Easter activations unwrapped: highlights and 2026 event inspiration

With Easter activations, thoughts usually turn to chocolate eggs, so it has been interesting to see other categories also try to establish a stronger foothold in the seasonal repertoire.

This shift has been enabled by the freeing up of prime in-store real estate by HFSS regulations in England, the commercial escalation of Easter by brands and retailers (crackers, wreaths, trees, cards, etc.) and the shift from out-of-home consumption to domestic meal occasions.

The last five years or so have, therefore, seen a significant broadening of Easter activations beyond chocolate: the Easter roast lunch/dinner is now a major priority.

The more intriguing activations we saw this year

Cadbury (Mondelēz) in B&M

This is the latest instalment of a longer-term collaboration between Cadbury and B&M. This activation has seen the creation of more co-branded FSDUs, featuring striking visuals, and the efficiency of several sub-brands and SKUs to provide B&M with efficiency and shoppers with variety. Nice work.

Bailey’s (Diageo) in Tesco

We would file this one under ‘valiant seasonal incursion’. Traditionally a Christmas staple, and frequently the focus of Yuletide ‘stunt’ pricing by grocers, Baileys is possibly not top of mind for Easter. This activation seeks to change that with an exhortation to add a shot of Baileys to coffee, a Clubcard promo and the visualisation of the consumption occasion alongside hot cross buns.

Mars in Sainsbury’s

There is lots to like about this activation. This FSDU was placed at the front of the store amongst other Easter activations, which could have seen it get lost amongst the sea of activations. However, this particular FSDU stands out.

The different colours and imagery help to grab shoppers’ attention, signifying the bright and colourful season of spring. The humorous messaging ‘That’s Easter cracked!’ plays into the light-hearted fun of the occasion. The FSDU features multiple SKUs from Mars’ Easter egg range, neatly organised with shelf-ready packaging, making it a colourful feast for the eyes for shoppers and an efficient solution for the retailer.

M&S

M&S used FSDUs to highlight its range of Easter products. This FSDU stood out in the store and from other retailers’ attempts by using bright green across the Easter range. This FSDU spotlights M&S’s private label chocolate character NPDs, which are new for 2026.

The messaging follows this with ‘Sweet Easter friends’ as the tag-line, offering the new mini-cow chocolates and sloth chocolate figures. Dispensary boxes and clip strips attached to the FSDU offered pistachio cream-filled mini chocolate eggs, enhancing the display unit and creating opportunities to encourage shoppers to add a little extra to their baskets.

Premier Foods in Sainsbury’s

An enduring favourite, previously seen at Easter and Christmas, we never fail to appreciate the merits of these roast ends from Premier. The bringing together of Paxo, Oxo, Bisto and Ambrosia demonstrates the depth of Premier’s portfolio, covers several aspects of a roast dinner (importantly including pudding!) and is swathed in Nectar deals. The visuals of the actual consumption occasion add great context, too.

Cadbury (Mondelēz) in B&M

Once again, B&M come in with a great Easter activation, this time solely for Creme Egg. This FSDU was in the middle of the Easter aisle next to the other eggs, this product plays perfectly into the occasion. The FSDU uses Creme Egg’s red and purple colourway to grab attention and offers the promotion ‘admit how you eat yours’ to win up to £10,000. This is doubled with B&M’s price label stating that it’s part of the Everyday Value price incentive.

KitKat (Nestlé) in Tesco

Manifold boxes ticked here: Tesco exclusivity, the deployment of F1 branding and imagery that feeds into the broader KitKat F1 campaign and an attractive discount. This clearly worked for at least one shopper who switched from a competing brand.

Treasury Wine Estates in Sainsbury’s

There has been a notable uptick in wine brands muscling in on Easter, more often than not linking themselves to the Easter roast occasion too. This one stood out for several reasons, most notably the splendid imagery of red wine alongside a fine-looking Easter roast, as well as the calling out of ‘Australian’ as a key product attribute and the inclusion of two distinct brands.

What does Easter 2026 suggest for events in the rest of the year?

Easter 2026 highlights five trends that are emerging and developing for the key seasonal events in the UK:

1. New opportunities for a wider range of products: while seasonal ranges previously targeted a comparatively limited number of products that shoppers expected, retailers and suppliers are collaborating to use events to inspire them to try new products. Activations, especially in the days before the event, that target specific missions and occasions, are seeing retailers offer new solutions that encourage shoppers to try something new or put one more item in their basket.

2. A growing space for general merchandise: products that prove successful for one seasonal event are being adapted for others. The evolution of items like crackers, advent calendars, cards, trees and apparel for a wider range of seasonal events is enabling retailers to add comparatively higher-margin goods to their offers and helping to grow average basket sizes at times when shoppers may feel more able or willing to indulge and spend more.

3. Toys and activities to appeal to children and adults alike: similar to the expansion of general merchandise opportunities, toys and activities are finding a growing presence in seasonal offers.

4. New opportunities amongst staple ranges: even amongst core staple products for seasonal events, new suppliers are finding opportunities to get their ranges stocked. For example, while Easter has traditionally been focused on chocolate confectionery, as shoppers look for alternatives, Haribo is finding a growing space in the event. For suppliers, this provides an opportunity to take

5. Adding wine to the main meal occasion: as the Sunday roast and main meal occasion becomes a bigger part of retailers’ offers, this is creating an opening for alcoholic drinks suppliers, mainly wine at the moment, to promote their products as part of that offer. This is mainly occurring in the wine aisle, but as it becomes bigger, the chance to add products in secondary locations may emerge.

Looking for more insight?

All of these activations will be included alongside 150+ others in our Retail Media Highlights report for March. This and many other in-store activation insights can be found on our category hub.