Looking for the best Halloween campaigns to inspire your brand? From the latest AR filters to spooky twists on traditional OOH, these marketing ideas will level up any Halloween campaign.
"The Halloween hype, like most holidays, is hard to miss on your high street and shopping centres. Cobwebs, pumpkins and skeletons seem to be everywhere".
Looking for the best Halloween campaigns to inspire your brand? From the latest AR filters to spooky twists on traditional OOH, these marketing ideas will level up any Halloween campaign.
Looking for Halloween campaigns to inspire your marketing strategy? This is the article for you. Customers are bracing themselves for a difficult autumn – but they still want to have fun. Brands that tighten up their Halloween marketing strategies will nail ROI and increase demand generation.
You’d be forgiven for thinking COVID-19 restrictions followed by the cost of living crisis would dampen consumers’ “fright fever”. But you’d be wrong. The National Retail Federation predicts that 2022 will have the highest percentage of people celebrating Halloween since 2018. Consumers are predicted to spend an estimated £687 million on the holiday this year (up by 80 million since last year).
Unlike Christmas, which has more weighty consumer pressures of expensive gifts and food paired with traditional family time, Halloween is a chance to let go – something that marketers should reflect in their campaign ideas.
Potential customers are on the lookout for ways to lift their spirits with halloween themed activities. So, where is their inspiration coming from – and where can you reach them?
Halloween is social
The Halloween hype, like most holidays, is hard to miss on your high street and shopping centres. Cobwebs, pumpkins and skeletons seem to be everywhere. But in the current digital age, you won’t just get a reminder on your weekly shop because the internet is taking Halloween by storm.
Social media is where consumers are heading for their spooky season inspiration. Naturally, #halloween is trending on all social media apps. Leading the way is Gen Z, 98% of whom use social media as shopping inspiration – but millennials and Gen X aren’t far behind.
Marketers can take full advantage of this with tricks and treats throughout their social media presence. Not only does this engage current followers, but – on TikTok especially – this content’s relevance is a surefire way to end up on target customers’ For You Pages (FYP), meaning you’ll reach an even wider audience.
In fact, in 2022, TikTok should be your bread and butter when it comes to Halloween and social media trends. Right now, the Halloween hashtag on TikTok alone has racked up over 20 billion views. But it’s not just hashtags that will secure your brand attention. For many young consumers, TikTok is the “new Google” – they’ll be using it as a search engine to find ideas for halloween costumes, halloween decorations and more – so it’s vital that your products are what they find.
The hype doesn’t stop at Gen Z. Over 30% of Millennials spend more on Halloween than any other non-religious holiday. It’s their generation’s favourite time of year. And they’re social media-minded, too: Nearly half purchase items to post them online for the holiday, giving brands the perfect opportunity for organic growth and user-generated content (UGC). Additionally, as much of their generation have children, over half of them feel that extra push to spend for the spooky season.
From costumes to makeup and party planning, consumers are in the mood to spend. So how can you build a campaign that’s relevant, on-point and achieves your KPIs? Here’s some bone-chilling inspiration from the best halloween marketing campaigns.
The top 7 Halloween campaigns to inspire your brand
Whether it’s up-to-the-minute VR social media marketing or transforming more traditional marketing channels, it’s vital that marketers use forward-thinking techniques to keep front of mind. So sink your teeth into these brilliant examples of halloween marketing to help you build an enviable Halloween strategy.
Streams & Screams
Horror movies and thrillers are at the heart of Halloween fun, and streaming services are the easy switch-on to get your scream-on. 58%of all households in the US subscribe to at least one online streaming service. So how have they stood out amongst the competition? Here are two stream queens that made a mark for Halloween.
1. Netflix & Chills
Taking advantage of the popular term “Netflix and Chill,” the streaming service marketed their chilling inventory of movies and series with “Netflix and Chills”.
The streaming giant has continuously led the marketing pack at Halloween, from interactive Snapchat filters to promote Stranger Things to scare factor infographics, so users could choose what horror films or TV shows to watch based on just how horrified they wanted to be.
2. Disney + and The Hallowstream
You’ll find another spooky-season streaming success story at Disney+. Not only did the company create a Hallowstream campaign with all the best ghoulish content, but they also teamed up with Lego to release a special Star Wars show.
Since Disney+’s target audience is families and kids, the company’s partnership with Lego was the perfect way to begin the Hallowstream with their original spooky special. They released Terrifying Tales, which included a series of short episodes with fan favourite characters and Halloween plots. With jokes, jump scares and a call to the dark side, it encompassed everything about Halloween family fun (and Lego Star Wars.)
@samplertimes Sally sculpts the Pumpkin King. #Ad #Hallowstream is upon us. 🎃👻 Get ready to scream and stream all of your favorites and more, on #DisneyPlus ♬ original sound - Lawrence Becker
Freakish food & beverage
95% of consumers’ planned spending at Halloween is on sweet treats, chocolates and food. That makes this time of year highly lucrative – but even more competitive – for the F&B industry. These brands’ campaigns were sickeningly sweet, and you should use them for inspiration.
3. M&Ms
The reigning masters of entertaining ads gave this seasonal campaign a fantastic variety. Their M&M’s Ghosted short video ad incorporated their iconic colourful chocolate characters in a funny scenario of escaping being eaten – or not.
With social media AR filters, recipes on Instagram Reels, entertaining digital ads and limited edition products and giveaways, M&Mis the blueprint for Halloween campaigns. What they do well is combining their classic brand with the holiday season. They present new products and make sure that when you think of Halloween, you think of M&Ms.
4. Burger King V McDonalds
Burger King executed an impressive Halloween campaign on their fast food enemy, McDonalds. Burger Kings trending hashtag#ScaryClownNight spread the word for the first 500 customers to be awarded a free Whopper if they went to their nearest Burger King dressed as a clown. The teaser video included a creepy clown that looked scarily familiar to McDonald’s own mascot, Ronald McDonald. This campaign encouraged customer interaction as well as an on-the-nose snub to their rival.
Another great Halloween campaign from Burger King was #TheScariestBK. The brand gave individual Burger King stores their very own Halloween costumes and “dressed” them up as McDonalds. Over 2 billion people saw the campaign online, with over 1000+ tweetsper hour on the first day of its launch and a488% increase in brand mentions.
Everyone loves a good troll moment, especially between the two kings of fast food. It got consumers talking and sharing the brand’s content, and best of all, it made the brand enjoyable to be a part of, as it didn’t take itself too seriously. The great part of Halloween is that it’s all about messing around. And Burger King did just that.
5. The Curse of Svedka Vodka
Svedka Vodka played on the nature of relentless annoying ads for their Halloween marketing campaign. They targeted a millennial audience with creepy banner ads. Since younger generations are famously ad-averse, this Halloween campaign drew attention to the creepy nature of digital marketing following them around the internet – just like a stalker from a scary movie.
The ad includes haunting music and a distorted voice saying, “if you’re watching this, you are now cursed!” And the only way to break the curse is to visit the Svedka Vodka website and share the ad.
Ghoulish get-ups
Costumes and terrifying makeup illusions are a pillar of the Halloween experience for consumers. From stomach-turning realistic SFX makeup to jaw-dropping outfits, makeup and apparel are at the centre of Halloween digital content – making it a vital stop for e-commerce.
6. Dior’s devilishly good campaign
If “creepy” isn’t your brand’s style, don’t worry. Dior’s Halloween campaign with supermodel Bella Hadid is a masterclass on Halloween glamour.
In a memorable Instagram video complete with eerie music, Dior promoted their iconic 1953 Rouge Dior 999 red lipstick with a dark backdrop, with Bella sporting a vampish makeup look – and unsettling video editing that certainly took some spooky Halloween inspiration. The campaign was simple yet effective, as users loved the surprise of seeing the supermodel nonchalantly wishing them a “Happy Halloween”.
This campaign works to show how even the most prestigious brands can involve themselves in Halloween activity and engage their customers during the holidays.
7. Unicef’s Trick or Treat Campaign
For Halloween, established charity United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) combined their child-protective work with a key component of child-friendly Halloween: fun.
Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF has raised more than $195 million since it first launched back in 1950. The program historically involves the distribution of small orange boxes by schools to trick-or-treaters, in which they can solicit small change donations from the houses they visit.
In 2022, the organisation has a fully-integrated campaign that includes social media filters, TikTok influencer marketing and “Trick or Treat” halloween decoration posters with digital QR codes that lead to the UNICEF website to donate.
On TikTok, the hashtag #TOT4UNICEF (“Trick or Treat For Unicef”) has accrued 944k views. Ambassadors on TikTok create fun costume ideas under the hashtag; influencer Noah Beck (@noahbeck) gained over 725k views on his video. He encouraged people to save on Halloween costumes and donate to UNICEF instead.
One step closer to a killer Halloween campaign
These campaign examples show just how fang-tastic a time Halloween is to up sales, boost brand awareness and create content that converts. What’s the next step?
Marketers need to capture the excitement of Halloween by bringing something new to the table. Take inspiration from the examples above and consider how your brand can do something that customers will talk about — after all, with this spooky holiday, there’s extra margin for creativity. Mastering this will mean your brand will be front of mind when customers start considering Christmas shopping.
If you aren’t sure which are the right ingredients for your marketing brew, let us sprinkle a bit of knowledge.
Via: Fanbytes
For more information on OOH and DOOH advertising, and how we can help with your next campaign, contact us today at 210-610-5012 or email customerservice@bmoutdoor.com
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