| Title | REVERSE APRIL FOOLS' |
| Brand | BMW |
| Product / Service | APRIL FOOLS' STUNT |
| Category | A07. Use of Events and Stunts |
| Entrant | DDB GROUP NEW ZEALAND Auckland, NEW ZEALAND |
| Entrant Company | DDB GROUP NEW ZEALAND Auckland, NEW ZEALAND |
| Advertising Agency | DDB GROUP NEW ZEALAND Auckland, NEW ZEALAND |
| Name | Company | Position |
|---|---|---|
| Damon Stapleton | DDB Group New Zealand | Chief Creative Officer |
| Shane Bradnick | DDB Group New Zealand | Executive Creative Director |
| James Conner | DDB Group New Zealand | Art Director |
| Christie Cooper | DDB Group New Zealand | Copywriter |
| Paula Brown | DDB Group New Zealand | Account Director |
| Elizabeth Beatty | DDB Group New Zealand | Managing Partner |
| Kathy Gieck | Mango/DDB Group New Zealand | General Manager |
| Katie Walton | Mango/DDB Group New Zealand | Group Account Director |
| Kate Carter | Mango/DDB Group New Zealand | Head of Media Relations |
| Andy Robbiliard | DDB Group New Zealand | Print Producer |
| Jamie Barrett | DDB Group New Zealand | Planner |
| James Anderson | Two Heads | Director |
| Sonya Berrigan | BMW New Zealand | Marketing Manager |
| Joanne McDonald | BMW New Zealand | Marketing Communications Manager |
| Edward Finn | BMW New Zealand | Corporate Communications Manager |
April Fools’ Day is one of advertising’s biggest events. But it had become tired and predictable. When BMW asked us to create an April Fools’ stunt that would receive international attention, we wanted to do something that surprised even the most cynical. So we created a Reverse April Fools’, a test, to see who would risk looking like the ultimate fool, for the ultimate car. We ran a newspaper ad for an April Fools’ Special and stated that the first person into BMW could swap their old car for a new BMW. Then we actually did it.
It worked. Tianna Marsh risked looking like a fool and showed up at the dealership to redeem the coupon. She was rewarded with a brand new BMW (with five years free insurance), after handing over her keys to her old Nissan. The story quickly spread around the world gaining $20,403,170 dollars worth of earned media. Videos of the stunt have been viewed by over 5,800,000 people. And with just one tiny newspaper ad we reached millions of people worldwide with 284,125,194 million impressions.
The ad ran as a coupon on the front page of the morning newspaper. In the dealership, we made it look just like a normal day. Then once the winner had handed over the coupon confetti flew and a crowd came out of hiding. We teamed up with one of NZ’s top news shows who came along to film the whole thing. The story revealed to New Zealand that the ad wasn’t an April Fools' prank after all. Then we used social media and seeding to send the campaign out to the international news media and public.
For this campaign BMW was going beyond its usual reach, doing something for the people and the brand. They wanted to drive likeability beyond their core target, reinforce the positivity of the BMW brand with existing drivers and drive engagement with the brand to the general public. With this stunt they wanted to reach a younger audience to get their engagement for the future. We knew we had to do something completely different to stand out amongst all the others.. So our strategy was to do the opposite. Instead of pretending to do something unbelievable. We actually did something unbelievable.