Holiday Marketing: April Fools’ Day Edition

Whether you’re filling donuts with mayo, or covering your co-worker’s car in Post-it notes, April Fools’ Day is all about the pranks—and marketers want in on the fun. For years, companies have produced creative, often hilarious April Fools’ Day video campaigns to capitalize on this laughable holiday, and today we’ll take a look at some of the latest and greatest!

The Greatest

YouTube and parent company Google traditionally announce wacky new updates or features in their April Fools’ Day videos. They’ve been pretty successful with their annual prank videos so far:

Google

2011: 7.6 million YouTube views; 190,000 social shares

2012: 2.7 million YouTube views; 191,000 social shares

2013: 6.2 million YouTube views; 214,000 social shares

YouTube

2011: 2.1 million YouTube views; 58,000 social shares

2012: 3.7 million YouTube views; 118,000 social shares

2013: 11.2 million YouTube views; 430,000 social shares

Check out some other awesome April Fools’ Day videos from the companies below!

The White House: 3.8 million YouTube views; 62,000 social shares

Nike: 878,000 YouTube views; 26,000 social shares

IKEA Australia: 432,000 YouTube views; 43,000 social shares

Honda: 314,000 YouTube views; 10,000 social shares

Barclaycard: 317,000 YouTube views; 20,000 social shares

The Latest

YouTube released its 2014 April Fools’ Day video yesterday, announcing some pretty interesting upcoming viral video trends.

Google has several videos up across its channels—the Google Maps video has already racked up 3.6 million YouTube views.

If you watched the videos from Barclaycard and IKEA Australia above, you know that dogs seem to be a hot topic when it comes to April Fools’ Day spots. This year, American Well is introducing Puppy Connect.

Samsung UK understands that people need internet everywhere. The solution: pigeons.

BMW is making a grab at younger generations with its new Ultimate Sleeping Machine, proving it’s never too early to start raising brand awareness!

Virgin America is all about comfort and control at 35,000 feet, so obviously Total Temperature Control is an excellent idea.

Melbourne Metro is at it again! The company’s insanely popular “Dumb Ways to Die” characters are back in an April Fools’ Day themed spot.

Seen any other great April Fools’ Day spots? Let us know in the comments!

via Business 2 Community http://ift.tt/PfCVbv