But how do you produce a good April Fool ‘s Day hook for your brand or organization? What are the requirements for an April Fool’s Day hook to be liked? We spoke with Thijs Waardenburg of The Network is the Message. In collaboration with OBI4wan and the Hogeschool Utrecht, among others, he is researching the power of hooks and knows exactly what a good hook should meet and wrote a book about the power of good hooks on social media .
April 1st messages
What do you think is the formula for success for a good April Fool’s Day hook?
“Let me say this first,” says Thijs. “April Fool’s Day is an incredibly obvious moment that you might not even want to special lead try to hook into. The competition is fierce. You have to come up with a really good joke to be successful with a hook on April Fool’s Day. On the other hand, it is actually the ultimate hook moment. Consumers also expect a good joke from some organizations.”
If you do tap into such predictable moments, two things are important:
Brand, moment and content must have a logical coherence
As an organization you need to give a ‘twist’ to the message
Organisations such as HEMA, Heineken and Albert Heijn are known for their strong tie-ins on holidays, but also on ad-hoc moments. For example, Albert Heijn came up with a tie-in to the hit series ‘De Luizenmoeder’ in early March. In the series, Albert Heijn’s mocha pastries were shown with a sticker of 35% discount in connection with the expiration date. The joke ‘a token of appreciation’ was adopted by Albert Heijn. The supermarket giant tied in with De Luizenmoeder and gave all mocha pastries with a 35% discount, because throwing them away is a waste.
A moment and content is strongly evident in this hook. The Albert Heijn brand is (indirectly) used in a popular Dutch series, china numbers so they seize this moment to hook in by discounting all pastries in the store and posting this on social media . Fans of De Luizenmoeder – and there are quite a few – will certainly appreciate the joke. A textbook example of how you can tap into existing networks or communities in one go. Win-win!
One of the Netherlands’ best-known beer brands also regularly hooks in successfully. As a sponsor risk management and mitigation of the Olympic Games in Pyeongchang last February, Heineken had its pick of hook-ins. This tweet appeared on Twitter after TeamNL won a gold and a bronze medal.