April Fools – who fooled and who was the fool
As marketers, there’s nothing better than a cultural moment to bring us together. We may have moved away from basing our content calendars around irrelevant national days (oh 2016, what a time to be alive), but April Fools Day is still an opportunity to make an impact.
Author
Lizi Legge
Date
02.04.2024
The key to success (and to not end up marketing to marketers)? Having a purpose, rather than posting for the sake of posting.
If your TOV is already pretty light and humorous, April Fools is a great opportunity to join in the fun with a post that is simply a joke and will drive both engagement and a smile.
But if your brand often brings out new products, there’s an opportunity to gauge consumer reactions by stress testing NPD too.
Here are our top five April Fools of 2024...
MAOAM – MEOW-AM
Kicking off with one of our own, we embodied 'Choose Fun, Chew MAOAM' by announcing a range of chews for cats. This played on a pun, was creatively consistent with the feed and drove organic engagement. A clear joke but worked well for an already fun brand, with low investment needed.
**Cadburys: Straighty Waity **
The straight up version of the classic Curly Wurly. Cadburys played it safe with this one – it’s fun, family friendly and a direct flip on one of their most beloved treats.
Would we buy it? Actually, yes. It’s the same joy of a Curly Wurly but less opportunities to lose little bits of chocolate and find them smeared into your jumper an hour later.
Heinz: Ketchup Toning Shampoo
Simple but effective. An easy win by taking a bottle down the haircare aisle, snapping a pic and doing a little Photoshop magic. Whilst this one was a clear joke, we all remember women’s mags of the early 00’s recommending using ketchup to get a green tinge out of blonde hair, so we love the hint of nostalgia here.
Aldi – Love Aisleland
We know that Aldi loves a dupe, and this time, they’ve taken on Love Island by announcing that their own version has opened applications. It’s pun-tastic and honestly? We wouldn’t put it past them to actually do it. From special buys to special guys.
Iceland X Cathedral City
Iceland soft launched a giant Cathedral City ‘cake’ last week to drum up some engagement and whilst they announced on the 1st that it was an April Fools, they gained so much interest that they’re now investigating whether they can develop it for real. Never underestimate how much the British public love cheese – the best by date of April 1st was a little hint though!
