When it comes to social holidays, your brand should utilise every chance it has to advertise. After all, Halloween is a great marketing opportunity for any business.
According to Statista, the UK public spent over £474 million on Halloween retail in 2019, so it’s no surprise brands get involved to grab the attention of current and potential customers.
There have been quite a few great Halloween campaigns. I’ve picked a few of the best ones from over the years, so grab your popcorn, and have a good read below.
Clowning Around
In 2017, Burger King offered a free Whopper burger to the first 500 people to visit select Burger King stores dressed as a clown.
Their Halloween Campaign promoted the new Whopper burger via a Youtube video using the hashtag #ScaryClownNight. The use of clowns gave a scary look but also highlighted the clever trolling of their biggest competitor, McDonald’s.
The campaign, “Come like a clown to eat like a king” saw a crowd full of clowns descend on Leicester square queuing to get a free burger, which led to a lot of publicity. A clever idea from Burger King!
Scary Graphics
During the Halloween period, fizzy drinks are a big driver of sales in the food and drink industry. In 2018, Fanta repeated its campaign of featuring seasonal graphics on its packaging.
Each Fanta flavour featured its own graphic and filter allowing customers to scan a QR code on the graphic where it unlocked Halloween filmed filters on Snapchat.
Fanta also teamed up with Dublin’s ‘The Nightmare Realm’ to offer a spooky horror experience “Fanta’s ‘Zero Escape Rooms” which took visitors into an abandoned warehouse offering them the chance to take part in a virtual reality experience.
Simon Harrison, customer marketing director at GB Coca-Cola European Partners said, “Last year Fanta grew by 23% during Halloween”.
This goes to show combining physical and digital elements in your campaign proves how successful it can be when made interactive.
Ghostly Stories
Throughout October 2017, M&Ms told ghost stories via their social media platforms; Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. “Millie & Max; A Ghost Story” was told in seven chapters and proved to be a good way of engaging consumers in the lead-up to Halloween.
Each animated video ran for 30 minutes and was shared across social media, allowing viewers to vote via polls for their favourite story, and how the story should end.
Although no incentives were offered with this campaign, it provided great interaction and good brand awareness with over 23,000 views on Facebook and 37,000 views on YouTube.
Love It or Hate It
In 2018, Marmite introduced special edition Marmite packaging designs for Halloween. This idea drew attention to the controversial breakfast spread that is either loved or hated.
Throughout October, the collectable Marmite Jars were available in trick or treat editions, which also allowed you to personalise your own jar. Marmite gave consumers the choice to pick a spooky green “poison” or rosy pink “potion” jar.
This creative marketing idea is a fun way to engage consumers, boost sales and build customer loyalty.
According to GlobeNewswire, 67% of consumers agree that when selecting which products to buy, they’re often influenced by the material they’re packaged in.
Candy Converter
In 2018, Reeses’s made a statement with their Halloween campaign, the ‘Candy Converter’.
The business set up various vending machines at Halloween events around America, allowing people to swap their unwanted sweets for Reeses’s Peanut Butter Cups. It gained worldwide attention earning them the title of the ‘Greatest Halloween campaign of all time’.
After their events, Reeses’s shared video footage of trick & treaters at the Candy Converter, which was shared through Twitter, Instagram, Youtube and Facebook.
Through 12 posts, Reeses’s generated 536,000 engagements with over 70,500 video views on Youtube, 5,500 likes on Instagram and 5,600 retweets on Twitter – it is safe to say this campaign definitely did well!
Giving your customers a fun Halloween experience like Reeses’s does take thought, time and a big marketing budget, however when done right it can reap many benefits.
This is definitely my favourite campaign…who wouldn’t want unlimited Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups?
As you can see, there have been some pretty cool campaign ideas carried out over the years. As always, holidays are a good way to get creative and make the most of advertising your business. Stay tuned to see my favourite creative campaign ideas from 2021!
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