Comedy can be an effective way to engage audiences and make important messages memorable. Using humor and exaggerated characters, companies can address serious issues while provoking emotional reactions from audiences. Successful comedies on television and in films from around the world follow certain patterns - they avoid language-specific jokes, use visual storytelling, and focus on basic human situations. While humor is personal, companies that take risks with comedy often find it resonates well with employees by making training materials more entertaining and memorable.

1. Comedy:
A Serious Business
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Web: www.twistandshout.co.uk • Email: anyone@twistandshout.co.uk
Blog: tandscomms.blogspot.com/ • Tel: +44 (0)844 335 6715

2. Introduction
So you think that your business is it too serious, or too important to make light of?
Surely, what IS important is that you are noticed and remembered in a world
where the noise is constant, and the attention of customers or employees is the
most valuable asset there is.
We think that you business is too important to ignore the use of comedy.
Ask any communications professional and they will say that their greatest
challenge is to engage their audience, to make the message memorable.
Laughter is the answer.
The OneWhere...
As people, rather than employees, we instinctively want to connect with characters
and situations we recognise. Comedy can provoke that visceral reaction, no matter
what the setting.
Everybody hates being preached to, but by creating characters we can all relate
to, important issues can be addressed. Characters can be recognisable but highly
exaggerated ….. Misguided, over-enthusiastic, naive. Not forgetting the hero, a well-
intentioned character surrounded by madness; we’ve all been there!

3. 6.0
It’s a strange paradox that we are all people, until we get into the office and become
‘employees’. Consider what they do out of choice – cinema, theatre, TV – and use that as
your engagement channel.
Shot to the Heart
• Comedy is used in every other area, from advertising to drama, to talk directly to people.
The most successful advertising campaigns have made us laugh, and the most poignant
emotional dramas used humour to make us really invest in the characters and the issues.
What the World Needs Now
• Making people smile gets people sharing and talking about the issues that matter. If you
create a piece of entertainment that gets under the skin of the viewer and, like a great
film or television programme, they enthuse about it and encourage others to watch,
then the effectiveness goes through the roof.
• Employees quickly become fans, seeking out more material and following the story.
Then you have something with real equity on your hands.
Making it Sticky
• The comedic situations are always born from a serious issue. The two are fundamentally
linked - so when you remember the joke, you remember the lesson.
Because they’re worth it
• Like all people, employees like to feel cherished, and are hugely grateful to organisations
that give them training materials that seek to entertain, rather than tick a box. Their
opinion of their firm will grow too – how cool are we?
What has comedy
ever done for us?

4. We Are All Individuals!
Of course humour can be very personal. One man’s Bill Cosby is another man’s Bill
Hicks.
The trick is to get the balance right. To be sensitive to people’s personal values
whilst at the same time, not diluting the jokes to homeopathic levels. Playing it
too safe can cause more problems than it solves. There’s a risk of patronising the
audience and creating something too bland to be remembered, rendering the
whole effort redundant.
The skill is in combining all the elements of the campaign, ensuring that it’s possible
to“dial”up or down the comedic intensity.
Even the most conservative of companies have been surprised by how well the
comic approach has gone down with their staff.
“Loved the video!! Very well done... Entertaining yet delivered the point. Can’t wait
for the next one and I already made sure my entire team watched this!”
T&B (Verizon - Marketing)
“Just wanted to say that Office World is awesome. This is a great concept that allows
you to instruct the field with the proper procedures with an entertainment value
which is totally different than the normal productions that have you bored and not
engaged. Excellent Job!”
VSO (Verizon - Fleet)
5.0

5. There are three things
you should know
In our experience, the effect of bold, relatable characters telling a story is still much
more effective than a traditional corporate video.
If we look to TV and movies we see that comedies, such as Friends, Seinfeld and The
Office travel successfully and sell around the world.
They all follow the same golden rules;
1. They avoid writing material that relies on puns, word plays, slang, colloquial
expressions, ambiguous words or other subtleties of language which won’t
translate.
2. They create colourful and visual sketches where it’s easy to see what’s happening
3. They‘Internationalise’by being generic rather than specific. It’s‘Central Perk’not
Starbucks
4. They write sketches that are concerned with basic human character and situation.
“It’s fair to say we had hesitation about rolling ‘The Risk!’ internationally and we are
a very conservative and generally risk adverse bank but it worked very well. The effort
of subtitling resonated well with the global staff and the messages worked - you’d
produced a product that had a text that worked directly even in the unlikely event that
some staff couldn’t grasp the subtext of the humour. We’ve tracked global uptake and
humorous content has worked the best to grab mindshare and attention in a cluttered
internal comms world.”
Stephen Bonner, Barclays Bank Plc.

6. Of course, there are always going to horror stories where people have“had
a go”at using humour, and it has backfired, or is simply not very funny. But
then that’s the same with every initiative. The rules still apply. Understand
your culture, and assess the timing. It’s not a good time to make comedy
when the redundancies have just been announced. Also – we would
argue that playing it safe is a waste of resources. Remember – you can’t
make anyone do anything. There has to be something in it for them. And
that includes a good laugh.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Finally… Be BraveConclusion
employees and help to influence real change, through
improved communications. We believe that entertainment is
the perfect vehicle for communicating this message to your
audience and setting Michelin up as true thought leaders.
We would be proud to work with you and to be a part of your
will be very short indeed.
We look forward to your feedback.
Jim Shields
Creative Director
Twist & Shout Communications tel: +44 (0)844 335 6715
jim@twistandshout.co.uk

7. © Copyright Twist & Shout Communications 2013
Web: www.twistandshout.co.uk • Email: anyone@twistandshout.co.uk • Blog: tandscomms.blogspot.com/ • Tel: +44 (0)844 335 6715
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