The 2016 Presidential election put America went through the wringer. The country was divided between two of the most polarizing, unpopular candidates in U.S. history. Between March and April last year, Americans’ distaste for both Trump and Clinton was higher than any other candidate in the past 10 elections.

Google searches reflected this sentiment, with “Moving to Canada” spiking by 1000% in early spring. And although citizens often threaten to become expats during an election, those threats are usually empty. In 2016, they were all too real.

We capitalized on America’s strong feelings by creating a fake product that many wished were real – Election Insurance.

On April 1st, Esurance introduced Election Insurance: a fake insurance policy designed to protect your home if you decide to abandon it after the election. We created a mock infomercial introducing Election Insurance and promoted it through our social and owned platforms.

To dominate the April Fools’ Day conversation, we had a phased roll-out strategy, beginning with a Mashable exclusive. Then on April 1st, we shifted our efforts to Facebook and issued a press release announcing Election Insurance. It targeted mainstream and business media, advertising and marketing trades, political outlets, national broadcast, including morning shows, and well-known influencers.

Esurance dominated the April Fools’ Day conversation by tapping into a passionate and timely discussion around the election. The video generated 518 million earned media impressions, 6.8 million video views, 6.3 million engagements, 304 PR stories, extensive national coverage (on Good Morning America, ABC World News Tonight, Insight Edition and MSNBC), and became a top trending story on Facebook on April 2nd.

Election Insurance made the roundups of 2016’s best jokes in outlets such as The Washington Post, BuzzFeed, TIME, People magazine, Entertainment Weekly, MSNBC.com, Yahoo and Chicago Tribune.

Best of all, Esurance saw a 17% increase in homeowners quotes and a 14% lift in net policies.