April Fool’s Day Campaigns
By Richard Berry, Media Planner
Happy April Fools! Don’t worry, there’s no fooling around here. Instead, we’re here to look at some of our favourite past April Fools campaigns, other upcoming key events, and how we can best utilise these key events for brand growth.
Kicking off our list of favourites is:
Sour Patch Prank Fund
Sour Patch Kids love a prank, so for April Fools 2021 they announced the Sour Patch Kids Prank Fund, an engaging competition to get their fans involved in the fun of April fools! They got five TikTok influencers- known for pranks- involved, to challenge fans to prank their friends and get a good video of it. Videos posted on TikTok with the hashtag #SourPatchPrankFund in the 5 days leading to April 1st were entered into a competition for 5 prizes of $1,000, and 100 prizes of Sour Patch Kids sweets. They announced the competition alongside an example of a fun prank to play on someone; Zip-tying a loo roll!
It was a very successful campaign, with the hashtag racking up over 8.4 billion views.
But why was it so successful? Engagement.
It’s relevant, fun, and gets fans involved, getting them to go and do something they usually wouldn’t. It’s also a smart use of user-generated content to maximise the reach and budget of the campaign. Having this one-to-one connection between yourself and the viewers creates a stronger level of brand trust, which ensures customers are willing to take the risk with your brand, and try something new.
Heinz Partnerships
This one is a bit of a cheat, as it’s not just one campaign, its three! Heinz likes to tackle April fools by doing partnerships with other reputable brands such as Weetabix, Innocent, ASDA & Crème Egg. I think it’s a really smart approach as its combines the brand equity of both brands, as well as opening the opportunity for further partnerships, real or not!
Overall, it’s a great idea for brand growth by becoming exposed to the established fans of the partner brands.
Firstly, Heinz x Innocent smoothies announced the ‘Smoup’, a strawberry, banana and tomato smoothie soup. Heinz and Innocent are actually partnering on releasing a real product together, but thankfully it’s not Smoup!
Secondly, Heinz partnered with Weetabix and ASDA. I have to admit, I don’t think this one sounds awful… but it’s not real anyway! This 3-way partnership brought two food products together, and it was advertised to be sold in ASDA. I do wonder how many people rocked up at ASDA trying to buy it?
Third and finally, the crème egg mayo ( I know). Heinz x Crème Egg caught fans off guard when they announced this on April 1st 2019, and then it turned out to be REAL on April 2nd! Available whilst stock lasted, it also included a pop-up with free samples. However, this was a smart move knowing crème eggs are always popular in the lead up to Easter, so this was the perfect time to do a partnership.
Tubbycoin
And last on our list of favourites is Teletubbies, pranking fans by announcing the latest cryptocurrency on the market, Tubbycoin last year. This one of our favourites because of the utilisation of current trends. They knew the world was talking about crypto, so jumped on board to ensure fans see them as relevant and modern.
Another smart utilisation seen by Teletubbies is the encouragement for engagement as they posted it, saying “For every like, share, comment of #TubbyCoin, the TubbyCoin becomes more valuable! Let’s take it to the moon. ” This gets people interacting and sharing, maximising the reach of the campaign by being exposed to the followers of every fan that shares.
On the backside of this, this cryptocurrency joke was also created to raise money for Kids Help Phone. Kids Help Phone gives millions of youths a safe, trusted space to talk over phone or through text or in self-directed support in any moment of crisis or need. It had a base donation of $5,000 from Teletubbies, increasing by $1 for every like, share and retweet to a maximum of $10,000.
So now you know what our favourite April fools campaigns are, and we cannot wait to see what April Fools has in store for us this year! Be sure to remember what helped make these campaigns as successful as they were, so that you can maximise the impact of your campaign for other upcoming key events. I’ve compiled a list of some key dates in Q2 that are perfect opportunities to launch a relevant campaign to current trends and events:
April 2nd – Ramadan Begins
April 17th – Easter Sunday!
April 22nd – Earth Day
May 4th – Star Wars day, ‘May the 4th be with you’
May 16th-22nd – National Vegetarian Week
June 1st-30th – LGBTQ+ Pride Month
June 3rd – H.M. The Queens Platinum Jubilee
June 19th – Father’s Day
June 21st – Summer Solstice