Sales springing up!

Following strenuous lockdowns, there is more excitement than ever surrounding seasonal occasions such as Easter. Stocking up during the early season remains key, with research demonstrating that 80% of shoppers who buy in the early season will return to buy again. Here, Gillian Hamill outlines the brands and formats set to drive growth during Easter 2021

Brand Central

22 February 2021

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This Easter, make yours personal

This year, shoppers can choose from four different ribbon messages at the point of purchase for their Lindt Gold Bunny

The Lindt Gold Bunny is back this spring, available now in stores nationwide. Delivering over €900k in sales*, Lindt Gold Bunny continues to dominate the novelties category as the clear market leader in Easter hollow figures in Ireland.

Made by the Lindt master chocolatiers from the finest Lindt chocolate, wrapped in exquisite gold foil packaging and finished with the iconic red ribbon and ringing bell, Lindt Gold Bunny is guaranteed to bring a smile to the face of your shoppers and their loved ones.

The Lindt Easter Egg range is a key sales driver for retailers at springtime

This spring season, retailers can expect to see a heavyweight support plan behind the Lindt Gold Bunny brand. The ‘Make Yours Personal’ campaign returns bigger and better than ever, allowing customers to choose from four different ribbon messages at point of purchase for their very own Lindt Gold Bunny. Shoppers can choose between “Happy Easter”, “I Love You”, “You Found Me” and “Just For You”. There truly is a Lindt Gold Bunny for everyone, making it the perfect gift for your customers’ loved ones this Easter.

Lindt Gold Bunny comes in a variety of different sizes, formats and flavours, available across all retailers nationwide. Make sure to bring the magic of Easter to your customers this spring with Lindt Gold Bunny.

The Lindt Easter Egg range is also back on shelves with a new brand refresh. Bold and vibrant packaging creates a visually impactful and coherent range on-shelf. No Lindt Easter Egg range is complete without the new Lindor Assorted and Lindor Salted Caramel Easter Egg. Following on from the phenomenal success of the Lindor Salted Caramel Box launch in 2020, the brand’s most popular flavour is now available as an Easter Egg. The Lindt Easter Egg range continues to be a key sales driver for retailers at springtime; a must-stock as consumers look to trade up and give a premium, special Easter gift.

The Lindt Lindor Heart Box 160g makes an ideal gift for a loved one

Lindt Lindor has strengthened its position as the number one boxed chocolate brand in the Irish market. €1 in every €6 spent on a box of chocolates in Ireland is spent on a Lindor box.**

With a wide range of flavours and formats, Lindt Lindor’s success comes not only from the much-loved classic Lindor milk recipe but also through the company’s continual innovations to the market that are guaranteed to excite and delight your shoppers. This spring, shoppers can experience bliss with new Lindt Lindor Salted Caramel. The Lindt master chocolatiers combine expertise and the finest ingredients to produce the perfectly round milk chocolate shell with salt crystals filled with an irresistibly smooth melting caramel centre. Also returning this month is the limited edition Lindor Heart Box 160g – the same smooth melting Lindor in a seasonal heart box, making it a perfect gift for Valentine’s Day.

Supported by a strong national campaign, Lindt Lindor TV advertising will return to screens this spring with increased support and activity both in and out of store.

Lindt Lindor 200g retails at €6.99 and the Lindor Heart Box 160g retails at €7.49.

*(Source: Nielsen, Total Scantrack ROI + Discounters Data to 27 December 2020)

**Source : Nielsen Scantrack to 19 April 2020 at MAT / Easter Period = 16 weeks to 12 April 2020 versus 17 weeks 21 April 2019)

Cracking 2021 Easter line-up

Hopping onto shelves this Easter is a new offering from Cadbury featuring the soft toy character of Peter Rabbit alongside a small Cadbury Dairy Milk shell egg

Easter is the second largest confectionery season* after Christmas, and Mondelēz International is proud to be the number one* manufacturer during this egg-citing time. This year sees Mondelēz International unveil its full range of egg-citing Easter confectionery to help retailers capitalise on the 2021 season with shoppers’ favourite trusted brands.

Mondelēz is bringing a much-loved character to life in 2021 through an exciting partnership for the Easter season.

The Cadbury Peter Rabbit novelties range will see Beatrix Potter’s iconic bunny appearing across small and medium shell eggs, Cadbury Dairy Milk tablets and a range of seasonal launches, with the partnership supported through eye-catching POS material.

Cadbury Dairy Milk Plush Toys will return with a new-look aligned with the Beatrix Potter partnership, featuring the soft toy character of Peter Rabbit alongside a small Cadbury Dairy Milk shell egg. Toys are one of the biggest gifting categories at Easter and so the partnership offers a real opportunity to cater for shoppers looking for high-value gifts. Cadbury Dairy Milk Bunny will also feature Beatrix Potter imagery on pack, with Orange Mousse and Vanilla Mousse variants also available in the new-look.

Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit will also appear on-pack of the Cadbury Hollows range, appealing to shoppers wanting a differentiated offering. The White Oreo Hollow Bunny brings two powerful brands from the Mondelez portfolio together, Oreo and Cadbury, while tapping into the growth seen by white chocolate.

After Mothers’ Day and up until Easter weekend itself, is when the majority of Easter confectionery spending occurs. Cadbury is tapping into the joy of the traditional Easter Egg hunt through a campaign based around its iconic Cadbury purple egg, encouraging consumers to “Show you care…hide it!”.

This campaign is expected to reach around 74% of all adults during the Easter season through TV and video on demand, out-of-home and digital PR, in-store activations and experiential marketing. This will be followed up with a new digital activation, which will enable consumers to hide an egg virtually for someone they love anywhere in the world.

Shell eggs are key in the run-up to the Easter weekend, remaining hugely important to shoppers.

For 2021, Mondelēz is also calling upon the power of its well-loved brands to launch a range of new products within shell eggs, including the Cadbury Fruit & Nut shell egg and Cadbury White Oreo shell egg.

*(Source: Nielsen Total Scantrack ROI (excluding Dunnes and discounters), value sales, 16 w/e 12 April 2020)

Delectable gifts

Lily O’Brien’s Desserts Collection Desserts Egg offers a feast for the senses this Easter

Lily O’Brien’s Easter eggs are sure to make perfect gifts this Easter and provide shoppers with the ideal gifts to show how much they care. This year, chocolate lovers can choose from a selection of handcrafted Easter eggs made using the brand’s famous and much-loved signature recipes.

The Lily O’Brien’s Desserts Collection Egg (RRP €15) is the perfect gifting choice this Easter. This luxurious hand crafted milk chocolate egg is complimented with a selection of delicious chocolates from the Lily O Brien’s top selling Desserts collection. Each Desserts egg generously includes nine decadently delicious Dessert chocolates including three of the most loved recipes from the Dessert collection; Crème Brulee, Raspberry infusion and Key Limey Pie.

Lily O’Brien’s Honeycomb Flame Wrap Egg flame is beautifully wrapped with great standout on-shelf

Lily O’Brien’s Honeycomb Flame Wrap Egg (€12.99) is an egg with a difference. Each milk chocolate egg contains honeycomb pieces throughout the egg and there are also four delicious signature recipe crispy heart chocolates included within the egg. This flame wrapped egg with its honeycomb crunch, beautifully wrapped and tied with a bow has great standout on shelf and will appeal to the shopper looking for something a little different and special for Easter this year.

Lily O’Brien’s Luxury Easter Egg Gift bag makes an elegant present to spoil someone special

New for Easter this year, is the Lily O’Brien’s Luxury Easter Egg Gift bag (RRP €25).Sure to impress, this stylish and sophisticated gift contains a hand crafted milk chocolate egg, the beautifully gift wrapped Ultimate Chocolate Collection box and two of the most popular recipes from the Lily O’Brien’s share bag range; a Creamy Caramel share bag and a Crunchy Salted Almond share bag.

Alternative Easter gifting continues to grow in popularity with consumers opting to buy luxury boxes of chocolates in addition to Easter eggs. Whether it’s the best loved Dessert’s Collection, the Exquisite collection or the Ultimate Chocolate Collection, Lily O’Brien’s range of boxed chocolates offer retailers the perfect range to appeal to shoppers this Easter.

All Lily O’Brien’s Easter Eggs and boxed chocolates are carefully created and thoughtfully designed in Kildare making them the perfect choice for Gifting and sharing. Lily O’Brien’s range is available in stores nationwide and the full range can be viewed at www.lilyobriens.ie.

Biggest brands bounce forwards

After a 2020 season hit by shopping restrictions and lockdown measures, Nestlé Confectionery aims to help retailers bounce back by bringing its biggest brands such as KitKat, Aero, Smarties and Quality Street to the season’s best-selling formats to create a winning spring 2021 range. What’s more, all of the Easter range from Nestlé confectionery contains no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives.

Retailers need an early start to capitalise on mini eggs sales which are popular throughout the full season and attract repeat purchases right up until Easter Sunday. Headlining the mini eggs range for Nestlé is the popular KitKat Bunny first launched in 2020. With an original take on the classic KitKat flavours, the bunnies have a rich chocolatey centre filled with crispy wafer pieces, all encased in a smooth milk chocolate bunny shaped shell. They are vegetarian and gluten free; and come in a variety of different formats, including singles, a mini bunny sharing bag, multipacks and large and giant eggs.

As a nation of white chocolate lovers, it’s not surprising that Milkybar is the number one white chocolate in Ireland. Nestlé is adding a brand-new seasonal launch to its portfolio with Milkybar Bunny; certain to attract new shoppers and generate incremental sales.

The new launch will join the Smarties Bunnies range which launched in 2020 and is made up of five fun characters, each one a different colour. Available in a wide range of sizes, they make ideal ‘thinking of you’ gifts.

The Smarties Mini Eggs Incredible Egg features mini Smarties in its shell plus a Smarties mini eggs sharing bag

This year the mini eggs category will benefit from a brand new launch from flagship brand KitKat: KitKat Mini Eggs. Each foil-wrapped egg comprises of a milk chocolate shell with a rich chocolatey centre and crunchy wafer pieces. Mini eggs make great solutions for sharing, egg hunts or creating baking masterpieces. Completing the 2021 Mini Eggs range are the popular Smarties Mini Eggs, Milkybar Mini Eggs pouches, and Aero Milk Chocolate Mini Eggs, which were launched this year.

Big, well-known brands are also key when it comes to stocking large eggs as shoppers are looking for the recipient’s favourite. Nestlé’s extended large egg range for 2021 gives shoppers a greater choice of trusted, quality brands in a popular size format ideal for sharing with friends and family and at an accessible price point. New for 2021 is the Aero Peppermint Mini Eggs Giant Egg.

The KitKat Chunky Cookie Dough Incredible Egg features a cookie dough flavoured milk chocolate egg with caramel inclusions, alongside three bars

Making a welcome return this year are Nestlé range of Incredible Eggs, each containing a chocolate egg with something special included in the shell. New for 2021, the KitKat Chunky Cookie Dough Incredible Egg comprises of a cookie dough flavoured milk chocolate egg with caramel inclusions, alongside three KitKat Chunky Cookie Dough bars. KitKat Chunky Cookie Dough has been a consumer favourite since the impulse bar was unveiled in 2016 becoming one of the biggest selling new product launch of the year, and this unique and exciting new product also has mass appeal which is important to shoppers as they want to know they are buying an egg the recipient will love. The Yorkie Raisin and Biscuit Incredible egg is a milk chocolate egg with crunchy biscuit and juicy raisin pieces in the shell, plus three full-size bars of Yorkie Raisin and Biscuit. Whilst the Smarties Mini Eggs Incredible egg is a milk chocolate egg with crunchy mini Smarties in the shell plus a Smarties mini eggs sharing bag.

Premium eggs also feature more indulgent offerings such as the After Eight premium egg which features a large mint flavoured dark chocolate egg complete with a 300g box of these favourite after-dinner mints.

“2021 will continue to see a focus on sustainability from Nestlé,” says Maria McKenna, marketing manager, Nestlé Confectionery. “This year all hollow eggs in the range will be plastic free, whilst a number of the packs in Mini Eggs range have reduced their packaging by up to 20% and this will be communicated to shoppers with an on-pack flash. This is another step in our commitment to making 100% of our packaging recyclable or reusable by 2025.”

Join the fun and connect!

M&M’S is an all-time global favourite and is back to make Easter 2021 that much sweeter. M&M lovers will be thrilled with the addition of M&M’S Large Crispy Egg, an exciting extension of the number one M&M’S flavour in Ireland. This addition is sure to bring a lot of excitement to the category and appeal to both existing and prospective consumers during the seasonal period.

M&M’S Crispy will be available as a 250g large egg and is set to be a great complement to the existing Easter range – joining the M&M’S Peanut and Chocolate Large Easter Egg (268g) and the M&M’S Xtra Large Speckled Egg (313g). There is something for everyone on their hunt for the perfect Easter egg – M&M’S Speckled Eggs are also available in bitesize packs with 45g and 135g pouches.

Exceptional Dublin-made chocolates

Butlers Chocolates has been crafting exceptional chocolates in Dublin since 1932. An Irish family-owned company, Butlers is Ireland’s most recommended brand of luxury Irish chocolates* and their Easter Collection has something delicious for chocolate lovers of all ages to enjoy this Spring. All Butlers Chocolates are crafted using sustainably sourced cocoa. In line with their continuing sustainability journey, the majority of the Easter collection is presented in either recyclable or keepsake packaging.

Butlers small and large Chocolate Egg Mini Bar boxes feature a 40% milk chocolate egg accompanied by chocolate mini bars in seven different varieties. Butlers large and small Boxed Eggs each contain milk chocolate eggs accompanied by a selection of filled mini eggs including; Praline, Lemon and Dark Salt Caramel. The Chocolatier Egg Collection comprises a dark chocolate Orange and Almond Egg with mini bars, a milk chocolate hazelnut egg with praline mini filled eggs and a 40% milk chocolate and salted caramel egg with mini salted caramel eggs.

Available in small to extra-large, Butlers milk chocolate Wrapped Eggs are presented in vibrant pearlised pink and green recyclable wraps and tied with a bow, making a captivating display in-store.

Butlers ever-popular filled mini eggs are available again this Easter in a variety of beautiful formats including Egg Batons, a Mini Egg Box and a new medium Oval Egg Tin, in flavours including Dark Truffle, Raspberry, Vanille and Hazelnut Praline.

Butlers’ adorable hollow Chocolate Chicks also return this Easter alongside the delightful Bunny Egg Tin. Finally, Butlers Bunny in milk and white chocolate and milk Baby Bunny make the perfect Easter treat for the young and young at heart.

*(Source: Red C Research 2020)

Driving excitement in-store

The Thorntons Bunny makes a perfect novelty gift in the run-up to Easter

“For Easter, retailers should focus on seasonal sharing and self-treat products in-store during February, with items like the Thorntons Bunny (29g), Ferrero Mini Eggs Hazelnut/Cocoa (100g) or Kinder Joy (20g), thereby encouraging shoppers to buy into the season early and continue doing so throughout the whole of Easter,” says Levi Boorer, customer development director at Ferrero UK & Ireland. “Six weeks from Easter, retailers should start stocking the smaller eggs and chocolate models,” he advises. “These token and novelty gifts become more of a priority to shoppers in this period, with some also re-purchasing these products again before the big day.

Ferrero Mini eggs are ideal for seasonal sharing and self-treat occasions

“Finally, retailers should look at stocking Easter eggs of all sizes a month before the main event, serving as a reminder and driving excitement in-store,” Boorer continues.

For spring 2021, shoppers will be looking for high-quality products or gifts to treat loved ones. “Larger stores should therefore offer a broader range of premium Easter eggs to encourage people to trade up and spend that little bit extra,” Boorer says. “For example, we are increasingly seeing our Kinder (220g) egg being given as a main present, as it provides shoppers with a larger toy, offering more value. Stores with limited space should instead look to dial up the sharing and self-treat options, catering to shoppers who are more impulsive and more likely to repeat purchase throughout the season.

The Kinder Surprise range has licenses with Marvel, Disney and Minions

“Premium boxed confectionery will continue to play an important role in driving seasonal sales,” he adds, “so it’s important that the right pack formats are offered to suit their shopper’s mission and baskets size. For example, Ferrero Rocher (300g) and Thorntons Classic (262g) are ideal offerings that make it easier for shoppers to switch to these premium brands that will help drive bigger basket sales for retailers.”

Shoppers are also willing to pay more for a brand that they have an emotional connection to. As the fourth biggest children’s confectionery brand in Easter*, the Kinder eggs range is popular with families because of the fun and excitement it brings to the category with multiple licenses. This year, the Kinder Surprise (100g) will see hugely popular Marvel heroes and Disney princesses included as part of a mixed case, with the well-known characters included on-pack and as toys within. Meanwhile the larger Kinder Surprise (220g) eggs, which performed exceptionally well (+47%)** during Easter 2020, will receive a Minions update to celebrate the launch of ‘Minions 2: The Rise of Gru’, out next summer.

*(Source: Nielsen Total Coverage Kids Easter 13 weeks to Easter 2019 and 2020)

**(Source: Nielsen Total Confectionery 15 weeks to w/e 11.02.20)

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