The Four Seasons Baby slays the day
C’mon, using wit + wisdom at work isn’t all that hard. You really just have to remember that your brand first needs to lean into the feels to make an emotional connection with your audiences. Case in point: Have you seen “Four Seasons Baby” yet? This little muffin went viral recently in a home vid by responding to an adult asking “Who wants to go to the Four Seasons Orlando?!” with a gleeful, “ME!” The Four Seasons responded with its first TikTok post since 2022 (!!), a hilarious take on the baby sitch. Even other brands got in on it, including the Atlanta Hawks. Which just goes to show you the power of wit + wisdom, because 87% of Americans didn’t even realize the Atlanta Hawks were still a thing until they saw that post

Millennials are from Mars, Gen X is from Venus
Wit + wisdom isn’t about telling jokes to your colleagues. In fact, your mouth is probably the least important orifice when it comes to surprising and delighting your colleagues. Your eyes and ears are far more crucial to observe what makes your people feel good and how you can communicate better – especially among different generations. Here’s an LOL example. Content creator Elizabeth Castaldi, 27, is all over the interwebs this week. She went on a date with a 35-year old. The next day he texted: “Hey, had fun last night. Have a good day.” Castaldi seems totally confused by what that means…and she’s got millions of people laughing along with her. A text with no exclamation points?? No emojis?? It even has proper spelling, grammar and capitalization! But it’s another important reminder that if you want to get your point across, you have to keep your target audience in mind.

Funny commercials are no joke!
If we see another commercial with that woman singing about “the little pill with the big story to tell,” we’re gonna start breaking stuff. Seriously, advertisers, what’s going on? Why aren’t you using a tactic that actually works – ahem, humor – more often? Check out this amazing new post from Dayna Lang at Illumin. She writes all about how marketers can and should be using more humor. According to Kantar, the use of humor in advertising has plummeted since the early 2000s. This despite the fact that – wait for it – it works! When a 2023 survey asked consumers about their ideal TV ad experience, two-thirds of them said spots that are funny. To wit, a 2022 Oracle study found that 72% of consumers would pick a brand that users humor over a competitor brand. So let’s get with the program, people!

PepperPicks
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