Becky Kells is a Behavioural Analyst at Canvas8. Over the course of her career, she's edited everything from student culture reports to charity websites, and she loves nothing more than bringing complex ideas to life. When not at work, she can be found making her own clothes and delivering chin scratches to her cat. 

Once a signifier of luxury or novelty, custom products and services are now within reach of the everyday consumer, thanks to the rise of artificial intelligence, algorithm-led platforms, and the COVID-era digitisation boom. Today, everyone wants to be the main character of their brand experience. 

Personal Worlds

Across the world, 105.7 million people spent the first day of 2026 watching the 

IMDb

 Unsatisfied with their final trip to the Upside Down, fans mined the episode for clues of something more – and 

 was born, a tall tale that heralded a secret final episode. However, the supposed release date came and went without consequence, and it was quickly debunked as a conspiracy theory. 

The Guardian

 But the hype that surrounded it – and the desperate desire from fans to read something deeper into the finale – shows how audiences push back when meaning feels incomplete.

, Easter eggs and content in general and the way people consume them have evolved. Now it’s become an industry-wide mechanism in which artists knowingly serve up subtle clues and intentional in-jokes. It's developed its own meaning in a world where 93% of Americans watch content with a second screen in hand, with 70% of Gen Z much more likely to frequently use subtitles, allowing viewers to flick back and forth between screens. 

Maroon and White

Verdict

Preply

As a result, background noise has become an art form all of its own, with screenwriters under pressure to produce scripts that are formulaic enough to be consumed alongside scrolling. 

The Week

But not everyone is a casual viewer. Easter eggs have also become rewards for the most engaged fans, from Pixar peppering A113 across its films to Olivia Rodrigo turning album promotion into a global scavenger hunt. 

BUSINESS INSIDER

Cosmopolitan

The explosion of fan theories online shows how fans see themselves now as co-creators. Among the 85% of young Americans who consider themselves a fan of something, half are ‘big’ or ‘super’ fans, and 8% even define themselves as professional fans. 

YouTube

Somewhere between the distracted double-screener and the co-creating superfan lies the Easter egg hunter – someone who puts down their phone, pays attention and seeks reward and satisfaction in the subtext of their art. This raises a question: If most content is designed for passive consumption, why do these moments of depth feel so rewarding? It’s this tension that communication professor Judy Watts set out to explore in 

‘Harvesting Easter Eggs: An Exploratory Study of Enjoying Transnarrative Media’

Terms in bold are explained in the Decode the Jargon section below.

What do we already know from existing research?

 which is where one text references another text. Scholars in this area of academic research try to infuse meaning into that; they look at why it’s significant and what it means. But that type of scholarship doesn't really do empirical surveys or interviews.

, where people use entertainment to teach social lessons or healthy behaviour; for example, within the past decade, they have started incorporating 

 into entertainment education programmes.

Most of the research, at least in the quantitative space, tends to look at factors such as characters, the story and other features within the world of the narrative. I had not yet seen any research that looked at Easter eggs empirically. I found that people say they enjoy finding Easter eggs, but what does the data say? Is that actually happening? And what’s the relationship between exposure to Easter eggs and enjoyment of the entertainment?

How did you go about conducting your study?

, qualitative angle to the study. We asked people to describe an Easter egg experience that they’d had within the past year in their own words.

The question related to any entertainment experience they’d had, so it could have been watching movies or playing video games. If they said yes, then they were asked to write what that Easter egg was and what it made them feel.

Next, all participants, whether they recalled an Easter egg or not, answered our 

. We asked them to rate on a scale of one to seven their 

with the characters and then their likelihood to engage in fan behaviour – things like talking about it, posting about it and looking up information.

We wanted people to tell us, in their own words, what they saw and what those feelings were like for them. Part of this was to try to further define what an Easter egg is. We made our best attempt at it, but I still think it's quite fuzzy, because references can be very obvious or very subtle. It’s a ‘you’ll know it when you see it’ type of experience. I think the most straightforward Easter egg is seeing either a character or an object associated with that character in a different setting, one where you wouldn't necessarily expect to see that character pop up, or there's a little bit of an element of surprise.

We then analysed the open-ended responses, looking for any repeated themes. For the closed-ended answers, we identified what the

were. Enjoyment was the main outcome variable that we were interested in. We were also interested in

which are basically the idea that an experience is fulfilling and rewarding.

Both the qualitative and quantitative research showed that people felt pride when they found Easter eggs.

This sense of feeling rewarded was related to their overall enjoyment of the media experience. That said, people don't 

 to find Easter eggs to enjoy entertainment. From our research, it seems that discovering an Easter egg enhances the enjoyment. So two people could be watching the same thing; one person might not find the Easter egg, and they could enjoy the media experience just for what it is. For the other person, finding that Easter egg just gives a little bit of a bump to their enjoyment.

About two-fifths of the participants, so just above 40%, remembered Easter eggs.

We didn't necessarily know how many people might remember an Easter egg. I personally am kind of bad at identifying Easter eggs. So I was really surprised by that; 40% is quite a lot of people who are not only identifying Easter eggs but also remembering them. It seems like this is because a lot of people also felt special when finding them, as though the creators of these movies were speaking directly to them, and that they were being rewarded for being such observant fans.

We fail to think deeply about how challenging it can actually be to find Easter eggs in the moment. It’s more common to find out about an Easter egg after the fact.

You are in an experience where you're navigating this fictitious world, and you're just trying to follow along with the plot and the story. Also, most of us are just living online, so we're always coming across information. If you see something that is a reference to another movie, or another character, or another world – to be able to hold the short-term and long-term memory in your head at the same time, I think it’s amazing. It's far more complicated than we are giving audiences credit for.

People may search for and encounter Easter eggs while using other types of media that are a bit more interactive, such as social media and scrolling. These can be very attention-grabbing, but most people I’ve talked to don't always enjoy having to scroll and scroll to find that moment. For the most part, the rewardingness of Easter eggs in this research is related to traditional media experiences (print, TV, film etc.). I think this research suggests that people can make traditional media experiences more engaging and more active if they choose to.

With the most active fans craving the power to shape the stories they consume, brands can respect their voices and respond positively to their world-building. Exemplified by the 

 Conformity Gate theory, there's space for creators to be graciously responsive to feedback. Perhaps the most notable example of a musician using Easter eggs as a branding strategy is Taylor Swift, who tuned into fans’ parasocial analysis of her outfit choices and speeches and turned it into a way to covertly hint at upcoming album releases. 

Creative Bloq

 Swift later turned one of her most notable Easter eggs – the cardigan from the 

Capital

With 74% of Gen Z fans agreeing that they like seeing brands engage with things they’re a fan of, it’s a lucrative in-road for non-entertainment brands, too. 

Create content for multiple audience types

Part of the appeal of Easter eggs is that they reward the most perceptive and engaged fans – but not everybody watches in the same way. 48% of Americans use social media during or right after watching a TV show – and while some will be passive second screeners, others are engaging in digital ‘water cooler’ moments, reacting in real time to what they’re seeing. 

Horowitz Research

 As people increasingly view shows as background noise, media and entertainment brands need to work harder to appeal to multiple audience types; it's a fine balancing act between over-explaining plotlines to an audience that's only half listening and peppering a storyline with in-jokes that only chronically online fans can understand. The best shows do a little bit of both, offering niche in-jokes to the oldest fans, while helping passive viewers to hone their egg-spotting skills with easier-to-spot examples – as 

does by including Easter eggs that only players of the eponymous video game will get, while still providing a standalone plot that casual viewers can enjoy. 

Polygon

Beyond just TV shows and movies, Easter eggs are powerful because they reward attention. People feel the payoff of having watched closely and engaged deeply with the content. Even when discovered in retrospect, they create a sense of pride and satisfaction, turning passive viewing into something more intentional and meaningful. In fact, 66% of Gen Z Americans say they spend more time watching content that unpacks something other than the thing itself, signalling a growing appetite for deeper, interpretive engagement. 

 This dynamic plays out beyond entertainment. When Arsenal re-released its ‘bruised banana’ kit, a 

 from a lifelong superfan rewarded those who recognised her, while others saw it as a simple detail. Similarly, Bay Area billboards have used insider tech references to quietly acknowledge audience expertise. 

New York Times

 These moments work because they make people feel seen. As Judy Watts notes, “Subtlety goes a long way.” Brands can move away from overexposure and instead reward attention – creating layered narratives that recognise effort, build loyalty and invite audiences to engage more deeply over time.

 – Questions that restrict respondents to a limited set of answers; for example, yes/no, multiple choice or rating on a scale

 – An area of study that explores how media, art and culture reflect and shape social values, meanings and power dynamics

 – A strategy for influencing knowledge, attitudes or behaviours by including social issues in entertaining content

 – Character conversations within film or TV shows that provide very clear details about the plot

 – When one work (for example, a film or TV show) references something that appears in a completely different work; it could be an object, a character or a place

 – Feelings of pride, satisfaction or accomplishment, often as a result of doing a meaningful activity

– The data point or result that is used to see what has changed in a study; usually the primary focus of the research

 – A one-sided bond where one person is unaware of the others’ existence, usually between a fan and a celebrity, fictional character or media figure

 – Factors or variables in a study that are used to explain or influence a particular outcome

 – Adapting a single story or narrative across multiple media channels where each makes a unique contribution to the overall story

 of people in the US identify as superfans of something, 

 of whom consider their fandom a big part of their identity

Since 2004, the average attention span has decreased from 

 of social media users in the US likely watch or stream TV while actively watching a second screen

Since 1980, Easter eggs have kept artists connected to their audiences – but they’ve taken on a new significance in the social media age

While some people are passively absorbing TV shows as background noise while double-screening, others are so invested in storylines that they’re demanding narrative input

By weaving Easter eggs into content, brands can speak to both types of audiences at once – rewarding the devotion of superfans without compromising the enjoyment of casual viewers

An assistant professor at the University of Kansas, Judy Watts focuses her research on how the media influences people’s emotional responses and how it can bring about attitudinal change over the course of their lives. Having recently received her doctorate from The Ohio State University School of Communication, Judy is interested in narrative persuasion, health communication and children’s understanding of media. Her work has been published across a range of media and communications-related journals.

Gen Z (born 1997-2010)

Gen Y (born 1982-1996)

United States

United Kingdom

TV, film, and social media video

Easter eggs have long been a part of fan viewing and gaming experiences. But as streaming soars, they’ve taken on a whole new meaning – as rewards for the most loyal fans. Canvas8 spoke to Judy Watts, who has conducted foundational research into how Easter eggs enhance people’s enjoyment of art.

Analysis

Becky Kells

Judy Watts

Related Macro Behaviours

Personal Worlds