Nielsen: High Egg Prices Won’t Stop Easter Egg Hunts

Candy Advertising Spending Higher During Easter Season than Halloween;

Food and Drink Recipes, Family Get-Togethers Dominate Easter Conversations Online

March 14, 2008- Schaumburg, IL- Rising egg prices won’t lighten the Easter Bunny’s load this spring, with U.S. retail sales of eggs expected to top more than $95 million¹ during the holiday week, according to The Nielsen Company.   Eager for festive Easter baskets, U.S. consumers are expected to purchase more than 17 million egg coloring/dye kits² during the week leading up to the holiday.  Chocolate candy is also strong with more than $318 million³ in sales expected during the week leading up to Easter, second only to Valentine’s Day⁴.
(For all charts, graphs, and tables referenced in this release, please view Full PDF Download version of release).

“Egg prices are projected to increase for the third consecutive year as retailers and consumers continue to struggle with higher commodity and energy costs⁵,” said Todd Hale, senior vice president of Consumer & Shopper Insights, Nielsen Consumer Panel Services.   “While we would expect to see some decline in the number of egg cartons sold given price increases, we certainly don’t see consumers widely cutting back on this food staple and Easter’s egg decorating tradition.”

Colorful Baskets in Cold Weather Towns
Nielsen’s analysis of supermarket sales in 52 U.S. markets shows that consumers in cold weather cities, perhaps anxious for spring, tend to purchase more egg coloring/dye kits during the week leading up to Easter than consumers in other markets.  For example, consumers in Cincinnati buy 81 percent more egg coloring/dye kits than would be expected for a market of its size, followed by Buffalo/Rochester and Salt Lake City/Boise.
(Refer to table "Above Average Spending for Egg Coloring/Dye Kits" in Full PDF Download version of release.)

U.S. Media Spending and Easter Candy
Chicks, chocolate bunnies and eggs are advertising themes leading up to Easter.  Nielsen Monitor-Plus shows $65.6 million was spent on candy advertising for the weeks from the beginning of Lent (the forty-day season of fasting and prayer before Easter) until Easter (February 25 – April 8, 2007), down six percent from $69.7 million for the same holiday period in 2006 (March 5 – April 16, 2006).  One-third of total spending ($22 million) was placed on cable television, while 26 percent ($16.9 million) of all candy ads were in national magazines.  Network television was the third largest medium, with $11.3 million in candy ad spending.
Refer to table "Candy Advertising Spending" in Full PDF Download version of release).

Global Media Spending and Easter Candy
Nielsen’s research shows that chocolate egg and molded candy manufacturers in Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and Great Britain combined spent more than 42 million Euros to advertise their Easter-related products in 2006 and 2007, less than Easter candy advertising spent in the U.S. alone.  Italian ad spend accounts for 42 percent of the spending across these countries and Italy, Germany and Spain all showed a marked increase in advertising spending activity when comparing Easter 2006 and 2007.  Ad spending in Spain was five times greater in 2007 than it was during the previous year.  In Italy and Germany, ad spending also rose from 2006 to 2007 by nearly 40 percent and 87 percent respectively.
(Refer to chart "Chocolate Eggs and Moulded Products in Full PDF Download version of release).

Easter Grabs More Candy Advertising than Halloween
Since at least 2004, candy advertising spending has been greater during the Easter season than during the weeks leading up to Halloween.  For example, $61.6 million was spent on candy advertising in September and October 2007, versus $90.8 million during March and April 2007.

McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish Ads Spike during Lent
As many consumers fast from meat during Lent, advertising of fish rises.  McDonald’s advertising for its Filet-O-Fish sandwich is a prime example of this trend.  During the last six years, Filet-O-Fish advertising on spot television has spiked during the six weeks of Lent. In 2006 and 2007, there was no advertising for the product except for the months of February through April.
(Please see chart "McDonald's Filet-O-Fish" in Full PDF Download version of release).

Easter Blogosphere Buzz
Nielsen Online measures consumer-generated content from nearly 70 million blogs on the Internet, including conversations about traditional foods, decorations and other items associated with this year’s Easter holiday.  The graph below shows the percentage of these blogs that mention Easter between February 1 and March 11.  Online conversations spiked 275 percent on February 6, the first day of Lent, compared to earlier that week.  Since then, another spike (100 percent) occurs March 10, driven by conversations about food and drink recipes, getting together with family and the countdown to Easter Sunday on March 23.   The following chart is a Blog Buzz analysis for “Easter” as a percentage of all blog posts: ((Please see chart "Blog Topic: Easter " in Full PDF Download version of release).

About The Nielsen Company

The Nielsen Company is a global information and media company with leading market positions and recognized brands in marketing information (ACNielsen), media information (Nielsen Media Research), online intelligence (NetRatings and BuzzMetrics), trade shows and business publications (Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, Adweek). The privately held company is active in more than 100 countries, with headquarters in Haarlem, the Netherlands, and New York, USA. For more information, please visit www.nielsen.com.

 

 

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