India’s Next Gen: 91% pay more attention to funny brands

Humour is no longer just an add-on in Indian marketing. A new six-country study from Snapchat and Omnicom Advertising finds that for consumers aged 13 to 28, comedy is a primary way to connect, signal belonging and even discuss serious topics. In India, the numbers are especially sharp: 87% of Next Gen respondents said humour is how their generation talks about serious subjects, and 90% said it lets them say things they would not say directly.

The research, titled How to Laugh (and Win) with the Next Generation, covered more than 6,000 social media users across India, the US, UK, Canada, France and Germany. The commercial upside is hard to ignore.

The buying brain on laughter

Humour changes attention before it changes attitude. When a brand makes young consumers laugh, it earns a pause in an endless feed. That pause is valuable. The study found 91% of Indian respondents pay more attention to funny brands, 88% are more likely to consider buying from them, and 93% say they would tell others about them.

That is word-of-mouth at scale. A joke is inherently social: people share what makes them laugh. So a funny brand does not just get noticed; it gets passed around.

Why forced humour backfires

The risk is equally clear. Four in five respondents agreed that brands online can come across as older people attempting to joke with them. That is a precise description of cringe. When a brand tries to replicate a meme without understanding its cultural context, the audience reads the effort as inauthentic. Humour perceived as forced or disconnected can actively work against the brand.

Subramanyeswar (Subbu), Chief Strategy Officer, India and Chief Knowledge Officer, Asia, Omnicom Advertising, told the study: “Humour has always been one of culture’s most powerful forms of social currency. What is changing is its speed, its codes and who gets to define what is funny.”

The Zoomer Humour Playbook

The study outlines four principles for marketers:

• Read the room: understand what the audience finds funny and why before posting.
• Build the joke: use structure, timing and cultural codes rather than borrowing a trending format blindly.
• Find the right moment: humour works best when it fits the context, not when it interrupts it.
• Win on Snapchat: meet younger audiences on the platforms where their humour already lives.

This fits a broader behavioural science idea: humour works as a benign violation. The joke must feel safe enough to enjoy but transgressive enough to be interesting. If a brand only tries to be edgy, it can offend. If it only plays safe, it is boring. The sweet spot is cultural fluency.

What marketers should do

Do not start with the joke. Start with the audience. For brand managers and founders, the actionable step is to spend time in comment sections, creator ecosystems and local meme pages before commissioning a campaign. The study argues that brands cannot manufacture their way into the joke. They have to understand the culture that created it.

That means using humour as a bridge to a genuine brand truth. A D2C founder can laugh at a real customer pain point. A legacy brand can make fun of its own old-fashioned image. The brands that earn the right to the conversation will not just make people laugh; they will become part of how this generation talks.

Source: Storyboard18