Top PR Campaigns for April 2022: An Egg-Cellent Month!

This April saw numerous Easter-themed campaigns, but none stood out to us more than Coleman’s Easter scotch egg. The large scotch egg was available to purchase over the Easter period, with a seasonal twist – a coating of lamb instead of the traditional pork. With the accompaniment of mint sauce, the egg was right on brand and provided a distinct Easter product that stood out from the crowd. On top of this, Coleman’s distributed the eggs via its local partnered butchers, demonstrating the company’s commitment to its ‘Back British Farming’ initiative.

Why we liked it: This campaign was a great demonstration of a brand staying true to its values and owning them. The unconventional egg attracted attention on social media, boosting its brand’s social engagement and promoting its partnered butchers.

It’s easy to associate London with crowded tube stations, endless tourists and highly congested traffic – and for good reason, it has all those things. It’s for this reason that Innocent Smoothies’ latest installation in Trafalgar Square has been such a hit.

As part of the company’s new ‘Big Rewild’ project, dedicated to bringing nature back to urban areas, Innocent Smoothies have rewilded Trafalgar Square with plant installations to create an ‘innocent’ garden for people to visit. At the site, Innocent Smoothies’ partner, The Orchard Project, handed out three million seeds for people to start their own rewilding projects. Plus, visitors got to sample the company’s new carbon-neutral orange juice and were even encouraged to take home some of the plants at the site to create further pockets of nature across London.

Why we liked it: This installation provided more than just a PR stunt to gain media coverage (although it was successful in doing this, too); Innocent Smoothies used this event to educate visitors on the importance of rewilding. With this being a key project for the company going forward, the eye-catching garden has helped associate the brand with strong environmental values that will prove to be a great launchpad for the company’s new initiative.

Each year we see companies hit and miss their mark on April Fools, with some providing great jokes at the expense of the public and others merely using the day to promote their services. In the case of McDonald’s, this year swayed towards the latter.

In recent years, McDonald’s has used April Fools’ Day to offer one-off discounts on menu items.. However, this usually comes at the expense of a joke. For example, last year McDonald’s stated it was going to launch a tiny portion of fries for mates that ‘just want a few’. Instead, the popular fast-food chain offered all customers 50% off all fries for the day.

This year, McDonald’s UK announced its failed plan of a hybrid Big Mac Breakfast McMuffin that had originally been planned for ‘release’ before they cancelled it as they were worried ‘it looked too good’. Instead, they released a 99p Big Mac available to order via the app.

What to learn: While the promotion was appreciated by many, as PR people we can’t help but feel…underwhelmed. April Fools provides B2C companies with a great opportunity to interact with their audiences in a fun and engaging way and McDonald’s’ promotion proved a wasted opportunity for such a high-profile brand.