The Best (and less than best) 2025 Easter Ads From Nigerian Brands
One ad nailed it. One completely missed the tomb.
Easter can be a tricky holiday for brands, especially in a religious country like Nigeria. Most brands play it safe with a simple “Happy Easter” greeting to avoid offending Christians or getting dragged.
But a few brands managed to toe the line between creativity and appropriateness. I scoured the internet for the most noteworthy ones. Here are my thoughts (and ratings) for each.
1. Cafe One - 10/10
Cafe One is a coffee shop and co-working space created by Sterling Bank Nigeria.
Cafe One’s Easter comms is easily the best I’ve seen so far, and the social media reactions back me up on it.
The brilliance of the ad is that it hits the nail on the significance of Easter to Christians. This distinguishes them, especially since most brands focus on surface-level symbolism.
The cherry on top is that the copy and visuals align with both their product and the symbolic Easter visual (the cross). 10/10, no notes.
2. Tadora HQ - 9/10
Tadora HQ is a LinkedIn growth & personal branding agency.
Tadora’s ad comes as a LinkedIn carousel, true to form. Just like Cafe One, they focused on the significance of Easter over mere symbolism. But unlike Cafe One, they don’t use any symbolism at all (which is why they don’t get the full 10/10).
Still, they did a stellar job linking the Easter story to their core offering (personal branding) without diluting the message or offending Christians. Solid copy, clean execution.
3. Chess In Slums - 9/10
Chess In Slums is a non-profit organisation that uplifts children in underserved communities through the use of chess.
Chess in Slums does a truly excellent job of tying the Easter story to chess concepts—the existence of a simple pawn and the sacrifice of the pawn to become a royal.
The visuals really hammer in their point, and it’s an excellent example of visual storytelling.
4. Bigi - 8.5/10
Bigi is a soda brand with an array of flavours.
Their Good Friday ad leaned into the solemnity of the day. No product shots. Just a sober, reflective message.
There’s also a slight play on words in the copy that’s just the right amount of subtle, so it doesn’t dilute the message or take away from its significance. It’s a simple, to-the-point message with no frills.
As an extra cap to their feather, their tagline “For Every Moment” complements the copy and is a subtle product mention.
5. 02 Academy - 8/10
02 Academy is a brand communications and advertising school for creatives.
This ad’s strength is in the visuals: pencil shavings rearranged to form the image of Jesus.
It’s a powerful metaphor — discarded bits turned into something beautiful. The message ties back to how Jesus was rejected, then resurrected. The metaphor also resonates with 02 Academy’s target audience (creatives) who are also often rejected or underestimated.
6. Renmoney - 8/10
Renmoney is a digital bank that provides loans, savings, and banking services.
Most finance brands lean on the tired “He paid in full” trope for Easter campaigns, so it’s rare for me to find one that deserves a high rating. But Renmoney deserves this rating for managing to turn another overused marketing slang (the “achalugo” trend from Omoni Oboli’s “Love In Every Word”) into great messaging about the meaning of Easter.
Renmoney references the trend with the red hats and the “Odogwu” mention, but only to contrast it against the Easter message — the sacrifice made on the cross. It does a fine job of combining humour with a real & relevant message.
7. Colgate - 8/10
Colgate sells oral hygiene products.
The “Yanga” in Colgate’s Easter ad is especially significant because it’s the tagline of their most recent campaigns (Yanga with your smile). They do a great job of tying the tagline to the Easter message.
As a plus, the visuals are amazing. The font reminds one of the texture of toothpaste, and the smile represents perfect white teeth (presumably as a result of using Colgate). The tomb outline in the background is a nice touch as well.
8. Yield - 7.5/10
Yield is a fund management & investment solution by Credit Direct.
Yield leans into humour to promote their product. They position Judas Iscariot, the villain in the Easter story, as someone who made a poor investment; and then they use it as a teaching moment.
This message is especially timely in light of the recent CBEX scandal, which was revealed as a pyramid scheme and caused thousands of Nigerians to lose millions of naira.
9. Audacia - 6.5/10
Audacia is a real estate investment company.
Audacia’s message is creative and positions the tomb as a real estate property that has increased in value.
It almost works, but ends up feeling like a commodification of something sacred. While creative, the analogy falls a little flat, and it feels like there is a missing conclusion to piece it together.
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10. Fairmoney - 6/10
Fairmoney is a microfinance bank and instant loan solution.
Fairmoney’s ad is very simple, but its visual is a winner. While it doesn’t spread any message about the real meaning of Easter, they get some props for using their logo to represent the open tomb.
11. First Bank - 5/10
First Bank is a multinational bank and financial services company.
While First Bank’s copy attempts to reference the true meaning of Easter, the execution of their visuals could be better. The use of the nails was an excellent start, but the appearance of the dove ruined it, especially because there is no widely recognised symbolic significance of a dove in the resurrection story.
12. Golden Penny Spread - 4/10
Golden Penny spread is packaged butter, often eaten with bread.
Golden Penny’s ad is another example of a great visual idea with bad execution. The imagery of the lid and butter is supposed to represent the open entrance of the tomb (with the rolled stone).
But the design is poorly executed, and the symbolism is easy to miss. When this ad was first shared on the Marketing For Geeks group, it confused many members until someone explained what the imagery was supposed to represent. Good marketing should not have to be explained.
13. Imperial Crown - 1/10
Imperial Crown is a red grape non-alcoholic drink.
This ad was a complete miss. The red of the drink had so much potential (think symbolism of blood, sacrifice, etc). There was also some potential in their name itself (“Imperial Crown” to represent the crown of thorns on Jesus’ head).
Instead, we got a lackluster visual with vague copy. I’ve looked at this ad every which way, trying to see if there’s any hidden symbolism I’m missing. There isn’t.
Other Noteworthy Mentions
For the sake of brevity, I’ll simply share these and reserve my opinions. Happy Easter!
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Why does it feel like “Other Noteworthy Mentions” are mostly made up of brands that did more overt than subtle selling with their Easter message execution?😅🫠
This was such a fascinating read. I do marketing and comms for a company in Canada and our messaging is always so diluted with bunny, Easter eggs because the company doesn’t hold Christian beliefs.
In the ideal world, I would love to be expressive of the true meaning of Easter with a dash of creativity.
Thanks for sharing!!