Easter POS Display Key Themes and Trends Report 2019

Easter unwrapped!

By Zita Watkin, Marketing, Events and Memberships Manager, Shop! ANZ


Over the last few weeks, I happily hit a variety of department stores, grocery stores and specialty retailers in Sydney and Melbourne to see what trends were dominating and what themes were at play.

I was interested to see which retailers were getting involved and how brands were upping the ante at their most competitive time of year when it comes to the chocolate market.

This experience certainly inspired me and got me thinking of creative ideas for Easter 2020. Has anyone thought of creating a leopard print Easter bunny? Perhaps an idea for next year!

Below are my top 5 Easter marketing themes at retail, followed by the Easter trends in POS displays.

Themes:

1.       Gift Personalisation. Cadbury Crème Egg have partnered with Myer to create the ultimate gift for Easter, Cadbury Crème Egg gift packs in personalised tins. Crème Eggs have a huge loyal following. Putting the iconic egg and personalisation together is the perfect marketing mix. The tin is also a wonderful brand keepsake. Lindt are back with their crowd favourite Lindt Gold Bunny Personalised Ribbon Promotion at Coles. Purchase your bunny at Coles and go-online to apply. Personalisation pop-ups at selected Coles stores on the lead up to Easter Day create a real brand differentiator in the highly competitive grocery atmosphere.

2.       Community and Giving back. This theme is as much about giving back to those less fortunate whilst giving back to shoppers generally. Woolworths have a wonderful theme this Easter “Finding your Easter” tying all incentives and aspects of their Easter in-store experience together. The Woolworths experience includes; buying $1 egg tokens to raise money for the Good Friday Appeal, Exclusive Easter inspired recipes, and a fun “Find the Egg” game which is a detective search for their little shoppers.

3.       ‘The Hunt’ (Experiential). Lots of playing on the hunting theme this Easter but in a variety of techniques and outcomes. Target stores use bunny paw prints to guide shoppers to the Easter destination zone. Download the ‘Myer Experience’ app and search for clues on their displays for big brand discount offers. The more clues you find, the more game levels you unlock. Woolworths have physical games for kids with free detective hats and an Easter egg hunt in store. All of these idea’s are wonderfully cute ways to keep young shoppers minds working whilst on the necessary trip to the grocery or department stores with parents.

4.       Loyalty and Exclusive offers. It’s no coincidence that there is a significant crossover and link between the ‘Loyalty’ and ‘Experiential’ themes. We know that physical retailers need to create reasons for shoppers to visit their stores and creating loyalty by rewarding shoppers with both unique offers and fun experiences work hand in hand. Examples include Myer discounts to brands like Hasbro and PlayDoh by using their app. Godiva 'Win Chocolate' by signing up to newsletters. Coles exclusive offer with Lindt offering the iconic ribbon to be customised at specific store times.

5.       Destination stores. Koko Black lovers will not be disappointed with the ‘Easter Wonder Down Under’ Koko Forest theme with unique and highly imaginative visuals that transport shoppers into a Chocolate dream forest. Artwork throughout the store uses traditional craft-like elements. Koko Black is a beautiful and immersive Australian Easter destination store with the most amazing visuals, scents and taste. A pop-up shop at front of store makes the shopping experience easy with gifts at various price points.

Some retailers offered alternatives to the chocolate gift experience. Retailers such as Riot, T2, Bonds, Minihahha, Seed, Peter Alexander and Kmart all bringing alternatives to chocolate into their windows and promotional signage introducing more play, craft, fashion and gaming into their offers.

Trends in POP display this Easter

Stand-out in store through, 3D layering, iconic embellishments, spectacular archways and headers, and all of those beautiful rich colours and golds that represent Easter gifts and brands in true style.

I was quite blown away with the degree of complexity in the carboard and plastic engineering of many of these off-location displays. Often we see a trade-off with a practical display being chosen over a more innovative high impact display. With shipping, stacking, and shoppability at top of mind, it’s completely understandable to go ‘safe’ with the design of Easter displays.

However, this years POS displays have challenged convention creating exciting themed displays that are certainly not going to be missed!

A few stand-outs in 2019:

Gold is certainly key to the Lindt brand and this plays a huge differentiator in the grocery environment. They have introduced the iconic Lindt 'red bow with bell' as a 3D element which is a stunning touch.

Kinder have created a range of absolute stand-out displays from dump-bins that look like giant Easter baskets to ingeniously crafted and storytelling pallet displays. The blue Kinder bunny is a feature on all displays with an incredible usage of 2D layering to create impact at any angle.

Ferrero Rocher displays are sophisticated in gold with a very clever use of process printing techniques to make their new hazelnut squirrel pop.

Cadbury have created impressive archways to stand above their immense range of iconic Easter favorites. They have played on the ‘hunting’ theme with metallic purple 3D Easter Egg hunting buckets built into headers. There is a real sense of tradition and family togetherness with the Cadbury display range.


Shop! ANZ awards will be open after Easter. We look forward to seeing many of these successful campaigns being part of this years awards.

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