Promotion Through Humor

Humor is a very underrated way to promote your products. The big time promotion suits have known this for years, of course, which is why you see all the Super Bowl ads lean on humor so hard. But I've noticed that not a lot of indie companies use humor as one of the weapons in their promotional arsenal. They should.

Now, you can try it on purpose, as the very talented Hannah Rose did here in a promotional interview for my first feature film:



Or you can find these moments by accident, as happened here during a serious interview for my short film "Baggage" and exploit them for humor after the fact:



Practical jokes that are filmed and shared after production can also be used. In this case, the camera was supposed to be further away so that it only saw the feet sticking up out of the bathroom stall. But for the first take the cameraman filmed the assistant helping the actor stick his feet up. Sean Gilbert's taunting from further back helped complete the prank:



Videos of pranks give you an entertaining reason to talk about your movie. Friends and people who know you get tired of you talking endlessly about your projects ... but if you don't then how are people going to keep it in mind when the time comes? A funny video that makes them laugh but is a constant reminder of your project is a great way to keep your movie in mind without you becoming a tedious ass about it.

It doesn't just have to be videos, of course. Tongue in cheek articles, humorous posters, funny signs, etc can also be used. There is a thing guys say about dating, "if you can make her life, you automatically double your chances of getting her to say yes to a date" but it also applies to promotion.

And it doesn't even matter what the tone of the product you're promoting is, as long as you go about it in the right way. Both films being promoted above are serious dramas with few, if any, laughs within them. So we're not finding comedy in the films themselves, we're finding comedy in the actors, the people behind the film. We're showing that we don't take ourselves too seriously, which (hopefully) charms the audience and makes them like us, which increases the chances they'll give our products a chance. The mistake I think a lot of companies make is they try to match the tone of the promotional campaign to the tone of the movie. But I think they're overlooking opportunities when they do this.