Sara Del Treppo and Dior van Leeuwen are responsible for growth via all programmatic channels at Rituals, a Dutch-born wellbeing brand with a global presence. They are passionate about finding new ways to connect with their audiences online.
The power of self-care and meaningful gifting are foundational for us at beauty and wellness brand Rituals.
There are key moments where we’ve focused on bringing these to life in the past, such as Black Friday and the festive period — our advent calendar launch is one of our yearly marketing highlights. In recent years we noticed Easter becoming another key gifting moment. Across all industries Easter sales are rising but the health & beauty category tops the spend chart, with an incredible 20% year-on-year increase in 2024 alone.
And so, in a season where traditional chocolates still reign supreme, we wanted to become known for our Easter gifts.
We’re very experimental and are always on the lookout for new ideas that enable us to respond to changing consumers expectations. That’s why we were keen to test the following hypothesis: could tapping into trends help us connect with an audience who want to give an Easter self-care or beauty moment to others?
Standing out in the local Easter market
The Easter market is becoming increasingly competitive with more brands recognising its potential. We’ve seen our sales increase by an astonishing 7.5X from 2023 to 2024 for the season and yet there are plenty more growth opportunities. That said, gifting traditions and the commercial importance of Easter vary by country, so it's crucial to understand local market nuances when planning Easter campaigns.
For example, Germany as a market is already mature when it comes to Easter sales as it’s one of the nation’s favourite holidays. Austria, Poland, and the Czech Republic are also established Easter gifters, with some places having hosted Easter festivals since medieval times.
Other countries, like the Netherlands, are still fairly new to the Easter gifting scene, and that’s where we have the opportunity to become known as the place to get your non-food Easter gifts.
Our research showed us that we could connect with our intended audience by adding our voice to relevant trends. By finding out what was inspiring to them, we could create an inspirational view of products, showcasing how they fit into users' lives and sparking ideas for potential uses.
Merging traditional ads with new trends: A winning formula for Rituals
Our campaign creatives are traditionally studio produced and designed to drive conversions with clear product displays, calls to action (CTA), and an emphasis on limited edition offers. Here’s an example of a Short we created for our Easter campaign:
Alongside our traditional Easter assets, however, we also researched new social trends so we could create content that played into them. At the time, "What Do You Bring to the Table" was extremely popular — in which content creators would showcase their skincare routines or beauty essentials — and the team thought they could use it as a playful way to showcase our products. It also worked well for Easter as we know that it’s a time for family gatherings around the table, usually bringing food, but connecting that same feeling to our products.
To stay close to the look and feel of the trend on social, we didn’t include any commercial focus or CTA:
The results were very interesting. We received 13 million impressions, which were fairly evenly split between trends and studio content.
However, our trends-based assets outperformed studio content when it comes to view-through rates. Completion rates were also 3X higher for our trends content, indicating better engagement. This highlights the power of authentic content that resonates with users on their favourite platforms, and how it plays a crucial role in generating awareness and inspiration, paving the way for conversions.
But for marketers, awareness is just one side of the coin. Interestingly, our traditional advertising content drove 145% more sales, which we believe is due to its clear call to action and focus on product features. So for that reason, we’ll continue developing a strategy that merges both approaches: traditional and current trends.
Easter 2025, the next major marketing moment for retailers
To meet our challenge of raising awareness of Easter products with new audiences, and driving sales, the combination of the two formats certainly worked for us.
And it won’t stop there. In fact, we’re already working on our 2025 Easter campaign.
We're committed to making every Easter campaign bigger and better, expanding into new markets and increasing brand awareness. We see Easter as the next big moment in the marketing calendar, and we're excited to continue innovating and delighting our customers with meaningful gifting experiences.
