FanSection Blog

April Fools Day tends to be big business in Silicon Valley whether it be blogs or tech companies.  When we set out to do something for April Fools Day, we wanted it to be something that benefited the company but also engaged and amused our users.  Luckily, we’re working with sports here so the opportunities were endless.  Sports fans are some of the most passionate people around, and news about their team is always sure to drive some interest…i.e. clicks.  That got users back to the community to talk to fellow fans, but it also drove them straight to a splash page with a merchandise upsell - which means revenue to Watercooler. 

Here’s a screenshot of a few of the notifications that were sent - which went to all MLB teams and a handful of NBA and NFL teams.  A few of my favorite from the day are:

• Packers fans, did you hear that Brett Favre is coming out of retirement and returning to the Packers?
• Mets fans, did you hear the Mets are retiring Mr. Met at the end of the season?
• Patriots fans, did you hear the Patriots are planning on trading Randy Moss to Buffalo for Terrell Owens?
• Raiders fans, did you hear the Raiders have already fired head coach Tom Cable?

User response to the notifications varied from laughing out loud to dropping more than a few F bombs.  But on the whole, the seemed to enjoy the little joke and spent some quality time on the application discussing it with other members of their community.  And they also bought more than a little merchandise today which was a big reason for the promotion in the first place.  Here’s a screenshot of the landing page from the Oakland Raiders:

And a snapshot of the main wall from the New England Patriots community:

So as you can see, users took the prank all in good fun.  I wish I could say the same for New York Yankees fans. - they were not happy.  But I guess if my team had the highest payroll in sports and missed the playoffs, I would be a bit surly too.  For the most part, we’re pretty happy with our little prank unlike some other companies in Silicon Valley today.