Why 91% of India’s Next Gen Pay Attention to Funny Brands

India’s next generation is not just laughing with brands. It is using humour as a sorting mechanism: what earns attention, what feels safe to buy from, and what deserves to be shared. New research from Snapchat and Omnicom Advertising puts numbers behind that shift.

The report, How to Laugh (and Win) with the Next Generation, is based on more than 6,000 social media users aged 13 to 28 across India, the US, UK, Canada, France and Germany. The India findings show that humour has moved from entertainment into commercial behaviour.

From attention to advocacy

The headline number: 91% of Indian Next Gen respondents say they pay greater attention to brands that are funny. But the impact does not stop at awareness. 88% say they are more likely to consider buying from a funny brand, and 93% say they would tell others about it.

That is a rare full-funnel pattern: humour earns the right to interrupt, reduces purchase friction, and creates a reason to share.

• 91% pay more attention — humour earns the right to interrupt.
• 88% are more likely to consider buying — laughter reduces purchase friction.
• 93% would tell others — amusement becomes word-of-mouth.

Humour as a truth-telling device

For young Indians, humour is not the opposite of serious communication. The study found 87% say their generation uses humour to discuss serious subjects, and 90% say humour lets them express things they would otherwise not say directly.

This reframes humour as a low-risk way to approach high-tension topics. It creates enough psychological safety for an uncomfortable conversation to begin. The brand that gets this can talk about difficult ideas without sounding like a lecture.

Subramanyeswar (Subbu), Chief Strategy Officer, India and Chief Knowledge Officer, Asia, Omnicom Advertising, described humour as “one of culture’s most powerful forms of social currency.” The warning in his view is simple: “You cannot manufacture your way into the joke.”

The trap of trying too hard

The risk is large. Four in five respondents said brands online can come across as older people attempting to joke with them. That perception signals cultural distance, not closeness.

Forced humour usually fails because it borrows the form of a joke without the context that makes it funny. Young audiences can detect that instantly. The study offers a four-part “Zoomer Humour Playbook” for marketers: read the room, build the joke, find the right moment and win on Snapchat. But the real skill is understanding the culture that created the humour, not just copying the output.

What to do with this

Do not start with a trending audio. Start with the tension your audience is already joking about. Humour works as a brand tool when it signals belonging, shows self-awareness and makes a message easier to receive. As the data shows, the reward can be attention, consideration and word of mouth—but only if the joke feels like it comes from inside the culture, not outside it.

For brand managers, the practical takeaway is to treat humour as a strategic voice, not a campaign gimmick. Test whether a joke reduces social risk for the audience, uses an authentic cultural reference and matches the platform’s native tone. If the answer is no, the data suggests you may be better off being clear than forcing a laugh.

Source: Storyboard18