Serious topics should be associated with serious language. Or should they? For a long time, this logic guided communication in sectors such as finance, health, education, and technology. The more complex the subject, the greater the apparent need to use a formal tone, distant from popular culture. The problem is that the public has changed the way it gets its information.
While the same person watches an interview about economics, they save a carousel explaining a financial concept, follow an influencer on YouTube, comment on a trend on Instagram, and send a meme to the family group on WhatsApp. Attention is fragmented, and the repertoire has become hybrid.
In this mosaic of stimuli, humor has ceased to be merely entertainment and has become a language of connection. It creates recognition, reduces distance, and opens up space for important topics to enter into everyday conversations.
Humor makes topics like finance, still surrounded by taboos, doubts, and unfamiliar terms for those starting to invest, more accessible. It allows for the precise yet nuanced approach to essential concepts such as diversification, time horizon, liquidity, risk, and return. Often, how a message reaches its audience is as crucial as its content.
For brands and institutions, the challenge lies in finding a balance: speaking accessibly without losing rigor; using contemporary language without diminishing the importance of the topic; and participating in trends without appearing opportunistic. Humor can be an ally in building this knowledge and amplifying this conversation.
The language used by digital influencers and finance sector campaigns has followed this trend on social media. The "No Fundo Você Pode" (In the Deep Down You Can ) initiative, from Anbima (Brazilian Association of Financial and Capital Market Entities), is based on this logic.
The campaign aims to bring the public closer to investment funds, a product that still seems complex. The campaign's name itself plays on this connection with the investor: the word "funds" refers to the type of investment, but also includes the public in the conversation, showing that investment is accessible to all Brazilians.
The campaign presents investment plans and possibilities in funds using a fun yet educational language. Recently, one of the digital pieces posed an unusual question: "What if pop divas were investment funds?"
The question works because it juxtaposes unlikely universes. Pop culture brings personality, immediate identification, and connects with the repertoire of the young audience—the target of the campaign. The charm lies in the unexpected encounter of pop icons with different background categories, associating them with the singers' career profiles. The "divas" brought us 398% higher organic engagement than the average on Anbima's Instagram in the month the campaign was published.
In addition to those, caramel-colored kittens and puppies also started appearing in our feed, driving an 84% increase in organic engagement.
But this kind of choice requires courage. Changing the way we communicate in traditionally formal sectors is not a trivial move. Throughout this process, I heard questions like "you went too far, don't you think?" and even suggestions along the lines of "it's better to take this content down." It's part of the process.
The entrance door has changed.
When one breaks with the expected repertoire, bewilderment often precedes validation. However, the numbers showed that, with technique, intention, and precision, humor can fulfill exactly the role expected of good communication: to open a dialogue. In our case, it helped bring the capital market closer to audiences who probably wouldn't be interested in our topics in a conventional approach.
I'm not talking about reducing investment to a game. We've changed the entry point to discuss product features, investment timeframes, portfolio diversification, investor profiles, and choices. First, recognition and curiosity. Only then does the financial message reach an audience accustomed to learning in quick, visual, and shareable formats. This strategy makes all the difference.
The topic relates to a larger marketing challenge: brands have never had so much data and so many channels, yet delivering relevance remains difficult. A Deloitte study shows that only 43% of interactions are perceived as personalized by consumers, despite massive investment in data and technology.
While brands struggle to create this connection, influencers are masters at it. Data from the 10th edition of FInfluence, a report that monitors the finance ecosystem on social media, shows that the audience has grown by more than 300% in five years. Interactions have also followed this expansion, reaching 1.3 billion in the last semester.
This growth is not limited to individual creators: profiles linked to companies, institutions, and media outlets are also increasing their participation on social networks, with a more planned approach, adapted to the language of each platform and to formats that favor explanation, context, and connection.
In other words, there is interest in joining the conversation about finance, as long as the communication manages to translate the topic to real life, using approachable language, accessible vocabulary, and clear usefulness for those on the other side of the screen.
There's an important level of maturity in recognizing that a brand's authority goes beyond maintaining a serious tone. A good message is one that people want to share, comment on, send to someone, save to look at later.
This may be one of the signs of the spirit of our time: engagement matters. But to be relevant, it needs to be understood, remembered, and shared. In this strategy, a touch of humor becomes a good investment.
Amanda Brum is the CMO of Anbima.
