Corporate training. Corporate training videos. They’re a laugh a minute. Not! But Comedy@Work is working hard to change the face of corporate training videos by using humour to embed the message.
Jo Watson and Greg Viljoen formed Comedy@Work in 2010 to provide the service of creating corporate training videos that make use of comedy. Some big names have made their client list: Absa, SARS and the RMI are but a few. Now they’ve decided to take their message further with a television ad campaign running on Summit TV.
“We offer a unique service that many people don’t even know exists. So we wanted to get the concept out there, while simultaneously advertising our company,” says Watson.
The result is ‘Drum it in’, an ad that showcases their ability to create funny training videos, often using the “what not to do” approach. This was achieved by creating the character of an over-zealous trainer. He was placed at the helm of a highly corporate training session on “How to chair a disciplinary hearing”. It’s the rather strange methods he uses to “drum” the info into his trainees that provides the comedy. And along with being funny, it also created a scenario that most people in the corporate world can relate to.
Viljoen lent his own ability as a comedic actor to the lead role. With a string of commercial roles to his name – including the Vodaworld campaign and Windhoek Lager’s Louis Gosset Jr series – Viljoen has the ability to bring his funnyman roles to life with just the right amount of comedy.
