SEM Blog

April Fools Day is to Viral Marketers as Halloween is to Dentists

Posted by Bryan at April 1st, 2008

You have 364 days left to take advantage of this, so you’ll want to set an alarm to remind and come back to reference this post.

Today the internet goes dead. Every news source and trusted form of information now lay suspect as the dreaded Fools Day leaves its mark. But what’s that you say? Your social bookmarking sites are flooded with hilarious or concerning stories that you can’t help but click on? Your search engine of choice offers to let you to search into the future? And of course, you can’t simply click the link and read it and be done with it. No! You must send it out to everyone you know so that they too can share in the hilarity.

Congratulations. You have provided some giddy marketer with the results desired from there viral marketing campaign. April Fools day is all about capturing the attention of your specific audience and giving them something to gab about. So while Google is just doing it for the giggles because, let’s face it, we live in their world, everyone out there is fighting for a piece of the pie. The following is a list of the April Fools Pranks from this year that definitely make the grade.

• Newsflash: Digg Admits It’s Rigged and Just a Game
• Clinton Drops Out!!!!
• NASA to Burn Sponsor Logos into the Surface of Mars
• Betamax to HD-DVD Converter
• Match.com Works For eHarmony Founder

So what do these sites gain by putting up this little piece of humor for the world to see? Traffic, and lots of it.

So how can you take advantage of April Fools Day 2009 like everyone in marketing should?

1. Create a fake news story or product/service based off of a popular buzz term.
2. Make sure it at least makes you smirk before you launch it. Test it out on your friends.
3. If your target is the U.S. then launch it right at Midnight EST.
4. Use social bookmarking sites and sites specifically tailored to listing April Fools Day Pranks submitted by users.
5. Keep tabs on what blogs in your niche write about, the cool April Fools Day Pranks they’ve seen and either comment on them or send the publisher the link right as you go live.
6. Know when to call it quits. YouTube directed every featured video on their site to a Rick Roll. Shortly after they reverted back to normal and many people clicking over to see the prank most likely surfed around for a bit.

So next year when you’re planning your April Fools Day Prank, I’ll be one year closer to living on Mars with Project Virgle’s Plan B.