Cartoons are the Cinderella of content marketing – capable of so much, but so often overlooked. In the 11 years since FirstWord began, we have created an estimated 10 million words for blogs, thought leadership pieces, reports and white papers. Infographics and podcasts have also flown out the door, but – despite our best efforts – only a handful of clients have been persuaded to use cartoons.
That’s a shame, because we’re big fans of the medium and firm believers that cartoons can work in a business context to elevate a campaign, overcome language barriers or simply find humour in an unexpected place.
Those clients we have converted to using them – whether wryly ironic, downright funny, or even making a serious point – tell us they’ve been both effective and popular.
Communicating visually
So why cartoons? Well, for starters, they are a very flexible format. The best ones are memorable and quick to digest. And once they’re established in a brand or corporate publication, people come looking for the next instalment.
Steve Jones, a professional cartoonist known as Jonesy whose work has appeared in Private Eye, among other places, says: “Cartoons are so versatile, much more than words or photography. And they get the message across really fast. A good one will let you tell a story with humour and bring in loads of subtle references.”
Any organisation or company can include cartoons in their campaigns. In Jones’ experience, there isn’t a typical client. He has created cartoons for Thomas Pink, the shirt maker, online bank Zopa, Bengers, an agricultural insurance company, and the European Union (see all examples below), to name a few. And his work has appeared in New Statesman, Prospect, Harvard Business Review and The Oldie, in addition to Private Eye.
Click to enlarge: Thomas Pink cartoon (left) | Zopa online banking
Click to enlarge: Bengers (left) | European Union
Andy Palmer, co-founder of advertising agency Sell Sell, is another cartoon convert. He turned to cartoons nine years ago and his campaign for Timothy Taylor features short written stories accompanying cartoons that illustrate how the Yorkshire brewer stands out from its rivals.
The care it takes to use the best barley became a cartoon of a pigeon in a game show beating a brewer and an academic. It was accompanied by a 100-word story of how the head brewer would leave out samples of grain to see which the pigeons preferred – something that actually happened. Another cartoon turned the farmers supplying hops into beauty pageant contestants – something that didn’t.
Click to enlarge: Grains trust | Beauty parade
He agrees with Jones that there are no limits on which companies could use cartoons in a corporate context: “I don’t think there are any rules. It depends more on what the strategy and message a brand might be going out with. I think it’s about wanting to be different and having something interesting to say,” he says.
Getting the word out
It isn’t just that cartoons can tell the story; they also lend themselves brilliantly to different media. Timothy Taylor, for instance, has put cartoons on beer mats for pubs, adverts in the Sunday Times sport section and Private Eye, and on the London Underground. They’ve even ended up on T-shirts.
So how do you go about commissioning a successful campaign? According to Jones, it’s all about the brief. “My most successful jobs all had one thing in common: the briefs were good and clear. The people understood the process and they didn’t move the goalposts during the project,” he says.
Key is for the brief to hold the kernel of the idea, but not be too prescriptive.
“You need to know what the client wants, but they should only have rough ideas that I can develop,” he says. As for the process, once Jones has received the brief, he will develop the ideas, sketch them out over perhaps a couple of weeks and offer them for review. The client gives feedback, then he develops the final cartoon.
Kathryn Lamb, who illustrates Pseuds Corner, the regular cartoon in Private Eye that highlights pretentious pronouncements by celebrities and journalists, says trust is vital too.
“If a company is thinking about using a cartoonist, they need to research so they know what they might be getting. They need to trust that the cartoonist will deliver something appropriate,” she says. She also thinks the final product is better when she’s given some artistic freedom in the way she will bring the humour to what can be quite a run-of-the-mill subject.
“My humour (see award-winning cartoon published in Private Eye below) is quite dry, but my style is engaging. People do find that sympathetic. There’s something intensely funny about the corporate landscape. Men – and it is still usually men – around a table all being very serious and the language they use can be funny. Jargon. And wearing suits. All this lends itself to cartoons,” she says.
She advocates keeping it simple. “A cartoon should be quick to digest, in a glance. It needs a simple, clear focal point,” she says. But she admits it’s a fine line – forgive the pun. Sometimes it’s the little details that make them stand out – expressions on faces, for example. “Faces really engage people. It’s instinctive, and characters that are relatable or recognisable are good,” she adds.
Cutting through the noise
Ben Hunt, a communications professional with a journalism and public relations background, and who is one of FirstWord’s writers, turned to cartoons when he was struggling to grab the attention of staff for internal comms at a company where he worked many years ago.
“Internal comms is very crowded. People are numb to the amount of stuff they get – email, intranet, messaging apps. Quite rightly they feel bombarded. I wanted to make things stand out, present in a different way,” he says.
He turned to a member of his design staff who was also a talented artist to draw cartoons to go with his internal blog. “It definitely grabbed more attention,” he says.
But success isn’t guaranteed and potential pitfalls abound. According to Jones, things go wrong when the client keeps changing their mind or gives feedback that conflicts with the original brief. “They need to nail the brief at the beginning. Not see it as part of the creative process,” he says.
It’s also important they realise that a cartoon should convey an idea and not simply illustrate something. “The difference between an illustration and a cartoon is that a cartoon tells the story,” explains Lamb.
As to cost, there is usually an up-front fee and payment for subsequent use, but compared with a photoshoot where you pay for the venue, photographer, model, stylist, props and editing, this can be very competitive.
If all this has tickled your fancy and you think you could play Prince Charming to the Cinderella of content, talk to us. We can help nail down the brief and link you up to the one of the professional cartoonists on our books. But there are other ways to approach a possible commission.
“My corporate work often comes through Private Eye where someone has seen my stuff,” says Jones. There’s also the Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation. Its website has a database of members and sets out the steps to commissioning a cartoon.
Getting started really can be that simple. A bit like a good cartoon.
Leave a comment