Opportunities to Connect with Your Audience Using Humor

In this episode, I spoke with Loren O'Brien. She's a comedian and owns a video production company. So we talked about humor, what makes something funny and when does funny become offensive? How does humor help brands connect with an audience? What brands are doing funny well and who falls short? Spoiler alert. She liked our humor reel, or at least she said she did. Check it out.

Rudy:           Welcome to Marketing Upheaval. My guest is Loren O'Brien, CEO of MO Video Production. Loren has spent a large part of her career writing and performing comedy in London, and loves to talk about comedy and marketing, which are two of my favorite subjects. So I'm excited about this episode, and thanks for joining me, Loren.

Loren:              No worries. Thanks for having me.

Rudy:           I want to break down comedy, since you've done that for a long, long time, and there's a quote by E.B. White. He basically said that comedy, you can dissect it like you can dissect the frog, but in both cases the thing dies. So I want to start with the most basic topic. What makes something funny?

Loren:              I think it's a feeling. It's like music. Something can be technically funny, but something that can also completely break the rules. Memes are a great example of how that's breaking all the rules at the moment because you'll read something and go, "This doesn't make any sense," but then it's just the way it makes you feel. I'm trying to break it down in my head every single day, what I find funny, and why I find it funny, and I think it just has to do with like a feeling. Whether it's in that moment, whether it's something relatable, or whether it's just plain old silly. I think it's just the way the music works.

Rudy:           It's creating some kind of connection. However you do that, and you're not going to create a connection with everyone.

Loren:              No.

Rudy:           But speaking of memes, a lot of times when I see memes, often it's things you wish you could say.

Loren:              Yes. Something about online comedy is the voice in your head that you wish you could say to everybody else. I'm trying to do a lot more with my standup as well, and it doesn't work out very well in real life. People don't like that as much. You're supposed to keep quiet when you're talking to people.

Rudy:           It is a strange time because our societal norms have changed.

Complete show notes at: https://creativeouthouse.com/2019/10/09/loren-obrien-comedian-and-ceo-of-m-o-makes-on-humor-in-marketing/

View our humor reel and creative samples at: https://creativeouthouse.com/creative-work/
https://creativeouthouse.com/project/atl-transit/
https://creativeouthouse.com/project/metro-water-district/
https://creativeouthouse.com/project/gymrats/

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