April Fools’ Day marketing pranks: Wins and losses
Thousands of brand managers took advantage of the prank-filled occasion online, with some going above and beyond to get the last laugh. Here’s one success story, and one utter failure.
When it comes to consumer engagement, brand managers know the importance of a good joke.
As a need for consumer interaction grows, social media managers use Twitter, Facebook and Snapchat to deliver messages. For April Fools’ Day, prankster-marketers for well-known brands took to social media in hopes of getting the last laugh.
Here are two noteworthy brands’ pranks, starting with the day’s biggest loser:
Google’s botched ‘mic drop’
It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt—or in Google’s case, until enough users complain and you have to apologize for your April Fools’ Day prank.
Some sneaky Gmail developers decided to add a button next to the email platform’s send button labeled “mic drop.” When sent, your email would automatically include a GIF of a minion dropping a mic.
Here’s how Google initially described the silliness in a blog post:
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