Mars DIY Easter videos on Pinterest

The candymaker is getting an early start on its campaign for Easter, which rivals Valentine’s Day and Halloween as the top occasion for candy sales per an announcement shared with Marketing Dive.

Millions search for Easter ideas

Mars is inserting itself into the conversation around Easter, a popular topic on Pinterest with 229 million saved posts and 37 million searches related to the occasion. “Easter Basket Ideas,” “Easter Brunch” and “Easter Decorating Ideas” were the top searches last year, while “Easter Centerpieces” and “Easter Wreaths” were among the most popular searches for Easter crafts.

Mars aims to engage Pinterest users with its series of Easter-related videos from Tastemade as consumers seek ideas on how to celebrate the occasion entering the pandemic’s second year. Cooking and crafts have grown popular in the past year as people spend more time at home, and Mars can participate in social media conversations about those activities. As Pinterest notes, Easter generates significant interest among its user base, which last year grew 37% to 459 million monthly average users.

Garland and egg painting

The DIY video for Dove Chocolates shows how to craft a garland by running a string through the holes in plastic Easter eggs, while the hack video demonstrates how to dye Easter eggs without using an egg dipper in a way that’s easy for kids and is less messy. The activities end with “Me Moments” that urge women to take a break and treat themselves to a Dove candy. The hack videos for M&M’s Minis show how to make cookie bunnies topped with the candy and bunny ear napkins that have a plastic egg filled with Minis.

Musical messages

The campaign for Dove Chocolates and M&M’s Minis is a way to reach consumers who are tuning into digital media. M&M’s has expanded those efforts in a variety of ways, including the integration of its limited-time Messages packaging with audio streaming platform Spotify last month. Each pack of the chocolate candy shows a printed message and a special code to open a complementary playlist when scanned with a smartphone camera, bridging the divide between physical products and digital experiences, beating the phygital trend.

Mars Wrigley is among the marketers sponsoring original content to encourage viewers to interact with their brand as online video consumption grows.