A long-standing tradition was used to generate fresh content this month when humorous April Fools’ Day content was posted on Australian Macadamias Facebook and Twitter channels in key markets globally.
In a fantastic example of international cross-market collaboration, our global teams worked together to produce witty and engaging content that captured the attention of millions of consumers around the world.
A nutty idea for a cracking result
The international April Fools’ Day campaign was spearheaded in Japan and then rolled out in Taiwan, South Korea and Germany as well. The creative execution centred around the availability of a “Nut Cracking Expert” for a “limited season” – in the form of a cute little squirrel!
In Japan, the posts linked to an April Fools’ Day page on our Japanese website, where further details of the “offer” were available along with the “instruction manual” for the “Nut Cracking Expert”. In Germany, it linked to a page on our blog and in Taiwan, it formed the basis of a consumer competition offering the chance to win macadamia prizes.
Cute? Yes. Funny? Absolutely. But don’t be fooled: this was fun of a strategic kind.
Not only did April Fools’ Day present a great opportunity to capture consumers’ attention, it also enabled us to communicate one of the elements of the macadamia story – that macadamias are the world’s hardest nut to crack – as part of the ongoing task of educating consumers about our product.
It also emphasised the unique sensory experience of macadamias enjoyed fresh from the shell, while acknowledging the effort required to consume them this way.
Extraordinary results in Japan – no joke
When compared to the monthly average of our Japanese Twitter activity, the April Fools’ Day posts on 1 April delivered 1800% more Twitter impressions and 480% more retweets.
On Facebook, reach was 400% higher than average and engagement 285% higher. Furthermore, the April Fools’ Facebook post achieved our 2nd highest reach ever and attracted more new fans than any other Australian Macadamias post has ever done in this market.
The activity triggered a significant spike in traffic to the Japanese website, and contributed to over 80% of traffic that day, with 90% of visitors being newcomers. The page was shared over 380 times, making it the most shared page on the site.
The Nut Cracking Expert post attracted plenty of media attention and was referenced by multiple major Japanese news/information sites under the topic “2016 April Fools’ best idea selection” and was shared across various news sites, social media channels and blogs throughout the day.
Japanese consumers loved the concept, with comments including “I want this expert!” and “I will take good care of this expert forever!”
Overall, the campaign reached more than 1 million Japanese consumers!
Mack Mangles gets laughs in Australia
A different creative execution was used in Australia, using a fictional character, Mack Mangles, to appeal to the more typically Australian sense of humour. It was claimed that Mack had discovered a new species of macadamia – Macadamia Tennisfolia – that was producing “nuts the size of tennis balls.”
The joke was posted on Facebook and Twitter, achieving organic reach of over 8,000 and generating hundreds of reactions, shares and comments.
Our global teams loved being able to execute our campaign in such an engaging and memorable way, and it was even more rewarding given the excellent results achieved and the fun our fans had in playing along.
