Sharm Tank Vol. 20

Happy Friday,

First things first…We just found out that we won Digiday’s Best High Impact Creative award for our work with HexClad.

Huge shoutout to our creative and paid media teams for leading the charge and driving these amazing results.

Second…Big, big developments in media buying this week!

Yesterday, Chase Bank launched Chase Media Solutions, allowing us to target customers with personalized deals based on their spending history.

My favorite take on this comes from a WSJ article where they say, “JPMorgan Chase, which recently reported record annual profit of $49.55 billion, doesn’t need an advertising network to propel the company into the black.”

Of course, as a media buyer, I’m always down for new targeting options. But I do think it’s interesting that banks are now leveraging their data for advertisers.

Enough of my ramblings, let’s get into the meat and potatoes.

The Main Course

Ah, April Fool’s Day, social media’s favorite holiday.

Remember 10 years ago how people would post that they were pregnant and that was it.

Now everything is engagement bait, and not even the good kind.

I’m talking about dumb lies that aren’t even funny. Just shock value for the sake of thumb stop.

But on a day where social media becomes largely intolerable, there is a silver lining - April Fool’s brand campaigns.

A day when marketing wizards show us their playful side, proving that while the Super Bowl might have the ads, April Fool's Day owns the creativity on a budget.

Why spend millions when you can make millions laugh for less?

Of course, you need to stay true to your brand, but rules are meant to be broken (and subverting expectations is an easy way to break the mold).

This year, brands have outdone themselves, turning the social media sphere into a playground of faux products, hilarious brand pivots, and mind-bending collaborations that had us doing double-takes.

Dive in with us as we unveil the crème de la crème of this year’s April Fool’s marketing extravaganza.

Buckle up—it’s going to be a riot of a ride through the funniest and most ingenious fake outs!

Duolingo

The language learning app (and its infamous owl mascot) is known for its subversive marketing campaigns, and yesterday was no different with Duolingo releasing a new multilingual ice-skating musical "coming soon to a city near you."

Graza

When we were young, Gushers were the equivalent of candy gold. Graza, a high-quality olive oil brand known for their adorable squeeze bottle, played on this nostalgia with Grushers, a fake product playing on the idea of Gushers filled with olive oil.

Olipop

This one was unexpected (and a little stomach churning). Olipop, celebrated for its tasty prebiotic beverages, announced a fake collaboration with Pringles to release a Sour Cream and Onion flavor. Olipop says it’s making snacking more efficient by eliminating the need to bite and then sip.

Sour Patch Kids

Sometimes the simplest ideas are the most effective. The Sour Patch Adults meme has been around for a while, but the brand finally acted on it several days leading up to April Fool’s day. They removed all color from their branding and even changed the endearing smiles of the Sour Patch Kids to the disgruntled frowns of someone who has to pay taxes.

Dunkin’ Donuts

Remember when Dunkin’ Donuts dropped “Donuts” from its name 5 years ago to just be “Dunkin’”? Well this week they announced their second name change and we’re back to just “Donuts.” Dunkin’ even changed its social media bios to read “America Runs on the DONUTS’” and updated its account profile pictures with the new name. The company added, “we will have coffee still. pls. don’t ask any other questions.”

Amtrak

Yes, Amtrak did an April Fool’s Day campaign and it was sublime. Amtrak used the holiday to introduce an emotional baggage train car and encouraged users to “tag a friend who needs a lift—we can handle it.”

Rosetta Stone

Everyone’s focused on Duolingo these days, but where’s the love for the OG? This week, Rosetta Stone announced a  mobile app created in partnership with medical marijuana company, Fluent, that "bridges the conversational gap between novice users and seasoned stoners in any social setting."

Jolie

Last but certainly not least, Jolie, the filtered shower head, announced a fake collaboration with none other than Stanley - a portable filtered shower head. The fake product plays on the brand match between the two status symbols as they cater to similar audiences with products that both work with water.

What was your favorite April Fool’s Day campaign this year? Respond to this email and let us know!

Now let’s get into some fun stuff…

What We Read this Week

🍪Four Months In, Here’s the Rundown of Google’s Chrome Cookie Conundrum so Far

😏Forbes Accused of Selling MFA Media to Brands Under Guise of Legitimate Ad Space

😏5 Gen Z Trends for Brands to Watch

🤳Influencers Are Now Asking to be in our Brands Ads. And We Should Listen

⚱️Sherwin-Williams Subverts Color of the Year Trend by Picking ‘Loneliest’ Hue

Campaign of the Week

SNL (or Saturday Night Live, for the uncultured) goes through its ups and downs. Right now, I’m not too crazy about it, but back in 2012, oh man, you couldn’t get me to shut up about it.

We’re talking greats like Kristin Wiig, Jason Sudeikis, and Bill Hader. And speaking of which, Target just released their newest campaign, bringing back Kristin Wiig’s iconic Target Lady.

This isn’t the first time that an SNL character was revived for an advertising campaign, but this is definitely one of our favorites.

To promote its Target Circle Card, Wiig reprised her role as “Target Lady” The beloved character — whom Wiig portrayed several times during her seven-year tenure on “SNL” — rose to popularity for her chaotic energy, outlandish dialogue and, of course, the way she pronounces “Terget.”

Check out the full campaign here.

Vendor of the Week

If you work in digital, then chances are you’ve had to work with landing pages at some point. While I absolutely love conceptualizing LPs, designing them can be a total pain. And that’s why I will always shill for Unbounce.

Unbounce allows you to build high-converting landing pages with no-code and all ease. Make the most of your traffic and don’t let your conversions fall through the cracks. It integrates with practically every major marketing tool out there and even allows you to create gorgeous pop-ups for your LPs. 

Don’t fret the details and design down to the pixel with complete control over the look and feel of your campaign.

Learn more about Unbounce here.

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