When Oyo, Ola, Reliance Jio turned pranksters for April Fool’s Day

For an April Fool’s prank to be successful, it needs to be believable, pique one’s curiosity while being just on the edge of too-good-to-be-true. And this April Fool’s Day companies like Oyo, Ola and Reliance Jio checked on all these boxes. 

Oyo’s cryptocurrency venture 

Hospitality company Oyo celebrated this April Fool’s Day with a spin. As part of their ingenious prank, Oyo launched ‘Oyo Smart Coin’, the company’s own cryptocurrency. Being a technology-driven full stack hospitality company, the idea that Oyo is the first one to adopt blockchain technology in this space turned out to be a perfect pitch to convince the stakeholders. 

The first gag was revealed on March 28, when Oyo announced the token sale of Oyo Smart Coin, which was offered as a cryptocurrency that will revolutionise the travel and hospitality industry. Oyo also explained how introducing Oyo Smart Coin (ticker: OSC) will benefit the hotel partners, consumers and the entire ecosystem at large and enable the customers to transact on Oyo platform at reduced prices. 

Watch the video: 

The idea, which was crafted in-house, was executed through the means of social media, where Oyo’s followers were urged to pre-register for OSC between March 28 and 30. The three-day window locked over 5,000 registrations while generating 10,000+ conversations and 5 million impressions on social media and Oyo Smart Coin made its presence felt on Twitter by trending for nearly 4-5 hours. 

The last leg of Oyo’s creative trick involved revealing the prank to the world. 

Ola’s hyperlocal news move 

Known for its unconventional and fun April Fool’s Day campaigns, leading ride-sharing company Ola successfully launched and executed its latest April Fool’s Day campaign, Ola News Network. 

Ola News Network was launched as Ola’s news vertical to deliver hyperlocal news. With the motto ‘#NewsYouCanUse’, Ola News Network was announced as a news platform where Ola’s 1 million driver partners, across 110 cities, would double up as on-ground reporters, sharing local city developments in real-time! The concept was launched with a short teaser, microsite, and an introduction video, detailing out the specifics of Ola News Network. 

Watch the video:

Ola News Network’s crisp teaser and launch video created ripples all across the media landscape. The campaign created a stir on social media and attracted a lot of news and chatter from the who’s-who of the country’s social circle. 

Vishal Kaul, COO, Ola, elaborated, “Planning and executing April Fool’s pranks has become a tradition-of-sorts at Ola and we are thrilled to see that our latest one too, has received such a warm reception from our users. News consumption pattern has undergone a significant change and today, people want to stay informed through updates that come to them in a quick, easy-to-use, and understandable format; and hence, Ola News Network struck the right chord among the audience. The fact that Ola’s wide network of driver partners, who are covering the length and breadth of the country everyday, will bring the correct and the most useful pieces of news to the public, made a lot of consumers believe it instantly.” 

He further added, “It is also great to see that people not only liked Ola News Network as a concept, but also took the prank in the right spirit. It is this appreciation that inspires us to think out-of-the-box and launch unconventional campaigns every year.” 

Over the years, Ola has played various pranks like Ola Rooms, Ola Air, Ola Wheels; launching them in innovative manner through videos, blogs, and social media banter. Ola News Network nailed the April Fool’s fervour, engaging as many as 17.5 million users and received over 108 million impressions on social media. 

Reliance Jio’s ‘Juicy’ offer 

Reliance Jio created noise around its latest offering – Jio Juice – a few days ahead of April 1 on social media. According to the telecom major, Jio Juice was a new technology that would address users’ smartphone charging woes. 

“#JioJuice Coming Soon,” Reliance Jio tweeted on March 30, 2018. The very next day, Reliance Jio posted a video that explained how Jio Juice would work – just insert the new Jio Juice 4G SIM card, which would then charge the phone wirelessly without any chargers or power banks. The video was viewed almost 3,000 times and received more than 2,300 likes.