Not hope, humor dies last
Campaign of the Year: Give Us Something to Laugh About! In times of recession, the readers of *Tele* and *Werbewoche* appreciated humorous advertising.
Campaign of the year Give us something to laugh about! In times of recession, the readership of Tele and Werbewoche rewarded humorous advertising. When the nasty economic climate requires material sacrifices, advertising campaigns that promise consumers financial added value are particularly effective. This is the perfect time for pork-barrel ads and weekly specials - after all, it's easier to attract the masses. However, such advertising hardly ever achieves high sympathy ratings because it only conveys liabilities, but no additional psychological stimuli in terms of tonality and secondary messages.When it comes to profiling the affective components of the brand, some marketing experts believe that in difficult times people are increasingly looking for key motifs that can relieve their fears and insecurities. It is part of human nature that these are rarely actual solutions to problems, but rather relaxing and community-building surrogates such as irony and self-irony.
This could be one reason why the proportion of ironic campaigns in the top ten is even higher this year than in other years. All three medal places are occupied by humorous works. Ruedi Kaufmann, Senior Consultant at Demoscope, explains this development from the perspective of the Psychological Climate of Switzerland (PKS): "We have found that difficult circumstances in politics and business lead to an 'adaptation period': with an initially heightened sense of reality, a reining in of excessive demands and distance from utopias and ideals. In turn, the need for entertainment and humor increases." The last time we experienced such phases was between 1989 and 1992 - with a political and subsequent economic crisis and the subsequent recovery, reports Kaufmann.
Irony as an end in itself...
However - and this brings us to the second speculation - it is not only the preferences of media consumers that serve as an indication of this zeitgeist, but also those of the creators, i.e. the creatives themselves. This is precisely where the high-wire act of whimsical campaigns begins: in their growing numbers, they are in danger of becoming a collective industry fashion and thus undermining the individuality and commitment of brands. From an analytical point of view, according to strategic brand consultant Thomas Otte, the increasingly popular equation of the stylistic feature of irony and brand value has nothing to do with the self-similarity of the brand. It has much more to do with the intelligently cool pose in which advertisers are particularly comfortable.
However, at a time when people are looking for stability and security, advertisers rarely realize that they are putting the seriousness of the advertised brands at risk, says Otte. As a result, creatives are looking for ever crazier ideas because all consumer horizons are now illuminated. The question arises: When does the entertainment value of subtle, bitter mockery come at the expense of credibility?
...or an overrated stylistic device?
Urs Schaad, Head of Advertising at Suva and winner of the poll, puts the skeptical reservations into perspective: "As advertising is generally perceived by many as boring, we always think about the audience in our communication measures, which we want to entertain in a surprising, intelligent or humorous way. Regular performance reviews show that our campaigns appeal to a wide audience."
Migros, which has been successfully using irony in traditional advertising for decades, explains this with its mission statement, which
General interest in
first place. Claudia Haueter, Deputy Head of Marketing Communications: "As Migros' serious and competent market services are deeply rooted, we can emphasize the beautiful and funny sides of life in our advertising with few exceptions - especially when the environment is rougher." The stylistic feature is now seen as a characteristic of the major distributor, so that the Migros-typical wink is almost expected.
Stefan Kaiser from the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute does not simply want to attribute the ironic campaigns to a more tense social environment. This would overestimate the importance of advertising: "The fact that more and more humorous campaigns are appearing today shows that the public wants to be more involved now that the banal price war messages have slowly become exhausted. Good irony surprises, encourages people to think and takes viewers seriously - an important aspect of today's credibility problem."
The top ten1. SuvaRisk (Ruf Lanz, Zurich)
2nd Migros-Genossenschafts-Bund (Exxtra, Zurich)
3rd Migros-Genossenschafts-Bund (Publicis, Zurich)
4th Suzuki (Ammarkt, St. Gallen)
5 Coop Naturaplan (TBWA, Küsnacht)
6th Express Post (LangGysiKnoll, Berne)
7. Feldschlösschen (Spillmann Felser Leo Burnett, Zurich)
8 NZZ am Sonntag (Publicis, Zurich)
9th Bluewin (JvM/Limmat, Zurich)
10th Emmentaler (Publicis, Zurich)
Too much risk, no fun: Ruf Lanz's clearly ambiguous prevention campaign for Suva won the gold medal.
Advertising with a bite: Migros won the silver medal with Exxtra's hilarious Candida campaign.
Wit and esprit: The unconventional Migros image campaign stands out and is well received - third place.
Luca Aloisi
This could be one reason why the proportion of ironic campaigns in the top ten is even higher this year than in other years. All three medal places are occupied by humorous works. Ruedi Kaufmann, Senior Consultant at Demoscope, explains this development from the perspective of the Psychological Climate of Switzerland (PKS): "We have found that difficult circumstances in politics and business lead to an 'adaptation period': with an initially heightened sense of reality, a reining in of excessive demands and distance from utopias and ideals. In turn, the need for entertainment and humor increases." The last time we experienced such phases was between 1989 and 1992 - with a political and subsequent economic crisis and the subsequent recovery, reports Kaufmann.
Irony as an end in itself...
However - and this brings us to the second speculation - it is not only the preferences of media consumers that serve as an indication of this zeitgeist, but also those of the creators, i.e. the creatives themselves. This is precisely where the high-wire act of whimsical campaigns begins: in their growing numbers, they are in danger of becoming a collective industry fashion and thus undermining the individuality and commitment of brands. From an analytical point of view, according to strategic brand consultant Thomas Otte, the increasingly popular equation of the stylistic feature of irony and brand value has nothing to do with the self-similarity of the brand. It has much more to do with the intelligently cool pose in which advertisers are particularly comfortable.
However, at a time when people are looking for stability and security, advertisers rarely realize that they are putting the seriousness of the advertised brands at risk, says Otte. As a result, creatives are looking for ever crazier ideas because all consumer horizons are now illuminated. The question arises: When does the entertainment value of subtle, bitter mockery come at the expense of credibility?
...or an overrated stylistic device?
Urs Schaad, Head of Advertising at Suva and winner of the poll, puts the skeptical reservations into perspective: "As advertising is generally perceived by many as boring, we always think about the audience in our communication measures, which we want to entertain in a surprising, intelligent or humorous way. Regular performance reviews show that our campaigns appeal to a wide audience."
Migros, which has been successfully using irony in traditional advertising for decades, explains this with its mission statement, which
General interest in
first place. Claudia Haueter, Deputy Head of Marketing Communications: "As Migros' serious and competent market services are deeply rooted, we can emphasize the beautiful and funny sides of life in our advertising with few exceptions - especially when the environment is rougher." The stylistic feature is now seen as a characteristic of the major distributor, so that the Migros-typical wink is almost expected.
Stefan Kaiser from the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute does not simply want to attribute the ironic campaigns to a more tense social environment. This would overestimate the importance of advertising: "The fact that more and more humorous campaigns are appearing today shows that the public wants to be more involved now that the banal price war messages have slowly become exhausted. Good irony surprises, encourages people to think and takes viewers seriously - an important aspect of today's credibility problem."
The top ten1. SuvaRisk (Ruf Lanz, Zurich)
2nd Migros-Genossenschafts-Bund (Exxtra, Zurich)
3rd Migros-Genossenschafts-Bund (Publicis, Zurich)
4th Suzuki (Ammarkt, St. Gallen)
5 Coop Naturaplan (TBWA, Küsnacht)
6th Express Post (LangGysiKnoll, Berne)
7. Feldschlösschen (Spillmann Felser Leo Burnett, Zurich)
8 NZZ am Sonntag (Publicis, Zurich)
9th Bluewin (JvM/Limmat, Zurich)
10th Emmentaler (Publicis, Zurich)
Too much risk, no fun: Ruf Lanz's clearly ambiguous prevention campaign for Suva won the gold medal.
Advertising with a bite: Migros won the silver medal with Exxtra's hilarious Candida campaign.
Wit and esprit: The unconventional Migros image campaign stands out and is well received - third place.
Luca Aloisi
