The best ever Easter marketing campaigns

Updated: March 2024

Now, Easter is a busy time for all marketers — particularly in the chocolate and confectionery industry. It's estimated that Brits spend an average of £53 each celebrating Easter (or £2.1 billion in total!).

So, what better way to get into the campaign spirit than by taking a look at some cracking campaigns down the years, from brands large and small?

Krispy Kreme x Fareshare, Easter Eggschange (2023)

This Easter campaign turned the focus from consuming to 'giving'. The famous doughnut chain teamed up with Fareshare - the UK's longest running food distribution charity - to ensure families who couldn't afford eggs at Easter, didn't miss out.

Promoting through social media and a range of influencers, families and chocolate fans were urged to donate their unwanted eggs in exchange for a box of Easter-themed doughnuts. Through showing influencers making theirs, they inspired a wealth of public donations, with every location reaching maximum capacity. This occured from just three videos to kickstart the campaign.

Cadbury — How not to eat yours (2022)

The 2022 campaign from Cadbury followed their tried and tested tactic of sparking conversation around their annual Easter egg hunt, allowing them to consistently dominate the space with their cult classic product - the Cadbury Creme Egg.

Cadbury’s produced limited edition half-white and half-milk chocolate creme eggs, which if found would win you up to £10k. However, only the lucky ones could resist eating it!

With two short films, each of which showed a lucky customer trying to hold off eating the rare winning eggs, viewers were left wondering if they managed to resist.

The campaign was featured in a huge array of news articles across national, regional, local and trade press, while their promotional video on Instagram amassed an impressive amount of views since its release.

Talk about a cracking success!

Walkers — Savoury Easter Egg (2020)

If you don’t have a sweet tooth, Easter might not be your favourite time of year. However, in the last few years we've seen a range of more unusual savoury offerings. 2020 saw the launch of the Sensations Easter ‘Egg’ Gift Box - which included Sensations Thai Sweet Chilli Crisps, a bottle of Malbec, two stemless wine glasses, a bamboo sharing bowl AND a £5 Amazon Prime Video voucher.

Deliveroo — Game of Thrones Dragon Eggs (2019)

Easter 2019 fell amidst the final series of Game of Thrones, Deliveroo tapped into the hype by releasing limited edition GOT dragon chocolate eggs.

A clever incentive by Deliveroo’s marketing team, the three eggs were purchasable through their online app in a select number of cities in the UK for a bargain price.

Deliveroo knows their target audience - people who watch Game of Thrones will enjoy a night in, in front of the TV, and order their favourite food. The uniqueness of the idea plays to the hype of GoT, and multiple national news sites picked up this story - great visibility for the brands.

This campaign helped to draw in new account sign ups from consumers and fans alike, all trying to get their hands on the limited edition eggs.

IKEA — Flat Pack Easter Bunny (2019)

The main challenge for brands at Easter is - how do they fit into a market that shouldn’t really be theirs. IKEA knows what they’re famous for - flat packing! They were keen to ‘hop’ on the Easter bandwagon in 2019, with the introduction of their flat-pack chocolate easter bunny called Vårkänsla.

A creative play on their self-assembled products, Vårkänsla came packaged complete with instructions on how to build the 3D bunny. Not surprisingly for the creative marketing geniuses at Ikea, this campaign is on-brand to a tee, gaining huge traction on social media and news outlets alike for its humorous creativity, whilst driving consumers straight into stores.

It stands out for us, as it is true to brand, creative and fun and compliments what they’re known for. For once this is a flat pack we’d be happy to assemble and that’s why we’ve included it.

6 Easter campaign marketing top tips

Okay, so we’ve shown you some of the best and well, most interesting, campaigns from over the years.

But how can you get creative and get the most out of your digital channels for your own Easter campaigns?

1. Easter-themed video content

Now we know how important video marketing is, so why is that any different at Easter? 72% of businesses say that video has improved their conversion rate, so whatever industry you’re in, get creative with your content.

2. Virtual Easter egg hunt

Why not add easter eggs to your social media posts, website or even your emails? Customers who find them could be entered into an Easter-themed competition or win a 20% off voucher.

3. Valuable content - tips and inspiration

Top Easter recipes, How to keep the kids (and the new dog) entertained over the long weekend, DIY egg decorations - that sort of thing.

Consumers want content that’s valuable to them and if you can give them something fun to do, or something useful that they can come back to then it’s going to help you build your brand and foster customer loyalty in the process. A win-win situation.

4. Countdown timers

Temporarily offering a luxury product at a lower price is a great way to boost loyalty with bargain hunters who might normally be turned off by a premium price tag.

5. Landing pages

Building and optimising your landing page to tie in with your Easter promotion or marketing campaign will ensure your hard work driving people to your website isn’t let down by poor conversion rates.

6. Support with paid search

Create a paid search campaign to capture any additional interest that your Easter campaign may generate. It's also an opportunity to have a little fun with your ad copy and include some cracking puns!