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Halloween marks the start of a major end-of-year sales period.
Major shopping events, like Black Friday, Thanksgiving, Cyber Monday and Christmas, all follow Halloween. So this spooky season is the perfect time to start creating engaging social content that captures the attention of your audience, ready for the beginning of the end-of-year holiday period.
Why marketers should consider a Halloween campaign
It’s celebrated across the globe. The USA, where 148M people celebrated Halloween in 2020, isn’t the only country now known for getting into the spooky spirit. The UK, countless countries across Europe, and even Australia are among those embracing this commercial holiday. In fact, more than 43% of Australians were expected to celebrate Halloween in 2019.
Halloween spending is rising. With decorations, candy and costumes, the average Halloween spend per person is increasing every year. In 2020, US consumers were expected to spend $92.12USD per person on Halloween. In 2019, Aussies spent almost $160M on Halloween chocolate and other confectionery products. In that same year, Woolworths was expecting to sell 200 tonnes of pumpkins – a 20% jump from 2018. And research from Ebay also showed that from 2013 to 2018, Australians’ spending on spooky decor jumped by 82%. Costume sales were also up by 31% over the same period and have continued to rise since.
It’s a cross category bonanza. In the US alone, Halloween is a billion dollar event. It was reported that 96% of consumers in 2020 planned on purchasing candy, 65% costumes, 75% decorations and 40% greeting cards. There’s also a rising popularity in pet costumes. Last year, consumers spent $490M in this sector – that’s more than double compared to 2010. There are plenty of opportunities for food and beverage, beauty and fashion brands to all get into the spooky spirit too.
The Halloween marketing trends to watch
It’s a DIY time of year. Consumers find Halloween prep just as exciting as the day itself. Which is why many take to social media to discover and share crafty Halloween projects. DIY costumes and makeup tutorials, treats and decorations and of course pumpkin carving ideas are among the few we see pop up on our social feeds almost every year.
A ‘less stereotypical’ Halloween. Last year was the first time we celebrated the holiday during a pandemic and Pinterest saw consumers search for unique ways to celebrate at home. Halloween breakfast saw a 2x increase, haunted garage 4x and Halloween scavenger hunt 2x. There was also a 27x increase in searches for Halloween costumes with masks. It seems Halloween is the one time of year we don’t mind being all dressed up with nowhere to go.
Socially-distanced celebrations. The pandemic has normalised QR codes and online events, and brands are adapting accordingly. Fanta released Halloween-themed cans with QR codes that unlocked special Snapchat filters, meanwhile Kellogg’s launched a similar campaign with their cereal boxes featuring Shazam codes. They allowed customers to unlock spooky AR tricks and tutorials on how to make special Halloween treats with Kellogg’s products.
How to ensure your Halloween campaign is a success
Get in early to beat the crowd. More than a third of consumers will start buying Halloween products in September or earlier, and brands like Starbucks are aware of this. The cafe brought back their famous Pumpkin Spice Latte on August 24 this year, along with their menu of other pumpkin treats. Even if you’re not ready to start selling your Halloween products this early, it’s wise to start teasing what’s to come to ensure you grab your customers’ attention before your competitors do.
Provide one-off seasonal offers. Build higher brand awareness and engage more consumers with your Halloween activations by providing seasonal offers, deals and sales. Airbnb mastered this with their Halloween competition that gave two guests the chance to win free flights to Romania, where they would wine and dine and spend the night in Dracula’s Castle in Transylvania. Make it clear that your Halloween-themed offers are for a limited time only, that way customers won’t be able to resist them.
Align your campaign with trending pop-culture moments. Not only can this help your brand stand out from the competition, but it helps keep your social content fresh, relevant and relatable. When Topshop released their Stranger Things collection in October 2017, the brand was just in time for Halloween and the airing of the Netflix series’ second season. Ensure the trends or pop-culture moments you align with are relevant to your brand and customer base. Do some prior consumer research, with tools as simple as the Instagram Story poll sticker, to find out what other content shoppers are currently consuming.
Collaborate with relevant influencers. Social users trust influencer’s authentic recommendations, plus they have a unique ability to creatively bring your brand to life. Whether you’re looking for MUAs to create spooky looks with your products, or family-focussed creators to share the ultimate fright-night, Vamp’s platform gives you the opportunity to find the perfect match. Connect with our diverse, vetted community, make your selection based on verified audience and performance data and manage the entire campaign on our platform. Halloween content creation made easy!
