Why I never make a 1st of April joke again

Aurel Stevens

13.4.2017

Translation: machine translated

Last Saturday we sold an air guitar as an April Fool's joke. We pulled off the campaign at very short notice within a week. So here is the resolution of the whole thing.

The plan: We sell an air guitar. And 25 of them for 14.90 francs as a deal of the day. If they are actually ordered, customers should get an extra fat package! After 25 pieces, the price was to be raised to 259 francs and nobody would order any more.

The product had to be as genuine as possible. Our product management team recorded and managed the product. The editorial team and the video team produced a story including a video. 25 cardboard boxes were delivered from Wohlen to the Zurich shop because we wanted to send the parcels ourselves.

The air guitar was offered as a deal of the day from midnight on Saturday. On Saturday morning, we sent out a press release to our media distribution list.

Supi! So far, everything went like clockwork. Exactly until 00:13 a.m.

At 00:13, the air guitars were sold out for 14.90. And the chaos took its course. My eyes widened in horror as I watched several customers ordering for 259 francs. One of them ordered four for over 1000 francs. In total, around 50 customers ordered air guitars - some of them several times.

You know what's coming next:

• This meant that the 25 packs ordered were not enough
• This meant that some customers really did pay 259 francs.
• This meant a lot of... work.

Mist.

On Monday morning, I was sitting on a problem. We were planning what to do next. Sure, we wanted to do a follow-up story. The customers had to be informed. I got an overview of the order confusion and the matter with the post office had to be clarified.

As it turned out, the idea with the huge parcels hadn't been such a good one after all. The post office in the office building here in Zurich was not at all prepared to "quickly take away" 25 huge parcels. We had to order an extra delivery van to transport the parcels. On Friday - a good six days after the order was placed - the air guitar arrived with the courageous orderers.

What was in the big parcel? Nothing big.

• A letter of thanks for the trust and courage to place the order
• A certificate of authenticity for the air guitar
• A voucher for 25 francs

The product ratings and questions from our users are worth seeing. My favourite was the postman who commented on Facebook:

More importantly, how have the customers affected taken it? I especially admire those customers who had ordered on Saturday and had not got cold feet and cancelled by the time I personally emailed them

I subsequently had direct contact with several customers. One said he was already having a lot of fun with his air guitar for 259 Stutz. If he got another parcel, that would be good, but otherwise great. Erm, okay! By the way, I still have an interesting offer for the invisible amplifier!

On the customer side, everyone is happy (again). Phew! In the meantime, I was a little worried that the campaign would collapse. Each of the 48 participants received a letter. At the same time, all orders were cancelled so that transfers that had already been made could be reversed. After all, each customer was to be rewarded with 25 for having the courage to place an order.

What do I learn from this story?

• An April Fool's joke must be cancelled on the same day.
• Eat your own poison. Last week was pretty intense because of this promotion.
• Customers have huge confidence in Digitec and Galaxus
• Our processes work really well
• Our employees are enormously helpful. Thank you guys!

Here's the air guitar in all its glory. No, can no longer be ordered. Exclusively for brave customers.

Musical toys

Air guitar

15

Aurel Stevens

Chief Editor

aurel.stevens@digitecgalaxus.ch

I'm the master tamer at the flea circus that is the editorial team, a nine-to-five writer and 24/7 dad. Technology, computers and hi-fi make me tick. On top of that, I’m a rain-or-shine cyclist and generally in a good mood.

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