Easter 2024: Brand Engagement Tactics

By Katie Baron

Easter spending remains robust, thanks to two billion people celebrating globally, reflected in the whopping 81% of Americans who partake . Responding to top spending motivations – tradition and family socialisation – savvy brands are stepping up via reality-check influencers (employees, nanfluencers), sentimental digital egg hunts, simple living cost-of-living messaging, kidulting and crossovers with Ramadan.

Asda’s Unorthodox Ambassadors: Nanfluencers & Rapping Store Staff

British supermarket chain Asda ’s Easter brand communications continue its ongoing strategy for humorously “keeping it real” to show solidarity with its mainstream audience. The key? Unorthodox real people (non-influencer) ambassadors – specifically its own staff and grandmothers (aka the nans).

The nans appear in a series of dedicated Easter posts on Instagram and TikTok , after the launch of the brand’s Meet our Nans videos in late January 2024, showing grandmothers in shopping content, such as Price Guess with Nan, to almost cult acclaim. Five of the eight videos have had more than 1.3 million views to date, and the Asda TikTok page even has a dedicated Nans playlist. There are also calls for viewers to nominate their own nans to be featured.

Staff appear in a 101 Ways to Crack an Egg TikTok rap , which features lines referencing TV show Love Island (“my type on paper”) and the aforementioned Nans series?(“I threw it to my grandma and she didn’t catch it”). It’s amassed more than 300,000 views so far, outperforming Asda’s adjacent content.

Lego (Subtly) Leans into Kidulting

Using Easter to leverage its core mantra concerning the rejuvenating power of play for all ages (and retaining an ultra-broad audience), Danish toy giant Lego ’s main e-commerce site features Easter sets for teens and adults as well as children. The move subtly reiterates its pursuit of the wellbeing sector – see its Mindful Botanical Kits for Adults from 2021.

Cadbury Revisits the Global Hunt Sentimental Digital

Aiming to infuse digital connections with sentimentality for the fourth consecutive year, British chocolate giant Cadbury has unleashed its Worldwide Hide campaign. Via the dedicated microsite , fans can hide digital eggs for their loved ones anywhere globally (“Think of a hiding spot that means something to you and then hide the egg on the map.”) via an immersive Google Maps Street View integration. Seekers are alerted with a personalised written clue via email, WhatsApp or a URL. Gift-givers are encouraged to buy a physical Cadbury egg for the post-reveal.

This year, the campaign is accompanied by Spotify ads, targeting users of the streaming service with specific playlist interests. It follows the brand’s January 2024 Creme Egg Test experience, where fans took a test based on their Creme Egg eating preferences, receiving a Spotify playlist and Pinterest board.

Purdys’ Keep-It-Simple Cost-of-Living Messaging

Chiming with a frugal-meets-meaningful sentiment discussed in Stylus' Reframing Frugality , Canadian chocolatier Purdys ’ What Kids Want video ad challenges children to choose between its chocolate or an expensive gift (almost all went with the former) to spotlight how simple is often best.

Papa Johns’ Fast-Fashion Food Collab

Riffing on the ongoing trend for kitschy, ironic fashion collabs described in Fashion’s Hunger for Impermanent Irony , American pizza brand Papa Johns has released the Easter Bunnet Hat to promote its Hot Cross Bun Papa Bites. This isn’t its first fashion venture: the brand previously reimagined its delivery drivers’ uniforms for an upcycled limited-edition collection.

Selfridges’ Masterclasses Acknowledge Ramadan Crossover?

British department store Selfridges has launched a series of arts and crafts workshops for kids across its UK-based branches in collaboration with the interactive Islamic Desi Doll Company , acknowledging that Easter falls within the month of Ramadan this year (March 10 to April 9).

Besides paying respects to British multiculturalism (6.5% of the UK’s population identify as Muslim ), the workshops chime with the trend for Retail Residencies, enabling consumers to get closer to creative experts.

This article was first published on Stylus.com on March 27.