In the past few years, April Fools has become a real online marketing fest day. It’s a day in which our feed is full of different videos, false articles, features and announcements about different companies that make us laugh, feel foolish and even fall in love with the companies’ sense of humour.
Most often, people are very impressed and amused by the pranks and they think to themselves “Why haven’t we done it” or “What would we have done as an April Fools prank”
At Veed.me, we had the privilege to take part in last year’s Waze April Fools video which presented the awesome new feature “WazeDates” and year after year we see more companies choosing the video format as their prank.
So here are 5 reasons why your company should have an April Fools prank this year:
1. It’s a great chance to show your product
Most times, pranks are about new, out-of-the-box features of your product, and by discussing the new features, explaining them and showing them, you actually show your core product, which is great when reaching a new audience. Your “new feature” which might sound cool, impossible or even outrageous, will attract the people to watch it and then they will be exposed to your actual product. (Last year, pebble the creator of smart watches made an announcement that they were launching Scratch ‘n’ Sniff smartwatches!)
2. Show you’re a cool company
Making a funny prank is a great way to show how cool your company is and that apart from being a serious businesses, you also have a good sense of humor. It’s a great chance to show these sides of your brand which could otherwise seem inappropriate the rest of the year
Below: an example (MUST WATCH) of how Samuel Adams became one of the coolest beer brands around in the last April Fools
3. Show the people behind your product
Making an April Fools video is a great chance to show the people behind the product, the team and the team’s DNA. It’s this kind of video where you’ll most likely show people talking seriously about a ridiculous, silly feature so it’s funny no matter what. It’s not only the founders who can appear in the video, it’s all the employees and of course a chance to show off your cool office.
4. Validate new ideas
An April Fools prank is a great chance to see the audience reaction to your craziest ideas. It might not be the purpose of the prank, but it’s certainly a cool outcome about what your audience (or new audience) likes. Thinking of targeting your app to a new out-of-the-box audience? Thinking of a ridiculous new feature? maybe even trying a new logo.. Everything is legitimate in April Fools so if you ever wanted to test your far fetched ideas and put them on stage, it’s the perfect timing.
5. Have fun
This is the most important part.
The whole process of making the prank, from ideation and brainstorming, to execution and distribution is fun. Steve Jobs once said “Stay hungry, stay foolish” so — I definitely recommend to start rolling this idea with your team, try to think of funny things, get your employees to suggest ideas and build some buzz around it. We all know that having certain “peak events” at a company is important — Press releases, new versions, new marketing stuff etc. So waiting for April 1st and its funny outcomes, can definitely be a fun thing at the company. Psst.. maybe even make an April Fools prank for your boss!
So what type of April Fools pranks can you make?
1. a Video with a new feature or a shift in your product.
2. False article/landing page about a new feature.
3. Redesigns of your homepage — changing your name, add something funny to your logo etc..
Now that you know why an April Fools prank can get your audience excited, it’s the perfect timing to start planning the prank, brainstorm about it and execute. Obviously, if it will be a video that you want to make, we’ll be here to help you with that — you can ask for ideas and videos — here.
Originally published at blog.veed.me on February 23, 2015.
