“Slice of Life” April Fools Day Campaign | Slice Experimentation Series
By: Tony Sadowski
Experimentation in marketing couldn’t be more important! If you want to get attention, you have to stand out from the crowd. To get a new reaction from your audience, you have to surprise them with an approach designed to elicit a different response.
Slice Communications embraces a philosophy of innovation and openness to new ideas that we call “Yes, And… Energy.”
Inspired by a common trope in the improv comedy world, “Yes, And…” is a cooperative approach to creative iteration that allows for a constant stream of new ideas that are built and shaped by all involved to reach a satisfying conclusion. We embody this core value in all aspects of our work, as it dovetails nicely with our others: co-pilot energy, goal-oriented focus, and always learning.
Working together with clients and with each other in a spirit of positivity can lead to great – and surprising – results!
The Client:
Slice Communications (that sounds so familiar…)
The Challenge:
On March 9, 2023, the Slice Squad started kicking around some potential content ideas for April Fools Day during a regular all-agency call.
There wasn’t a lot of excitement around any particular direction, so everyone agreed to keep thinking about it. The conversation was put on the back burner, but the clock was ticking!
With little turnaround time – we were a bit busy, being a few months into a company merger and complete realignment of our organizational structure – we needed something that wouldn’t be too heavy a lift.
It’s also very true that many brands and organizations post April Fools Day jokes that, bluntly, aren’t funny. Comedy is subjective and hard, but we wanted to make sure that we came up with wasn’t lazy or uninspired.
If you want to try to get attention using the tried and true opportunity presented to social media marketers every April 1st, you’d better not phone it in. Even your biggest fans will cringe!
At some point during a March 23 all-agency call brainstorm, Vice President of Creative Tony Sadowski joked about singing a sitcom theme song.
The Concepts:
One idea that kept resurfacing was about Slice’s next expansion to an office on the moon.
With a background in video production and a lifetime of dabbling in sketch comedy and humor writing, Tony went to the parody well. What was something we could deliver with relative ease that also had an element that elevated it in some way?
Tony found a royalty-free music track that had a fun energy for the project and drafted some potential lyrics for a theme song to the rhythm. Then, he recorded some vocals to see how it might turn out.
The concept started to become more realistic – a parody 80s-style sitcom intro sequence, featuring quick clips of the team turning to the camera and doing a “wacky” take for a few seconds.
The resulting edit would need some polishing, but might be the element needed to elevate the sitcom gag. The fake show would be called…Slice of Life.
The Production Phase:
Did we mention we had two days to make this happen?
Everyone at Slice was invited to contribute video clips and they delivered on short notice with very loose instructions!
A font that mimicked the iconic Full House title graphic lent another layer of playful detail to the final video.
Social media copy was written to accompany the video, fleshing out the concept and adding an element of media landscape commentary. Feeling inundated with streaming service options as studios jockey to sell you access to their libraries of old and original programming?
So were we! It was a frequent topic of conversation.
A riff on the ill-fated service/punchline Quibi sparked the messaging that would bring it all home in a follow-up post later that evening.
The team had so much fun participating, making it a full Slice Squad effort!
The Final Result:
Seeing it all come together very quickly was definitely a rush.
Of course we liked it.
But the video did inspire a lot of likes and some positive comments:
It was an example of our newly combined team coming together and embracing that Yes, And… Energy! No one dragged their feet or said it wasn’t possible.
The request was met with excitement and we made it happen together.
Let’s embrace a spirit of innovation together and make a commitment to surprise and delight in our marketing.
Contact Slice and we can work together to identify creative twists that will add fresh energy to even your regular communications!
