Easter marketing peaks in final week, Klaviyo finds

Klaviyo has published new data on Easter marketing timing across email and text campaigns, suggesting most brands still concentrate their Easter activity in the final week before the holiday.

The analysis reviewed millions of campaigns across four countries and six sectors, covering Easter 2025 and 2026 activity in English, French and German-language markets. Easter references in email and text campaigns exceeded a 5% threshold about three weeks before Easter Sunday, suggesting that some brands begin seasonal messaging before the main rush.

Even so, activity remains heavily weighted towards the closing days. Easter-related campaign volume rises to 27 times the baseline in the final seven days, with the strongest concentration in the last one to three days before Easter Sunday. On Easter Sunday 2025 itself, 26.8% of campaigns explicitly mentioned Easter.

The same pattern was visible in the UK, where brands begin building activity about 20 days before Easter, but campaign mentions peak close to the day itself at 32%.

Channel Split

The figures point to a sharper concentration in text messaging than in email at the peak. On Easter Sunday, 43% of SMS campaigns mentioned Easter, making text the most saturated channel that day.

The analysis presents Easter marketing as a staggered process rather than a short burst. It identifies a first phase beginning 21 days out, when Easter mentions exceed 5%, followed by a middle period from eight to 21 days before the holiday, when message volume rises from 3.6 times to 9 times the baseline. The steepest increase comes in the final week.

Geography also affects the timetable. Australia emerged as the earliest mover, crossing the 5% threshold 27 days before Easter, while Germany reached 8% at 16 days out. The US activated later, not crossing 5% until roughly two weeks before the holiday, and France recorded the lowest peak among the markets tracked.

Sector Timing

The data also showed notable variation by industry. Baby and kids brands maintained elevated Easter mention rates from the start of the observation window, while pet products saw a jump around 14 days before the holiday, peaking at 42%. Food and beverage brands sustained elevated mention rates from five weeks out, suggesting a longer planning cycle for that category.

By contrast, health and beauty brands started later and remained relatively flat until around three weeks before Easter. Toys and games brands peaked early and stayed high through the period, reflecting a similar family-oriented buying pattern to baby and kids products.

The findings indicate that marketers are not following a single Easter timetable. Instead, campaign intensity appears to depend on local market conditions and the type of product being sold.

For brands with international audiences, the data suggest that a single campaign schedule may fail to meet customer expectations across countries. The earlier activation seen in Australia and Germany differs materially from the later build in the US.

For channel planning, the figures imply a division of labour between email and SMS. Email activity builds earlier in the cycle, while text messaging becomes more prominent in the final days, particularly on Easter Sunday itself.

The dataset was based on keyword matches in subject lines and message content. Mention rates reflected the proportion of campaigns containing at least one Easter-related term, while the peak multiplier compared campaign volume with a non-peak baseline period.

The central finding is that while Easter messaging starts earlier than many marketers may assume, most brand activity still arrives at the last minute, creating a crowded final stretch in which many campaigns compete for the same audience attention.