It’s now less than a week until Easter and it’s been a vintage year for new offerings
Easter’s such a fun and chocolaty time that the potential for innovation is huge. It’s a time when brands can really play and consumers are more prone to impulse buying, so making eye-catching products a must. Luxury brands can afford to be a little more light-hearted and cheeky, while the big name brands shoot with both barrels to secure consumer attention. The Grocer noted way back in January that the key consumer trend in this area will for people looking for more innovative and premium products – so the pressure was on for brands to deliver.
Innovation and chocolate lovers to the core, we’ve been watching this year’s arrivals with interest and have pulled together some of the products and stories that have caught our eye…
Hotel Chocolat’s Caramel Easter Egg Sandwich is a perfect example of Easter bringing the best out of luxury brands – innovative, unusual and a bit cheeky, the brand’s tongue-in-cheek version of an ‘egg’ apparently used a 3D scanner to copy a thinly sliced sandwich in order to create the final eggy product, which even comes in a takeaway sandwich box.
It was only a matter of time before Magnum decided to take on the Easter egg and the brand have gone for a classic, grown-up look – exactly what you would expect from the brand. While the egg is undeniably elegant and hits the right aspirational notes, we have to admit we’re a bit sad that it doesn’t include some of the tailored elements from the genius ‘design your own Magnum’ concept. Personalisation is tooted to be a massive trend to watch this year and a ‘make my Magnum’ egg would have had us sprinting for the supermarket…
We have always had a soft spot for the MaltEaster Bunny and have enjoyed watching the bunny story develop over the years. The distinctive cheeky character, ‘play’ format and changing texture have made these little rascals a firm favourite. We noticed that Cadbury’s have come out with their own bunny too this year – it’ll be interesting to see how they compete against each other for attention.
Still recovering from the public outrage at the controversial changing of the iconic Creme Egg recipe last year, Cadbury is coming back fighting with a nifty ‘interactive’ egg. Feeding neatly into the personalisation trend, the egg encourages kids to get creative with their egg, coming with its own stand and tube of icing. We say anything that manages to engage kids long enough to stop them hoovering their egg in the first 5 minutes has got to be a good thing!
Following the amazing media coverage last year, Unilever will indeed be bringing back the Marmite and Pot Noodle Easter Eggs. Provoking equal amounts of horror and fascination, the unusually flavoured eggs are on our ‘must-try’ list in the office (although possibly with our eyes closed). One things for certain, Unilever certainly achieved their aim to ‘bring something new to the Easter market’…
Whilst just like everyone else this Easter we will be stuffing our faces with this year’s offerings, like all good innovators, we are already wondering what next year will bring!
