For consumer brands, April Fool’s Day ain’t no joke.

Each year on April 1, I log into my social media accounts and gaze suspiciously at the updates that appear before me; today was no different. I logged in expecting to see one friend’s yearly “I have two extra tickets to (Detroit Tigers) opening day; who wants them?” status update and there it was. I scrolled farther down my news feed and saw a post from a mixed martial arts news outlet that said my favorite fighter was retiring from MMA; oh, and then there were the Facebook alerts saying that a friend and his fiance were no longer engaged: people knew it was April Fool’s day, but were too afraid to ask if it was a joke, except for one “huh is this for real?” reply. Later, the couple announced posted a couple of hearty LOLs to announce that they’d tricked their friends. But the hijinx didn’t end there …

Brands, seemingly more than ever, got in on the action, too. Google announced its version of smell-o-vision and Scope unveiled its new bacon-flavored mouthwash. The amount of buzz these (and other) brands generated around the Internet as a result of these stunts was amazing. Social media channels, blogs, news websites and podcasts were abuzz with this year’s most outrageous April Fool’s shenanigans and as a result of developing (creative) creative executions, often with a very high production value, many brands enjoyed a great deal of global publicity.

In the world of marketing, April Fool’s Day is no longer about pulling a fast one on consumers. It’s about entertaining and engaging them, and in turn, reaping the benefits of the countless mentions, retweets and click-throughs that ideas like Sony’s cat headphones provide. People want to be amused; they anxiously check their social media feeds for new, fictional content pushed out by their favorite brands and share it with hundreds of friends at a time; smart brand managers have recognized and exploited this behavior.

While half-hearted attempts at tomfoolery will likely result frustration among consumers, thought-out, on-brand April Fool’s executions that support a brand identity and/or campaign can be extremely effective in supplementing an integrated marketing communication strategy.