industry, and promotion continues to be promotion.

Which isn’t to say it can’t definitely be a lot of fun.

I spoke with Hassan S. Alicreative director of brand identity at Hootsuite, where he describes his process as “leading a workforce of creatives to ruffle the feathers of B2B promotion for an equally ruffled product.”

Living proof: Its workforce recently produced (very frequently) a SFW exchange that promises to “uncover social media insights” through the repositioning of a local greenhouse as a nudist park.

Lesson 1: Comedy begins with empathy.

Since I last saw him, Ali has had stints as brand creative director for Potbelly’s and now Hootsuite. In each place, he’s offered his sometimes wry, sometimes absurd humor.

I ask him to reveal his secrets, techniques and strategies. What can I tell our readers that would make them more fun marketers?

Its resolution is no cheap story: If you want to successfully use humor in promotion, start by developing the image and working on empathy. It gives me this case:

Let’s say you have an idea for a hilarious new ad campaign, but realize that stakeholders “don’t want to have fun” (Cyndi Lauper cries).

Ali asks, “Is this it, or are they more or less concerned about spending money on it,” and if it fails, will they be reprimanded, or worse?

“It’s an overly human emotion. So if we move into those conversations with, ‘Focus, I’m listening, this could be reasonably outside of your norm,’” you’re immediately showing empathy, even if the person hasn’t expressed their fears.

Lesson 2: Wisdom might make you more fun.

“Wisdom helps inform, persuade, and assemble that picture,” Ali says. “You definitely have a CEO who’s shifted in his seat a little bit” during a pitch, so he’s acutely aware of something about persuading the risk-averse.

When you ask stakeholders to create art outside their comfort zone, “you often need ideas to show them that this is actually what other people in your audience want.” Ali challenges me to read Hootsuite’s 2024 Social Media Consumer Report: 55% of the 6,000+ respondents value branded content that “makes me laugh.”

Supply of symbols

A practical tip ties all this together: Every now and then Ali will do a funny-style commercial or a more straightforward-style commercial, and he will watch both. Develop imagery to demonstrate “that you are able to connect with industry needs in some way that your audience cares about.”

Lesson 3: Using the peanut butter method.

“Everyone hates selling, but on the other hand they are good enough to make themselves known,” says Ali.

It’s like using peanut butter to sneak a pill to your dog. “If people are willing to make themselves known, drop the pill in something tasty. People will look at it.” (Let’s ignore for a second that we’re all the unlucky dogs in this analogy.)

“I often think that the most productive advertisements are those that I cannot measure, because they are shared in a group chat with friends.” I sincerely hope no one is working on a pixel that will challenge my group chats, but it is indisputably true that if someone shares an ad, it is because it is funny and emotionally touching.

Chances are, you see a funny commercial for diapers. Your sister just had a baby, and you share the commercial in your family group chat. “Quickly, you form a bond through this piece of marketing.” And it’s going beyond “right here, take this thing,” Ali says.

Without that (optimistically imaginary) group chat tracking pixel, standard promotional metrics wouldn’t necessarily be of much use.

“And then what have you made transparent to the customer?” Ali asks. “Those are the real results.” The more we focus on that, “the better we’ll be as marketers.”

Lingering Questions

Every specific person we interview provides us with a question for our next marketing pitch. Last week, Wistia CEO Chris Savage asked:

Is there something you do that works so well that you’re afraid to tell others about it?

Ali: I have to say that the creative workforce at Hootsuite’s brand is working so smart it’s like a secret. Just look at the collaboration and teamwork that happens right here, it’s something I’ve never seen before.

And Ali’s question for our next promotion attempt:

What advice would you give yourself when you first started out?

Come back next Monday for the answer!

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