April Fools' Day: The Holiday for Marketers

Generally when a person thinks of April Fools' Day, one pictures practical jokes such as tooth-paste filled Oreos, saran-wrapped doorways, and cottage-cheese coated deodorant sticks;  not giving someone a free luxury car. Well that is exactly what BMW New Zealand did on the holiday.

An Auckland dealership posted an advertisement in a local newspaper on April 1st stating that whoever brought in their old vehicle with the advertisement cut-out could trade their car for a brand new BMW. Of course, everyone took this article to be a joke as many companies pull on the day. In this case however, the company actually meant what they said and fulfilled the promise for one lucky woman who brought in her old junker with the coupon and ended up with an upgraded BMW. The next day news of the transaction went viral and the dealership received tons of free publicity by those amazed by the dealership keeping its word and those wishing they had believed the advertisement when they first saw it. 

This demonstrates their company's marketers thinking outside of the box. There is always new ways to gain positive publicity other than paid advertisements, and while trading a new BMW for an older car isn't necessarily cheap- the publicity gained from it was definitely well worth it.

Tricking the Critics

Some consumers always stand on the forefront, waiting to catch errors and point out the mistakes of companies' statements or advertisements as if it gains them some sort of personal reward or satisfaction. While most brands have always despised this type of customer, some companies have learned to utilize this one annoying buzz to their advantage.

Hostess recently released an advertisement in which they posted "Touchdown" to commemorate the opening of baseball season. While many younger online users realize this to be "trolling" or the action of purposely trying to generate a rise out of people by posting controversial or subjective material, other users haven't caught on and began causing a widely publicized stir about the brand's "mistake". While some marketers may argue that it is negative publicity for the company, many others claim it is brilliant as most of the consumer base sees and feels like they are in on the joke thus causing no harm to the overall brand image. 

Monster.com also released a similar online advertisement following the Superbowl in which they congratulated the wrong team for the big win. However when the user hovered their mouse cursor over the advertisement, a new line appeared with the text, "No matter why you're looking for a new job, we can help you find better," followed with the congratulations for the correct winning team and a job search for Social Media Manager. Using these types of fake mistakes in one's marketing tactics are a creative way to generate attention to one's advertisements and gain more publicity than a regular advertisement. The key here is to just make sure that the "mistake" is visible to most of the viewers as a joke, otherwise the real joke is on the brand.