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How can brands use playfulness ideas to strengthen connection with audiences? To engage the disengaged and create positive behaviour change around even the most taboo of topics?
In this episode, Andrew is joined by Lindsey Horne, Behavioural Insights Director and Mark Hobart, Managing Partner at TRA Melbourne to unpack the opportunities presented by Play – a major study recently launched by TRA.
Andrew: We all seek joy and connection in our lives, and playfulness and humour are a big part of how we find this in our day-to-day interactions. How can brands use these ideas to strengthen connections with audiences, engage the disengaged and, ultimately, create positive behaviour change around even the most taboo of topics?
Hello and welcome to FRAME, a podcast dedicated to the art of knowing people. I'm your host, Andrew Lewis, Managing Director at TRA, The Research Agency, and over a series of three episodes, we're exploring themes of humour and playfulness with thought leaders from different human science disciplines. By layering their unique perspectives on the topic, we're going to search for the truths others don’t – the uncommon truths.
Last week, we started by unpacking the findings from Play, a major study exploring what playfulness and humour mean to people and brands in 2024. The findings revealed that we are seeking more playfulness in our lives, and that brands have permission to be more playful. In today's episode, we look at how brands can begin to apply these learnings by layering perspectives from the world of brand building and behaviour change. I'm joined today by Mark Hobart, Managing Partner at TRA Melbourne, and Lindsey Horne, Behavioural Insights Director. Hello to you both, and thanks for coming along today.
Mark: Hi, Andrew.
Lindsey: Hey Andrew, great to chat with you today.
Andrew: Lindsey, let’s kick things off with a behaviour change perspective. What's the opportunity here for playfulness and humour to play a positive role in creating behaviour change?
Lindsey: It’s a good one, Andrew. There are a lot of organisations working on really complex behaviour change challenges, and not everyone wants to follow through with that change. Sometimes we’re asking people to do something they might not care about or want to do, and humour and play are great opportunities, particularly for audiences that can be disengaged and hard to connect with. For taboo topics that feel hard to broach, it lowers the bar to entry and creates opportunities to start to engage with those disengaged audiences who might tend to look the other way or not care about the behaviour change topic we're discussing.
Some examples of where we’ve seen this work well are often in compliance behaviours, that people might not want to engage with – things like cyber security. In particular, we’re starting to see some funny and humorous content that gets people to care about passwords and two-factor authentication. Again, with disengaged audiences, we often find that a lot of young people can be disengaged with important topics around voting, particularly in local elections, and for some young men, road safety. Often, these are things they don't tend to care about, but if you can make it playful and humorous, that's when their eyes prick up and they might start to pay attention to some of these topics. So it’s a great way to connect with disengaged audiences.
As I mentioned, taboo topics also become much easier to talk about when we make them a bit more light-hearted and playful. Things like mental health, even things like unprotected sex, and what you should do if you found yourself in that situation – we're talking about taboo topics that you might not want to talk about. But when you make it playful, it can start to open up the conversation. We’ve even seen this with online safety, as far as talking to your children about potential online predators and grooming behaviour. It can unlock these taboo topics that are uncomfortable but still important – it can help on that front. If it can work for these kinds of topics – online safety, mental health, and for those disengaged groups – you know it can work for easier behaviour change challenges or with other kinds of audiences as well.
Andrew: I love that – the idea of playfulness showing up in places where there's the least playfulness expected and is a powerful tool. There are a couple of ideas to recap on there. Playfulness disarming people’s defences, and making entry more accessible for a message or brand in a space where people might not want to engage.
Lindsey: Yes, exactly. Reframing it into a positive light.
Andrew: Reframing is a really interesting behavioural idea. The idea that negative emotions around a topic can lead to negative behaviours, and playfulness gives us a chance to reframe that in a positive light to create positive behaviours.
Lindsey: Yeah, a colourful disco light.
Andrew: So, obviously it's hugely important, not just for taboo topics, but the whole idea of reappraisal. The idea of reappraisal in situations. We're looking for people to think differently about either a topic or a brand etc., and as well as, of course, just for creating engagement.
Andrew: Mark, let's pick up on this idea of creating engagement and talk about that through a brand lens. What opportunities do you see in the world of brand for playfulness and humour?
Mark: The short answer is tons! It’s a rich and fertile ground and a great opportunity for brands. Now, one of the things we found in the research that we've done on the topic is that people actively want more playfulness and humour in their lives, and importantly, they want that, or expect that, or are open to that from brands. There's a really big opportunity just in terms of consumer response and desire. And it makes sense when you think about it, fun, play, humour – who doesn't want more of that? People don't really have brands on their minds all the time, not as much as brand managers would like. Humour and playfulness is a way just to actually really cut through – because, you know, the default position is that most people are disengaged at any point in time, and it's a real tool to help to create engagement and cut through.
I think there's some additional context to that as well. The last few years, brands have been pretty serious. There's been a big movement focusing on purpose, and a trend in marketing and brand management. But obviously, we've been serious just in the face of crisis, one crisis after another. It’s almost like, “Can we be playful and fun in this area?”. If you take a step back from that, there was a big movement in marketing that was obsessed with talking about products, USPs or RTBs (reasons to believe), very product-focused communication. That's not very helpful for building engagement and connection from a brand perspective. It's not helpful. Some of the findings in the research that we recently did –
One other point, which I think is really relevant – Australians and New Zealanders tend to think that we’re funnier and more playful than other countries. We know from other research, from the Kiwi Codes research, that humour is a key Kiwi code. In Australia, the larrikin archetype is deeply ingrained in our national identity. For brands to use humour or playfulness in a market where that connects with social or national identity is powerful. We know that brands that feel a bit more like us are more impactful in being able to cut through and connect.
Andrew: That creates relevance – the sense of “like us.”
Mark: Yes, exactly!
Andrew: What we're actually saying is that the 'how' of adding playfulness and humour is also an incredibly powerful way of creating that relevance with people. It’s often forgotten or trivialised compared to ideas like purpose or USPs, etc. The tonality, the way we approach people, and adding playfulness and humour are important multipliers for creating relevance.
Play and humour are important for connection on a couple of levels there. First and foremost, play has a powerful role in creating reward and experiences, and that makes a lot of sense because we seek joy in our lives.
Lindsey, behaviour change is obviously about more than just communications. Thinking about this idea from a broader perspective of incorporating play across more categories and channels and finding these connection points, what opportunities do you see?
Lindsey: Communication is a huge part of it, but there are so many other outcomes you can get from play. An interesting example with strong behavioural outcomes is looking at safer urban environments and how we design our cities and physical spaces. Sometimes playfulness and humour can come under the category of a 'nice to have', but they can actually have very tangible outcomes. When you think of safety, especially in urban spaces, many people will automatically jump to the idea of more CCTV cameras and brighter lighting. But people feel safer when there are others around and when they’re in an environment that feels comforting and vibrant. Playful spaces – with beautiful artwork, interesting, colourful lighting, and playgrounds – invite people to mingle in a fun way. This has strong, tangible safety outcomes, which is important when you're looking at increasing public transport and making sure people feel safe in stations – or if you're trying to invite people into retail spaces in the evenings.
Beyond just communications, another idea is when you want people to take action and making that action fun and enjoyable. As I mentioned earlier, with low voter turnout – especially amongst young people, or even with the COVID-19 vaccinations – when you're wanting people to leave their homes and take action, if you can make the experience fun, we see greater turnout. We saw events where they’re almost like festivals or community events. There are stalls, music, and entertainment, and not only do we see people show up and have a good time, but they’re more likely to invite others. Mark mentioned that with our connections work in terms of bringing other people into the fold. If you have fun, joy, and playfulness, not only will people have a better experience and show up for you, but they’re more likely to bring others along too. That has tangible outcomes.
Another example is Pokémon Go – that was fun for a lot of people. We saw tangible outcomes – we track a lot of health and wellbeing, and the amount of walking and physical exercise dramatically increased in that longitudinal study. Play can have great behavioural outcomes. It’s much more than just a 'nice to have' – you can get great results from it.
Andrew: Fascinating – adding playfulness to environments and activities drives participation. That is super interesting. One thing you were talking about before was out-of-home campaigns and how they can play a role as well.
Lindsey: Out-of-home campaigns are part of that external environment for cities. Even thinking about how advertising and out-of-home advertising shows up in our cities and spaces, we’d definitely invite organisations to be playful with that too – thinking beyond the standard and how you can bring playfulness into that.
Andrew: There’s a lot of playfulness in out-of-home. There have been great examples of major campaigns, and I think of the entertainment industry, movies, and TV show launches doing an amazing job with bringing playfulness to out-of-home and the impact that has on the environment as well.
Lindsey: Thinking about our latest Olympics campaign, where they stretched out the number of gold medals across multiple billboards, which was fun to see, and really hammered home how well New Zealand did. I'll leave the competitive New Zealand vs Australia there for you, Mark. I think Australia might need longer billboards than New Zealand but, per capita, we did well.
Andrew: Mark, the more we talk about it, the more opportunities there seem to be for playfulness to have an impact in different ways. What's your advice for brands experimenting with playfulness? How do we make sure we get it right?
Mark: Yeah, it's an important question, and let’s start by acknowledging that we’re in a context where many marketers might feel nervous about the idea of being playful or humorous.
The first consideration is to make sure it aligns with the brand, its positioning, and personality. If it doesn’t fit with the brand’s personality, it can be off-putting, distracting, or disingenuous, which can be jarring. Another consideration is the context in which the brand is showing up, making sure we don’t get in the way of the functional role of that brand touchpoint. Sometimes people aren’t in the mood for play. They’re there for specific information or to get something done – being playful might land as annoying at best, or at worst, disrespectful. “Hang on, why are you being playful here? I’m here to get a job done.” It's important to think about the context and what the consumer is looking for and trying to achieve when interacting with your brand. Ensure the type of playfulness and tone is appropriate for that context. Also, allow people to opt out of that. You can be playful, but make sure it doesn’t get in the way of what they’re trying to achieve.
This doesn’t mean you can’t be playful about serious or boring topics – let's face it, some categories are more boring than others, so the role of playfulness is clear there. Also, with taboo topics, playfulness can be effective. Obviously, it needs to be done in the right way. But there’s plenty of opportunity.
Andrew: In terms of getting it right, the topic can be a bit serious, and there’s obviously still a role for playfulness. It’s okay to go there, but go there in the right way. The two big ideas seem to be making sure it aligns with your DNA – showing up with the right version of it so it doesn’t feel forced – and importantly, don’t get in the way of function. That's when play stops being fun and starts becoming annoying.
Lindsey: I would invite any organisation to jump in the ball pit and get playful. There are great strategies around how you can do that. It’s about looking at who you’re playing with. Looking at partnerships, collaborations, the channel strategy, and the brand or communication characters. Firstly, looking at your sponsorships, partnerships, and community involvement – sometimes, partnerships can bring the play opportunity for organisations. That can be a little safer as well, because you’re bringing someone else into the fold. We've seen great examples of this with Auckland Transport. 'Fun' isn’t built into their brand strategy, but they’ve leaned into events in the city. We saw them lean into the Barbie movie and America's Cup. Through their partnerships and sponsorships, they've brought a lot of playfulness. You can dial this up on certain channels.
There’s an expectation on social media, TikTok in particular, and short-form reels, people expect brands to get a bit more playful there as well. Your channel strategy can get far more playful, and that also extends into working with different influencers. You can pass your behaviour change challenge onto those influencers or pass your organisational strategy onto them, letting them take it and run with it. These people have gained influence for a reason – they’re entertaining, they’re funny, and they can take what you’ve got and make it their own. Importantly, they can take it to their audience that your organisation might not be able to reach. We’ve seen that work well with disengaged audiences. Working with influencers, and lastly, working with brand and communication characters, can broaden that scope as well. If your brand is not particularly playful or funny by nature, you can introduce characters.
I automatically think of Tina from Turners – she’s crack up, and I wouldn’t normally say that Turners is a funny brand, but they’ve really managed to turn that around. Through Tina and even ASB, a progressive bank, they’ve managed to bring in joy and playfulness. ASB is quite progressive and aligned to being modern and forward-thinking. But through Ben and Amy, their characters, they’ve introduced a lot of joy and playfulness.
Mark: Lindsey, that reminds me of a campaign at the moment in Australia for Telstra. Their use of characters relates to what you just said. Telstra is obviously the incumbent, the largest telecommunications brand in Australia, and doesn’t have a natural sense of fun or playfulness in its DNA. But in this campaign, they’ve used animated characters with cute little scripts that have helped make the brand feel more playful, accessible, and personable. It’s been an effective way of shifting the dial for that kind of brand.
Andrew: There are ways to dial up play, even if you have very little of it in your DNA. We don’t have to shy away from play as a tool. In fact, it’s a powerful tool when topics can be dull or hard to approach. And likewise, even if as a brand, you don’t have it in your DNA, there are ways to get there. Particularly by choosing the right collaborations, partnerships, and how you use your channel mix. Leaning into social media, where there’s licence for playfulness, and using traditional media too, where characters can bring a light-hearted touch to a brand that might not otherwise feel playful. Lindsey, clearly, there’s a lot of opportunity for both brands and governments to incorporate play in unique ways. We’ve talked about a few, but who else is doing this well from your perspective?
Lindsey: Yes, I think I’ve mentioned the cyber security example – seeing a lot of light-heartedness and humour coming through around staying safe online, misinformation, and children watching explicit content. Campaigns around those topics have been light-hearted, bringing in interesting characters that have been funny. The other example I wanted to mention is fire safety, in particular, preventing fires when people come home drunk or under the influence.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand, with their partners, created a humorous cookbook for safe cooking when you're under the influence, called You’re Cooked. They actually got people under the influence to create these recipes. You could watch them making safe recipes using microwaves or techniques that didn’t require actual cooking, keeping them safe at home. The ads were funny, but they were also effective. Fire and Emergency saw a decrease in stovetop-related fires as a result. It’s worth noting that this audience is often disengaged, anti-authoritarian, and, of course, under the influence – making it funny and humorous helped significantly in this instance. That’s one that sticks out for me.
Andrew: It’s that disarm and reframe idea you were talking about earlier.
Lindsey: Yes, 100%, and using the language they use – calling it You’re Cooked was great.
Mark: That’s a great example. Can I jump in with one from Australia? You can’t talk about playfulness without mentioning Bunnings.
Andrew: I was waiting for that one to come up!
Mark: There are a couple of recent examples, both from this year. One is the Hammerbarn partnership with Bluey. Bluey is the epitome of playful as a piece of content, and the characters in it. Leveraging that for Bunnings was a masterstroke – an example of using a partnership to build playfulness and the engagement opportunities that stemmed from it. Another recent example started as a random post on social media where someone said, “Wouldn’t it be cool if Bunnings did a warehouse rave?” A DJ responded saying, “I’d play at that!” A few months later, Bunnings did it – they made a rave happen. It was such a great opportunity to respond to what was happening organically in social media and transform it into an in-person brand activation, which was innovative, interesting, and unexpected – a fantastic engagement opportunity.
Lindsey: Did they have a sausage sizzle?
Mark: Yes, they did!
Andrew: Who doesn’t want to rave with a sausage sizzle? What’s interesting about the Bunnings example is that it’s two very different versions of playfulness done by one brand. It works as an extension in both directions, possibly engaging different audiences, but it shows how you can extend play in lots of different ways and manifest it in various experiences.
We've covered a lot of ground today, from how playfulness can help with brand building, connection, and communication, to creating positive behaviour change. To recap some key ideas, first, play and humour are a big part of how we seek joy and connection in our lives, and we want more of it. That’s what our study revealed – it’s part of the DNA of Kiwis and Aussies, and we want to see more of it from brands. There’s permission for brands to provide more playfulness, which is great because playfulness and humour are powerful tools for building connection and creating positive change.
Number one, they play an important role in helping us reframe difficult topics and help disarm disengaged groups. Secondly, they help us show relevance beyond talking about things like purpose or USPs. Demonstrating playfulness, which people want, creates much greater connection with audiences. However, there are guidelines – don’t get in the way of function, be true to your DNA, otherwise, it’ll feel forced, and consider the role of partners and channels.
Ultimately, some of the brands and campaigns we admire the most use playfulness and humour very well. They show the power that exists in the space, where our study shows there’s still a lot of untapped opportunity.
Thank you both for joining me in the studio today and for your contributions – it was a fascinating discussion.
Mark: It was fun, thanks!
Lindsey: Thanks, it was great!
Andrew: If you enjoyed today’s discussion, tune in next week for our final episode, where we’ll be talking about the role of play at the intersections of customer experience and culture. TRA is an insight agency – by layering perspectives from the science of human understanding, we see what others don’t: the uncommon truths. To explore more of our thinking on play, visit https://www.theresearchagency.com/play.
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