How Easter Eggs Help Your Brand with Marketing
Easter eggs are no longer limited to children only. Today, adults can also join the “Easter Egg” hunt in various ways–all thanks to the internet. In terms of digital media, Easter Eggs are hidden features or messages or product references within the website, marketing campaigns, or content.
Inspiration can come from anywhere, and using Easter eggs in marketing strategy was inspired by a programmer Warren Robinett, who worked for the Atari Corporation. In 1982, Warren designed a video game known as Atari 2600, where he put his signature in a secret room within the game. Several gamers found the hidden element and they really loved this idea, which rose this trend of Easter Eggs that is still going on. Since then, you can see secret content or hidden messages in advertisements, movies, videos, and many other elements to surprise and fascinate viewers and customers who are vigilant enough to notice.
Every year, you can see Super Bowl ads coming up with hidden Easter eggs. This year it was 50 Cent dressed in a G-Unit tank top.
Even Mercedes-Benz could not stay away from this trend, where they put an Easter egg in their ad campaign strategy—a potential buyer sitting in opera and holding a magazine in his hands. Not only companies but the biggest search engine Google is undoubtedly the biggest player in the digital Easter eggs, where you can search for askew or do a barrel roll to see how the site changes within seconds.
Though all of this is certainly fun and interesting to hear, we can’t help but wonder how you can make this Easter egg-stra special. First thing first, Easter eggs can do wonders to your marketing strategy and are worth every effort. Even so, creating a hidden message requires a lot of brainstorming and resources. In short, they are not just a silly hunch for kids anymore, instead, they are a power-packed form of marketing. Do you want to know why? Then read along!
Why are Easter Eggs Powerful Marketing Tactics?
Easter Eggs Can Go Viral in Seconds
Digital Easter eggs are no longer for only tech-savvy people. They have a viral potential that can capture users' attention within seconds. And, we can see this in Carlsberg’s 2016 advertisement–“If Carlsberg Did Chocolate Bars.”
So, while you might not be directly promoting your brand, Easter eggs have the potential that does it for you most simplistically and subtly. And what makes Easter eggs more valuable for companies is the potency to go VIRAL – a promotion type that has the potential to be shared by many which bring in followers, website traffic, referrals, potential leads, and boost your SEO rankings.
Easter Eggs Are The Best Form Of Visual Content
Without any doubt, the demand for visual content has been on a rise for the past few years. It has taken marketing teams by storm, where the content can be entertaining or mysterious. The bottom line is the audience is always looking for MORE and MORE.
Easter Eggs have the potential to deliver fascinating visual content that gives your viewers an extra dose of fun and excitement.
Easter Eggs Builds Exclusiveness
Some companies strategize Easter eggs in such a unique way that only people who are watchful enough to notice can guess this. And exclusivity is something all humans yearn for. Psychology shows that exclusivity sparks a sense of interest and determination in a person that prompts them to want to discover what they're losing out on.
There is something stimulating about being privy to such information – and companies take advantage of this psychological phenomenon and implement it in their marketing tactics. Also, this helps them in retaining the existing customers, which helps in building long-lasting and meaningful relations. Simply put, the Easter eggs hunt is a surefire way to engage with your audience.
Easter Eggs Are Like Rewards For Customers
From Pirates of the Caribbean to The Da Vinci Code or Anacondas to Jumanji, who doesn’t love the feeling of the hunt? This is why treasure hunt games are still popular among Millennials and Gen Z. Wondering why, well, it is all because rewards fascinate all. There is nothing more pleasing than getting a pat on the back or being rewarded for a job carried out perfectly.
So, if you can make your Easter eggs hunt more challenging, it will engage more and more people to find out those hidden gems. And if the end reward is hard to resist, like a discount coupon or giveaway, it will be impossible for the players to let it go to waste.
Easter Eggs Boost Excitement
There was something exceptionally exhilarating to see when Gossip Girl burst out everyone’s secret right on the spot. The thrill and expression were satisfying at the core. Well, this is something marketers are leveraging in their strategy by adding an Easter egg on their websites, applications, and other content so that people get excited about finding out something they don’t even know about. Apple did it really well when Siri launched Easter eggs. People couldn't get enough of Siri’s wittiness and humor to the hidden questions and answers- asking Siri what is zero divided by zero didn't get the usual syntax error a calculator would display but an elaborate diss targeted at the social ineptitude of the asked gauged by how much time they had to ask these questions. Siri's Easter eggs were the talk of the town where social sites, blogs, and even TV shows were all involved in this discussion. People love the Easter eggs mystery, which is why companies can use it to boost engagement and increase referrals. This is because, as humans, we have a tendency to brag about our achievements and solving an Easter egg mystery puzzle definitely earns the bragging rights.
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