The end of October is the time for brands to compete to create new marketing campaigns for the Halloween season. Although Halloween is not an official holiday in the Country, it is an event that cannot be missed. Many brands always take advantage of this time to launch campaigns to stimulate customers to shop, increase revenue or increase recognition in the minds of users. Below, MarkKnow has listed impressive Halloween Marketing Campaigns for brands to find inspiration from.
These impressive Halloween marketing campaigns may scare the hell out of you!
1. Skittles Zombies – Going viral in a “terrifying” way
Candy and chocolate are among the top sellers during Halloween, right after costumes and decorations. In fact, 9 out of 10 Halloween shoppers shop for candy. In 2019, Mars made a 180-degree revolution when transforming the usual colorful fruit candy packs into Zombie Skittles. The product has 5 different flavors inspired by the Halloween theme, such as Boogeyman Blackberry or Mummified Melon. More specifically, the company added a special “rotten candy” flavor called Zombie, buyers will only know they are eating it when they directly experience that horrible taste.
Skittles Zombies – Going Viral in a “Terribly” Way
What’s impressive about this marketing campaign is its viral potential with the help of Influencer Marketing. The Brand used the human psychology of excitement and wanting to experience strange things as the core and the Zombie Skittles theme attracted a lot of attention on the Internet. A series of review videos, challenges or tastings by Bloggers and Food Reviewers to show viewers how horrible the rotten candy tastes. Skittles also announced that “It is a very horrible taste experience and will create strong reactions from anyone brave enough to try it.” The lesson here: What is the key to successful content marketing? Emotion, which Zombie Skittles has in abundance!
Universal Studios – Horror Movie Night
Universal Studios promotes its annual Halloween Horror Nights event by turning a typical movie night into a terrifying experience. Halloween Horror Nights is held at various Universal Studios locations in Florida, California, Japan, and Singapore. It is a traditional Halloween event with horror-themed attractions, mazes, parties, and everything in between.
Universal Studios – Horror Movie Night
This year, the focus is on the 80s, with the campaign revolving around a group of friends gathering at home for a relaxing movie night. Only for the night to turn into a terrifying one as the group is hunted by their deepest fears. It’s a short film that packs enough suspense to prepare viewers for a night of terror. It’s a great example of the power of Video Advertising to communicate a message and convey emotion to your target audience.
UNICEF Halloween Heroes – Memories of a New Generation
Another emotion that has proven effective in marketing campaigns is nostalgia. This was used in recent Disney remakes of films like Aladdin and The Lion King. The adults who saw the originals in the 90s will now enjoy a trip back to their childhoods. At the same time, the next generation (their children) will be excited about the new version. UNICEF Canada is rekindling nostalgia by relaunching its traditional Halloween Heroes campaign, where children trick-or-treat with orange UNICEF money boxes, collecting donations from families while the kids get candy.
This year, UNICEF launched a completely digital Halloween Heroes campaign online, featuring four “superheroes” representing children’s rights like water, food, education and protection. The campaign proves that content marketing doesn’t always have to be new and unique to be successful. Sometimes it’s just about taking something old and making it relevant to a new generation.
Lunar Beauty Cosmetics: When the witch theme is more attractive than anything else
Another example of a nostalgia-driven marketing campaign that uses a theme – and a drip approach on Social Media to tease and build excitement. Celebrity makeup artist, YouTuber and beauty blogger Manny MUA has launched a special Halloween cosmetics collection under his Lunar Beauty brand. The Moon Spell collection is based on the pop culture favorite Witch of the 90s, with special inspiration from the cult classic series Charmed.
Lunar Beauty Cosmetics: When the witch theme is more attractive than anything else
The campaign built up anticipation for a few days leading up to the collection’s official launch on October 4th, along with a 30-minute YouTube video and Instagram posts and teasers to get customers in the Halloween mood. The popular campaign combined nostalgia, a clear and compelling theme, and a drip approach to build momentum. Many Instagram comments asked the blogger to release the product immediately so they could buy it. When customers are begging you to release a product, your marketing campaign is a success.
Burger King “teases” McDonalds with clowns
Burger King’s campaign combines customer engagement with a clever jab at arch-rival McDonald’s and its iconic clown mascot. Burger King will give away a free Whopper burger to the first 500 customers who visit the store dressed as a clown. The campaign was promoted through a YouTube video featuring a creepy clown and the hashtag #ScaryClownNight.
Skittles Horror Short Film
In a Halloween campaign called “Bite Size Horror,” candy giant Mars released a series of four commercials for Skittles, Sunburst, Snickers, and M&Ms, each featuring its own mini horror film. Rather than directly promoting the products, each video engaged viewers with the brand by creating unmissable scares, ending with a screenshot wishing “Happy Halloween.”
The 2-minute video is enough time to develop the plot, characters, and suspense for a compelling story. This campaign has opened the trend for long-form video as this format is more popular, even achieving a higher completion rate than short-form video ads.
When luxury brands also participate in Halloween like Dior
If you think Halloween is all about kids in costumes collecting candy, you’re missing out on the dark, beautiful side of Halloween. Even Dior is getting into the spooky spirit with an influencer campaign featuring Bella Hadid, where the supermodel demonstrates how to create amazing Halloween makeup looks. These tutorials are promoted on social media with the hashtag #DiorMakeupHalloween, targeting a whole new audience this Halloween with their own content.
When luxury brands also participate in Halloween like Dior
When Halloween isn’t just for kids with Skoda
People often think of costumes, candy, and even pumpkin carving as being for kids. This year, Skoda decided to appeal to the kid in every adult. Its car ad featured two contrasting images, one of a boy carving a face into an orange pumpkin, and the other of a grown-up version of the boy carving a face into the orange hood of a Skoda. It’s a great example of how content can be tailored to different target audiences.
M&Ms and interactive ghost stories
In 2018, M&Ms launched an interactive social media campaign in the month leading up to Halloween. The campaign featured a weekly ghost story series across Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Each story had two different endings, and viewers were asked to vote for their favorite ending. The following week, the story would continue based on the ending that was voted on the previous week. The campaign combined the best practices of content marketing: a compelling story, a compelling video, and an interactive layer to make viewers feel like they were directly involved in the story.
M&Ms and Interactive Ghost Stories
10. Fanta and its holistic approach to horror
The soft drink brand is reviving its successful campaign with holiday-inspired images and a Halloween experience kit that will be available at all points of sale. This year, the images can be scanned into Snapchat, where they will unlock Halloween-themed filters.
Fanta and its holistic approach to horror
Fanta’s campaign combined both physical and digital elements, building on the success of previous campaigns. Last year, Fanta saw a 23% increase in Sales at convenience stores during Halloween, demonstrating the effectiveness of interactive experiential content, especially when combined with traditional marketing activities.
11. Fortnite and its comprehensive approach to building suspense
Fortnite has become a leading brand in the PC gaming space, especially in the way it handles content marketing. For a game that has only been out for a year, every time it launches a marketing campaign, it attracts a lot of attention, and Halloween is no exception.
Fortnite and the Completeness of Suspense Building
Last year, Fortnite released the “Skull Trooper” skin for its Halloween event before the game reached the incredible popularity it has today. Now, Fortnite marketers are capitalizing on the current popularity to fuel their Halloween campaign. This has sparked the excitement of players asking them the question: “Will Fortnite bring back the Skull Trooper skin?” It is this suspense and excitement that has become the foundation for the game’s huge marketing success. The results are astonishing, based on Google trends statistics – the number of searches for the topic “Fortnite Halloween Skins” has been increasing rapidly.
Conclusion
People often say that Halloween is not an event for the faint-hearted and this is present even in Content Marketing campaigns. MarkKnow has just compiled the following impressive Halloween Marketing Campaign for your brand to find inspiration. Don’t forget to add “heart-stopping” elements to your Marketing campaign and get amazing results.
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