On 1 April, rapidly growing sportswear brand Gymshark teamed up with @grimegran for a prank partnership to launch a new perfume called ‘Shaker Fermenté’: its first ever fragrance which ‘bottles the quintessential gym experience’.
Positioning itself as ‘the global leader in activewear’ and reinforcing its brand personality, the comic product is pitched as the fragrance nobody asked for and yet everyone is talking about because it stinks.
The specific fragrance notes were chosen to resonate with Gymshark’s young adult gym rat target demographic.
Gymshark’s April Fool’s prank was launched early morning on 1 April and promoted through a seriously studied social, PR and fake out of home campaign spearheaded by a finely crafted, professionally shot and edited commercial released on its Instagram channel so that it blended with the brand’s regular ad campaigns and marketing content.
The campaign was further supported by mocked-up street billboards with Shaker Fermenté creative to add an additional layer of believability.
The prank generated plenty of online attention amongst consumers and the media and also led to an organic wave of brand advocacy on social media as brand fans tagged their gym buddies to jokingly discussing Shaker Fermenté.
The campaign strategy is smart and the creative is well crafted as Gymshark demonstrates as deep understanding of its primary target audience: 18-to-25-year-olds passionate about fitness, fashion, and music. It avoids the more usual cheap graphics and cheesy copy lines seen in so many other April Fool’s marketing stunts.
The high production values ad an air of legitimacy to the joke: although, whether they actually make many viewers genuinely believe Shaker Fermenté was a real product remains debatable.
Thus this comic spoof sees Gymshark again showcase its marketing prowess whilst solidifying its position as a brand that’s both fun, fresh and relatable and at the forefront of marketing ingenuity.
Indeed, like most classic, comic sports campaign pranks, the best April Fool’s initiatives act as marketing reminders of the importance of personality, agility and creativity.
By capitalising on this type of lighthearted, comic cultural event, brands can simultaneously entertain audiences, whilst also establishing themselves as a brand with culture and character that understands how to have fun and differentiate from the competition.
This kind of opportunistic, playful marketing can boost brand awareness (often with organic, customer and media fueled spread), while strengthening customer relationships and reinforcing brand positioning.