Pranil Chandra March 22, 2024
Vibrant, joyous days away from school all filled to the brim with chocolate treats. It has to be Easter!
The kids’ holidays are closer than we think with Easter just around the corner. It’s a time of hope and joy for children and a hectic yet fun time for retail stores and shopping centres as they prepare for increased footfall and customer spending opportunities.
Yet retailers know that sales growth comes from creative marketing. It’s why many shopping centres create worlds of wonder during this time, and what better way to entice families than an engaging and interactive temporary display for the holiday period that’s super fun and eco-friendly?
At Next Printing, we understand the power of custom-built displays in creating captivating retail experiences. With our expertise in large-format printing and custom display solutions, we help clients transform their store into an immersive wonderland that engages and delights Easter-time customers. This blog post explores creative ideas and inspiration to ensure your next custom-built in-store activation brings your brand to life these holidays!
Easter is a highlight in the school holidays calendar. It’s also one of Australia’s prime sales events, with many retailers offering discounted goods throughout this festive period – some starting their sales before the Easter long weekend and cashing in ahead of Good Friday’s nationwide shutdown. To cause a stir about a product, service, or seasonal sale requires creative marketing – and creative marketing means custom-built displays!
During the Easter holiday season, an in-store display becomes a formidable power in capturing the attention and imagination of shoppers. Tailored displays adorned with vibrant spring colours, Easter-inspired designs and strategically placed products create an immersive and festive atmosphere that resonates with customers. These bespoke installations enhance the overall shopping experience and serve as potent tools for retailers to showcase seasonal offerings.
Yet custom displays are about more than product promotion. They are your perfect opportunity to enhance brand identity, telling customers more about you, your values and your back story. By revealing yourself to your audience and providing opportunities to engage with them physically, you build trust, which can result in them becoming long-term buyers.
Thank goodness there is more to Eastertime than chocolate!
While indeed a peak period for chocolatiers, many celebrate Easter by giving non-cocoa-derived gifts to their loved ones. As such, it presents an ideal opportunity for any retailer to showcase their wares creatively, and the more wow you can provide to shoppers, the more likely you are to secure their custom. Themes stretch way beyond eggs – you can depict the new beginnings Easter represents in all kinds of ways, from fluffy chicks and bunnies to lush fields and rolling hills, even snow-capped mountain scenes, particularly apt in European stores.
And don’t think your Easter break retail display has to be all about Easter. Large-format printing capabilities can bring any scene or theme to life you choose! The expansive canvases enable intricate detailing of Easter-themed graphics, intricate designs, and eye-catching visuals, captivating the attention of passersby and drawing them into the festive spirit. With the ability to convey a sense of scale, large-format printing elevates the impact of Easter holiday displays, turning them into dynamic, immersive experiences that enchant customers and leave a lasting impression.
The one component you can’t overlook with an Easter holidays display is colour. Bright greens and yellows, vibrant reds, pinks and oranges, and cool, sharp blues all feature strongly in Easter shop window displays and retail activations. Even bold, striking metallics work well, particularly when it’s a luxury product on show, with shimmering egg shapes helping retain the seasonal link if that’s your intention.
The aesthetics of your display go a long way toward drawing in a crowd of potential customers. What surprises await them once lured in your direction?
Today’s Easter retail displays are most effective when they provide an experience. One of the best ways to ensure a steady stream of potential customers is by immersing them in the display and giving them multiple opportunities for engagement. Here are some tips for creating an effective, fully immersive display:
Foster customer engagement through interactive components within your Easter holiday display. Install touch-and-feel station or interactive screens – even simple games children will love. Allowing customers to actively participate in the experience fosters a sense of involvement and personal connection, making the shopping journey more memorable and enjoyable.
Incorporate a thematic storyline into your display. Use elements like strategically placed props, signage, and interactive features to tell a narrative that engages customers. Whether an enchanted garden or a children’s campsite deep in a secret forest clearing, a cohesive storyline enhances the overall experience and draws families out shopping into a world of festive wonder.
Seamlessly integrate Easter products into the display, showcasing them in a way that enhances their appeal and relevance. Arrange products in thematic groupings or within scenes that highlight their use, encouraging customers to envision incorporating these items into their own Easter celebrations. This helps promote sales while assisting customers to visualise how the products can enhance their holiday experience, creating a more immersive and practical shopping encounter.
Today’s marketing efforts are storytelling. Highly successful displays make sure they tell a story to customers, taking them on a journey that captures the imagination and invokes delight.
Yet stories are as much an opportunity to showcase your brand as they are an enticing customer experience. Explaining who you are, and demonstrating your values shows an honesty your target customers can connect with. The stronger a connection you create between potential buyer and brand, the more likely they are to trust you in the long term – and that builds valuable relationships beyond the one-off buyers.
Here’s how to align your Easter holidays display with your brand’s values, aesthetics, and overall marketing strategy:
Ensure that your themed retail Easter displays align seamlessly with your brand’s visual identity and aesthetics. Use the same colour palette, fonts, and design elements consistent with your brand to maintain a cohesive look. Whether your brand is known for its modern minimalism or embraces a more traditional feel, incorporating these elements into your Easter display ensures a harmonious representation that resonates with existing customers and reinforces brand recognition.
Infuse your Easter display with themes that reflect your brand’s values and messaging. For example, if sustainability is a key aspect of your brand, consider incorporating eco-friendly materials or promoting environmentally conscious Easter practices.
Whether it’s showcasing popular products, limited-time promotions, or exclusive Easter-themed items, the display should serve as an extension of your marketing initiatives. This integration not only reinforces your brand’s commitment to the holiday season but also enhances the effectiveness of your promotional efforts.
Marketing is always an intended interaction. Traditionally, face-to-face presence has allowed both seller and buyer to interact personally. Yet as marketing – indeed, our world – continues to evolve, this has become less the case, and businesses have adopted digital means to showcase their wares.
Thankfully, there are many ways to interact with your customers without being physically present, and beyond the realms of social media too (think window displays, where physical interaction is nigh on impossible!). Opportunities to interact effectively through a display have transformed in recent times, embracing innovation to provide highly advanced personalised experiences using technology.
The use of AR in displays adds an extra layer of excitement, encouraging participation and fostering a deeper connection between consumers and the brand. Imagine walking into an electronics store during the Easter season, where a display features an AR-powered Easter egg hunt. Shoppers can use their smartphones to scan designated markers, revealing virtual Easter eggs scattered throughout the store. Each egg might unlock exclusive discounts or entertaining AR animations related to the store’s products, creating an engaging and memorable shopping experience. This fusion of technology and tradition not only captivates customers but also elevates the brand’s image as forward-thinking and customer centric.
Modern marketing displays have embraced interactive touch screens to elevate customer engagement and provide a personalised brand experience. Consider a bustling department store gearing up for Easter, where an interactive touchscreen display takes center stage. Shoppers can navigate through a virtual Easter Garden exploring different sections dedicated to various products. With a simple touch, they can access product details, watch demonstration videos, and even customise Easter-themed gift baskets on the spot. An interactive touch screen empowers customers to tailor their shopping journey while serving as a valuable tool for the store, collecting data on consumer preferences and behaviours. By seamlessly integrating technology into the shopping experience, these displays captivate attention and position the brand as innovative and committed to enhancing the customer’s journey.
Ready for more inspiration?
How about this for a school holidays interactive display courtesy of NEXT Printing!
Here, NEXT Printing worked with The Event Space team to produce a series of interactive displays to engage children visiting QIC shopping centres during the school holidays.
The child-friendly, ocean-themed mazes used eco-friendly Re-board carved into eye-catching shapes to form an incredible, immersive underwater world! This is a great example of how the right materials, colour and printing can capture the attention of shoppers and entice them to learn more about your brand and products.
Custom-built displays help you create captivating Easter-themed scenes for your customers in windows and instore. Using large-format printing, unique designs and technical components allows for something incredibly engaging and interactive, combining the best of all worlds to produce a spectacular display for shoppers.
And, now you know all about the benefits of custom-built displays as part of your Easter marketing strategy, it’s time to get cracking with yours!
Of course, planning, designing, and implementing a custom-built retail Easter display doesn’t just happen and there is a LOT to think about to prepare your Easter showcase, including budget considerations, space optimisation, materials and more.
Collaboration with custom-built display experts is recommended – like NEXT Printing! Our creatives, designers and planners collaborate to create stand-out displays for all types of clients on all types of budgets, providing tailored guidance and support throughout the display creation process.
With Christmas done for another year, don’t wait too long before turning your attention to Easter! NEXT has some eggstra-special Easter display ideas for retail – arrange a chat with our team today?
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