Ryanair: the joke needs a business model underneath it

Ryanair’s social voice is useful because it is recognisable in the context of its offer; another brand should understand that fit before borrowing the irreverence.

A brand team sees an airline making jokes on social media and decides its own account needs to be bolder. The proposal contains screenshots, trending formats and a request for faster approvals.

It contains less explanation of why customers would accept that voice from this particular company. The missing step is the relationship between tone, customer expectations and the product the business actually delivers.

Ryanair is a useful case because its social approach has been described by both the company and a leader responsible for the work. The lesson is about fit, not a universal licence to be rude.

What the company said it was trying to do

In its 2021 sustainability report, Ryanair described social media as a way to reach newer and younger audiences, stay front of mind and provide useful and entertaining material.

In a July 2023 interview, then social and creative lead Michael Corcoran described a self-deprecating, irreverent voice. The interview is a participant’s account of the strategy, hosted by a social-media software company.

These sources document intent and approach. They do not establish that a particular joke caused a booking, or that social activity alone explains the airline’s commercial performance.

The useful inference is that entertainment had an explicit role in the communication plan. It was not simply a random departure from the brand whenever a platform trend appeared.

Tone makes a promise about the relationship

A low-fare proposition can create a different conversational context from a premium service promising personal reassurance. Customers may tolerate different trade-offs, but that does not mean they abandon expectations of competent service.

For another brand, ask what customers believe they are buying beyond the functional product. Security, discretion, expertise, convenience and status each create different boundaries for humour.

A payroll provider joking about preventable salary errors would face a different risk from a snack brand joking about an empty packet. The consequence of failure shapes the audience’s interpretation.

The CMO should therefore define the relationship before defining the tone. “Bold” is too vague to guide a team facing a real complaint or sensitive event.

Separate entertainment from service recovery

A social account can entertain one audience while another arrives with an unresolved problem. The team needs a way to recognise that context and move into helpful service communication.

Do not assume a joking reply is appropriate because previous jokes attracted engagement. The person asking about a disrupted journey or missing payment may need a clear route to resolution.

Create examples of situations where the voice changes: routine banter, genuine confusion, individual harm, widespread disruption and public criticism. Explain what the team should do in each, including when to involve operations.

This is not a demand for identical wording across every channel. It is a requirement that the brand’s behaviour remain intelligible when the customer’s circumstances change.

Give creative freedom usable boundaries

Fast approvals are valuable only if the team understands the decisions it can make. Establish subjects the brand can joke about, claims requiring evidence, people who must not become targets and events that require escalation.

Review examples together rather than relying on abstract adjectives. Two people can agree that a voice is playful and still disagree sharply about a proposed post.

Keep the boundaries attached to the role, not one charismatic employee. A social identity that exists only in someone’s instinct is difficult to maintain when staff change or workload grows.

The objective is repeatable judgement with room for creativity. A script for every situation will be too slow; no shared judgement will be too fragile.

Evaluate the attention you attract

Look beyond total engagement. Who is responding, what are they taking from the post and does the association support the intended brand role?

A post can attract a large audience because people enjoy the joke while remembering little about the offer. It can also attract controversy from people unlikely to become customers. Neither pattern should automatically be counted as commercial progress.

Inspect comments qualitatively and connect the work to suitable measures over time. If the aim is familiarity among a defined audience, design a way to examine that rather than treating likes as a direct substitute.

Avoid assigning all booking changes to social when pricing, routes, availability and other marketing are also changing.

Translate the lesson into your own voice

Start with the product truth and the customer’s lived experience. Find situations the audience recognises and a point of view the company can sustain without making false promises.

Test a small set of creative approaches and study the response in context. The relevant question is whether the voice strengthens a useful association, not whether it resembles the most shared competitor post.

Ryanair’s example is distinctive precisely because imitation is incomplete. The visible joke sits within a specific offer, audience and operating culture. A CMO who understands those conditions can build a voice that belongs to the business rather than borrowing another brand’s permission.