SITUATION

Brits love comedy podcasts – it’s the number one genre in the podcast category. We needed to show the listening public that Audible is the home of comedy podcasts and that the quality of Audible comedy is worth paying for. After all, Audible creates and distributes some of the biggest titles in comedy podcasting – from national treasures French and Saunders, to the titles from in-demand, modern talent such a Daisy May Cooper and Kurupt FM.

BRIEF

We aimed to enthral non-members with our comedy catalogue, compelling them to dive into the world of Audible Original titles showcased in this campaign

OBJECTIVES

We needed to raise awareness and consideration of Audible’s comedy catalogue and ultimately inspire them to listen to our comedy titles as a result.

We riffed off a very human insight: mishaps happen – texts to the wrong person, shrinking your jumper in the wash, spilling wine on your boss – but when they do it’s in our national DNA to laugh our way through them. In fact, the average Brit experiences 84 mishaps a year, with 45% laughing at their own mishap afterwards (OnePoll). And we turn to comedy audio entertainment to provide the laughter needed when the day goes wrong, with 87% of people listening to boost their mood on those hard days. (Nat Rep survey, 2022). Audible knew that its extensive library of comedy could offer the light relief that Brits needed, but we needed to make Brits aware of it, get them to experience the laughs from it, and to subscribe in those moments of comedy need.

Humour in advertising increases involvement by 14% and distinctiveness by 11% (Kantar 2002). This was our greatest weapon to increase listening, going after the whole category with a genre-led campaign that spoke to the universality of comedy's power to boost your mood when everything is going 'pear-shaped'. So, we targeted all comedy fans, not just those currently consuming audio comedy, bringing to life the power of listening to comedy on Audible.

Our strategy was to make Brits Laugh Through It – inciting laughter at whatever the world throws at them; by viscerally bringing to life someone having the worst day ever, as well as surrounding the moments when people reflect on their mishaps, demonstrating Audible could provide the laughs needed. Media was planned to appear in the moments and context where life’s everyday mishaps are likely to happen and where audio comedy can whisk listeners out of the mundanity of

We started with special outdoor installations that physically brought to life the scenes of a bike stuck in newly poured concrete, someone who had fallen into a bin, and the silhouette left behind by someone covered in a tsunami of bird poo. These scenes were carefully planned to appear in context-perfect sites to showcase the mishaps: seagulls in Brighton, taxi disaster outside a train station.

These were supported by placements across the transport network – a key moment and environment for audio listening – with 5421 panels, both small and large formats and digital and paper sites.

We delivered the accompanying campaign film in the moments when people reflect on their mishaps of the day – during the commute and boredom browsing with social and online video. We further broadcast the 30” advert on VoD and in Cinema across the key UK comedy fringe festival season of July and August.

The campaign outperformed all our KPIs.

Our eye-catching, location-perfect installations grabbed huge amounts of attention.

And even fooled the Metropolitan Police, who were called to rescue a man in a bin, which turned out to be our special installation - it was spontaneously posted online, with armchair comedians creating their own puns riffing off it.

They even called out the strategy: "How many coppers does it take to get a man out of a bin? 2 to actually get you out. 5 to tell you to ‘laugh through it’." And in a final, hilariously British twist, someone stole the mannequin’s trousers.

The results were nothing to laugh at. We saw a 4% uplift in awareness and 15% increase in brand consideration and interest in listening to comedy on Audible (nationally representative sample, 2023). Translating into a 200% increase in unique visitors listening to a comedy title since the campaign launch.