Best Easter Marketing Campaigns

Every business tries to hatch a genius marketing campaign in the run-up to Easter. For us, it’s an entertaining time of year, as we get to behold some of the genius creations that savvy marketers have put together for us to enjoy. They’re also a brilliant source of inspiration for businesses looking to up their game in their next Easter campaign, with some Easter adverts going back as far as 1985 (Cadbury, we’re looking at you!).

There are plenty of good eggs in this basket, with many businesses out there pushing the boundaries with their Easter adverts. So, we’ve gone on a hunt for the top five Easter ads to give you a taste of what your next campaign could look like. Hopefully, our choices are what they’re cracked up to be!

Cadbury - Creme Egg 'How do you eat yours?'

This campaign goes WAY back, with the original advert being over 20 years old. Cadbury and its global agency VCCP London have launched their latest film for Creme Egg as a legendary call back to the classic campaign by leveraging the beloved ‘How do you eat yours?’ tagline.

This campaign effectively builds on the original message that everyone has their own unique way of eating a Creme Egg. Some prefer to eat them whole, while others even go as far as using a teaspoon. If you thought that was odd, there are even people out there who like to spread them on toast. Whatever butters your bread, as they say.

We love this modernised take on the original Cadbury Creme Egg campaign. From a marketing perspective, it’s a showcase of innovative messaging that builds on a timeless tagline that really illustrates the heritage of Cadbury.

So, how do you eat Creme Eggs?

M&M/Mars - Easter

M&M’s is a heavyweight contender in the world of chocolate, and they’ve held their iconic status for decades. Their advertising campaigns are arguably some of the most memorable in the industry, all the while keeping their messaging simple yet effective.

This campaign from 1997 is no different, featuring none other than the usual suspects Red and Yellow as they serve as spokes bunnies to promote everything Mars had to offer for the ‘97 Easter holidays. The charming animations and the comedic timing of the characters serve as the perfect vehicle for product promotion, illustrating the masterful creative marketing of the brand.

It’s also impressive to observe how many products are being advertised within the space of 30 seconds. This is definitely not an easy feat, as being able to rattle off product promotions in such quick succession whilst still making them memorable requires you to captivate your viewer's attention through every stage.

ASDA - Giant Hen

Whilst everyone quibbles over what came first, the chicken or the egg, VCCP let their creativity shine in the 2016 ASDA Easter campaign.

It could be said that the campaign is somewhat King Kong inspired, showing a giant chocolate hen running rampant through the streets, before finding a suitable nesting spot on top of an ASDA superstore.

This is another example of incredible advertising by VCCP, referencing a timeless and widely known motion picture classic to drive home this whimsical Easter campaign. What’s more, is that in conjunction with this advertising campaign, ASDA stocked over 20 million Easter Eggs in their stores that season!

A lot of effort went into this campaign, the greatest challenge being modelling and rigging the hen to portray a solid chocolate exterior whilst faithfully echoing the natural movements of a bird. What you see in the advert is a beautiful coalition of animation and real-life mechanics, with both 3D and 2D teams coming together to hatch the giant hen!

Durex - Easter X

You weren’t expecting this to make the list, were you? That’s exactly what everyone was thinking upon seeing the Easter X advert by Durex in 2015. This was a campaign released in New Zealand in 2015, with a frank and open approach that was truly on-brand and ended up really resonating with viewers.

Full of wit and cheekiness, Durex spoke candidly in this advert about their struggle to relate their brand to Easter, having already ticked off the big ones like birthdays, New Year, and Christmas, ultimately dubbing Easter as the ‘unsexiest holiday of the year’.

Whilst the campaign was undoubtedly risqué and full of insinuendos, it was more than enough to get people talking about it. They did this by releasing Durex Easter X, which was an ‘adult-sized’ chocolate Easter egg containing a selection of ‘very adult toys.’ Definitely not treading on eggshells with this one…

What made this campaign even more successful was that the limited-edition eggs could only be procured through Durex’s social media channels, which saw the company gaining a massive spike in engagement, which blew the industry standards out of the water. Numbers-wise, their engagement jumped from under 1% to over 10% making them the most socially-engaged brand in New Zealand during a time when there was little relation between the brand and current events!

Marmite - Love It Or Hate It Chocolate Easter Egg

Weird food alert…or is it? Whether you love it or hate Marmite, it’s hard not to love their 2019 Easter campaign, showcasing their Marmite-flavoured chocolate egg. This might sound like heaven for some of you, and hell for others, with Marmite declaring that “you just have to try it” before knocking it.

Marmite has always been an ambiguous brand, with a polarising flavour designed for only the most specific palates out there. There really is no in-between with Marmite, but what makes them so successful in their marketing efforts is exactly that. It simultaneously divides people, yet brings them together in discussion, and their Easter ad campaign was no exception.

The chocolate egg was priced at £3 and sold in Asda, also featuring Marmite egg cups and Easter eggs set for the same price. What was even more interesting, was that this was probably the first time that the “Yeaster Egg” pushed the boundaries for even the most hardcore Marmite fans.

The campaign caused a bit of a storm on Twitter at the time, with some saying “I like Marmite, and I like chocolate too, but I think this might be going a little bit too far!!” Again, love it or hate it, it’s great marketing, regardless of whether it challenges people's taste buds everywhere!

So, what did you think of our list? The aim here was to present you with a varied bag of Easter campaigns to get you inspired, but also with the aim of showing you how other companies have pushed the boundaries in the past - and succeeded! Easter is a time of year when companies in every industry are trying to work out a way to capitalise on the holiday season, so don’t be afraid to mix things up a bit this year. Above all, have fun with it and keep it tasteful, and think of ways to get people talking and excited about the holiday as well as your brand.