Halloween is here, and with a flurry of activity from brands already, it’s set to be a busy holiday. Complete with candy, costumes and cinematic masterpieces (Scream, anyone?), Halloween is an exciting time for consumers and brands alike.
Spending increases globally as October approaches, and in the U.S. where Halloween reigns supreme, searches for Halloween-related decor and ideas start as early as July. After Independence Day, consumer eyes turn toward Halloween. Because of this, holiday marketing and campaigns are a year-round endeavor for brands.
Some brands engage in heritage campaigns like Mars’ Bite Size Horror while others do a Halloween campaign every few years. No matter a brand’s approach, there are a two themes that brands consistently rely upon in their spooky strategies.
Pop Culture Influences
Halloween is growing internationally as more countries adopt certain celebrations, but the holiday is widely celebrated in the U.S., Canada and Ireland. It is most popular in the U.S., and the growth of Halloween and ideas consumers have around it have been largely shaped by pop culture.
Scary movies are the biggest contributor to shaping Halloween as we know it, and this is evident in campaigns that revolve around the holiday based in religious and pagan traditions dating back thousands of years. Watching scary movies has become a well-loved tradition for many who celebrate Halloween, and it even rivals the numbers of people who participate in more traditional activities like trick-or-treating and pumpkin carving.
The history of scary and horror stories dates back thousands of years to ancient myths and legends, but they started to become formalized with the publishing of novels like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Scary stories took on a life of their own in movie theaters in the 1970s and 1980s as slasher films rose to prominence.
Films from the 70s, 80s and 90s have largely influenced our modern ideas and references around Halloween. Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween and Scream are all slasher films that have gone on to become important pieces of pop culture. There are other films like The Addams Family, Ghostbusters and Shaun of the Dead who have combined elements of comedy and horror to cement themselves as part of the pop culture zeitgeist.
Take a look at The Call from Burger King. The fast food chains spooky campaign this year pulls influence from slasher films and other subgenres of horror to promote their ghost pepper Whopper and fries. Poised as a challenge, the spot asks consumers if they’ll “answer the call,” both the call to try the spicy items and the actual, haunting phone call reminiscent of Scream. You can even register your phone number with the company to get a call of your own.
Experiences and Immersions
When we talk about experiences and immersions in marketing, we typically think about in-person activations, but Halloween opens the door for unique, digital experiences for users. Let’s take a look at Svedka’s Stalking Ads.
Poking fun at themselves (because hangovers are scary enough), the brand introduced a seriously spooky set of banner ads that used retargeting and shares to achieve some serious brand awareness and user engagement. By watching a single spot, users put themselves on a list to be stalked by the vodka brand which had banner ads following these users across websites. The only way to break the curse? Share the video with a friend.
Ads would change to include a user’s location to say things like “I love following you around New York.” Some ads even used a user’s device to say things like “On your phone calling for help?”. The ads followed users everywhere they went, saying things that would feel like what the bad guy would be saying to you in a horror movie. A classic game of cat and mouse, the brand used these ads for some serious brand awareness.
While digital activations are more popular for a brand during Halloween activations, some brands can leverage in-person experiences with bone-chilling success. Airbnb had a campaign where users could enter a sweepstake to spend a night, complete with dinner and a concert, in the Paris Catacombs. If you’re unfamiliar with the Catacombs, they’re a horror lover's dream. Established in 1810, the catacombs served to help with Paris’ overcrowded cemeteries. For the lucky (or unlucky) winner of this contest, they spent the night with more than six million people beneath the streets of Paris. Talk about bone chilling.
While Halloween poses a unique opportunity for brands to tap into some pop culture and experiences, it must be done in a way that is still authentic to the brand and their image. It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement and creativity leading up to Halloween, but at the end of the scariest day of the year, brands need to remain true to themselves.
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Emma Magruder
Marketing and Events Graduate Service Assistant
Emma is a marketing and events graduate assistant in the Marketing Communications Online Programs through the Reed School of Media and Communications at West Virginia University. She is a graduate student at WVU and involved in PRSSA and AWSM. She could always talk about what she made in her kitchen for this week and her favorite sports! Bitten by the travel bug, she loves to travel whenever she has a few days to take an adventure.
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Marketing Communications Today is a collection of resources for marketing communications professionals filled with industry research, marketing trends, and career information about integrated marketing and data-driven communications. Learn industry insights through the Marketing Communications Today blog, podcast, as well as Integrate Online.
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