How to Connect With Gen Z This Easter

For many, Easter is a time of celebration, roast dinners, and chocolate. But it’s also a significant time in the student spending calendar, thanks to April Loan Drops in the UK, Afterpay Day Sales in Australia and the end of Spring Break in the US, which means it should be important to your brand too.

Easter 2022 saw UK spending reach £1.3 billion, and with 92% of students checking for student discounts when they shop, this is an exciting spending period for young people across the world. But how can you, as youth marketers, make the most of these commercial opportunities? Supercharge your Easter marketing strategies? And connect with Gen Z students in a meaningful way that will lead to higher sales, ROI and customer loyalty? Well, you’ve come to the right place…

Today, we take a look at brand visibility, marketing tactics and students attitudes towards spending over the Easter period, as well as sharing some successful case studies.

The Easter spending period and Gen Z

So how will Gen Z students be feeling during the Easter spending period? Well, two things are top of Gen Z’s list this year: authenticity and value for money. 

Global cost-of-living concerns remain a massive issue for young people, with many still keeping a close eye on their outgoings. This will mean that many will be using April Loan Drops, Afterpay Day sales and the end of Spring Break as an excuse to spend whilst saving where they can. Affordability is more important now than ever before, so it’s vital that you don’t miss this opportunity to understand how students want to spend and where.

Offering a student discount will lead to increased conversions and help you stand out from competitors, but how can you make the most of these over the Easter period? Well, brand visibility - namely:

• Perfecting your social media strategies (more on this later) 
• Keeping your brand imagery fresh and embracing the Easter festivities. Izzy Cowan, Client Services Team Lead at Student Beans, shared in a recent webinar: “Choosing relevant imagery that’s in line with seasonality is important, and making sure your images represent what you’re currently offering a discount on.”
• Having a killer Call to Action. Brands who have improved their CTA positioning have seen 309% more student sales and 20% increase in average order value. This is a simple but effective tool to boost engagement and sales, and we’re here to help.
• Get in touch with the team at Student Beans! Find, attract, convert and engage those Gen Z spenders today, just get in touch now to find out more.

Authenticity and value for money should be a priority all-year-round (they are for Gen Z students, after all). So make sure this doesn’t get lost amongst the excitement of discounts, chocolates and hot cross buns!

Easter marketing 101: A student's favourite type of offer

Social media is the most obvious place to showcase your Easter deals, from launch to promotion to execution. After all, these are a generation of digital natives! As Izzy Cowan says, “Students and Gen Z spend the majority of their day scrolling, so why not catch them in their natural habitat?!”. From teaming up with student content creators to creating viral influencer-facing campaigns, social is the most efficient and effective way of connecting with Gen Z.

Students value an app-first approach to browsing and purchasing - 42% make purchases in-app compared to 34% who make them on a computer and 23% who use phone web browsers, and Student Beans’ In-App Connect helps optimise student conversions. As previously discussed, Gen Z are value-driven and want to make the most of every pound, dollar and euro, and using In-App Connect allows your brand to offer discounts within a brand ecosystem, which in turn drives increased average order value, conversions and customer loyalty.

Piqued your interest? Get in touch with us today - you could implement In-App Connect within just 10 minutes!

But it doesn’t end there - the best time to connect with students is during key moments of their lives/calendars (think loan drops!), and that includes Easter. 69% of students want to be notified of new offers via email, so use this space to communicate new product launches, boosted discounts and stackable sales that resonate with them.

Last but not least, don’t forget the importance of percentage discounts, which are favoured over monetary discounts by many young people. Gen Z prefer not to be tied into a certain spend, and are more likely to increase their spend if they feel they’re getting a percentage discount which is proportional to their spend. Just think of the sales when they open that ‘x% off!’ Easter email just as they’ve received their latest maintenance loan…

4 Easter marketing campaigns that convert

So who’s Easter marketing has really stood out in recent years? Take a look at our top four below.

1. Cadbury Worldwide, 2022

‘What if you could hide an Easter egg anywhere in the world for someone you love?’. That’s the approach the leading confectionery company Cadbury took last Easter with their unique and interactive Cadbury Worldwide campaign. The project encouraged participants to hide virtual eggs anywhere in the world, sharing clues with loved ones.

Not only was this campaign extremely timely, facilitating connection during a time where the COVID-19 pandemic was still at the forefront of many people’s minds, but it also took Easter into the virtual world, something we know that a generation of digital natives love.

2. Adidas x Bad Bunny, 2021

This collaboration proved that brands don’t have to hop (sorry) on the bandwagon to target Gen Z consumers this Easter. The leading athleisure brand partnered with rapper Bad Bunny to release an exclusive line of blush pink trainers, encased in a giant pink egg and promoted via influencer marketing on social media.

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3. IKEA's flat pack chocolate bunnies, 2019

IKEA are known for their iconic marketing campaigns and are already a well-loved brand amongst Gen Zers (after all, how else could they afford to kit out their student homes?!).  The homeware brand’s 2019 Easter campaign didn’t disappoint. 

The brand took their recognised flat-pack DIY concept and adapted it to suit the season, releasing a chocolate bunny that consumers could construct in three parts. Iconic, tasty and eye-catching.

Not only were these stylish shoes in high demand, but the marketing stunt unquestionably stood out from the crowd, with one TikTok video getting over 3 million views.

4. Ricky.com, 2021

Sex toy brand Ricky.com had a lot of competition within the space, and worked with agency Rise at Seven in 2020 to really disrupt the field by releasing the World’s First Kinder Egg for Adults. In other words, one of six sex toys could be found inside chocolate eggs.
Thanks to the roaring success of this campaign, it returned in 2021, this time renamed to the Love Egg Surprise. Ricky.com took to their socials to share UGC, including content shared by leading health and body positivity activists on Instagram.

So there you have it. Like we said, Easter isn’t just about chocolate and roast dinners. It’s also a prime time for you to make the most of student spending habits, connect with Gen Z and really drive those sales. 

Want to discover more about how you can Supercharge Your Gen Z Marketing for 2023? Check out this guide from our insights agency, Voxburner, which looks at the hottest trends you need to be aware of this year and shares actionable takeaways for youth marketers.