The Halloween season has arrived, and for marketers it’s a chance to really have some fun. Using non-traditional and entertaining outreach, brands get a chance to connect with consumers where they are already focused while also getting into the spirit of the holiday themselves, typically increasing customer engagement and raising brand awareness. With that, here are our top ten frighteningly good ways companies have celebrated the spookiest day of the year with Halloween marketing.
1) Kellogg’s – Rice Krispies Scares
Kellogg’s Rice Krispies created several public installations that gave unsuspecting consumers a creepy and unexpected surprise. Branded vending machines, using the hashtag #ScaresVendor, offered “free Rice Krispie scares” to any brave soul who would take them… but not before the hidden person inside the machine got their hand first! See more.
2) Tide – #ScaredStainless
Tide created six unique #ScaredStainless Vine videos that accurately pay homage to films like Carrie, Psycho, Poltergeist, Paranormal Activity, The Ring, and The Shining. In each Vine, different Tide products star in the six-second recreations shared across Tide’s Facebook and Twitter. See more.
3) Chipotle – Boorito
Looking to promote their Halloween discount, Chipotle released a #Boorito video encouraging customers to dress up. Customers who go to Chipotle dressed in costume from 5 pm to close score a burrito, bowl, salad, or an order of tacos for just $3 while also helping support the Chipotle Cultivate Foundation. See more.
4) Sprint LG – “So Real, It’s Scary”
Using the tagline, “So Real, It’s Scary,” Sprint LG released a video that really scared some people in an effort to show off how lifelike their new IPS screens are. Lifelike images were displayed on the floor of the elevator, creating an optical illusion that made it appear as if riders were about to plummet to their deaths. It was a pretty horrifying prank, but it grabbed attention, garnering over 22 million views on YouTube alone. See more.
5) Snickers – Headless Horseman
Snickers puts a clever Halloween twist on their popular “You’re not you when you’re hungry” campaign by combining it with the Headless Horseman. See more.
6) Cheetos – Project T.P.
Don’t we all love a little Halloween mischief? Cheetos embarked on a mission to cover the world in digital toilet paper before Halloween, where users could virtually cover an entire building or website with toilet paper. See more.
7) Progressive – “Dress Like Flo”
Progressive’s “Dress like Flo” micro-site linked from Flo’s Facebook page and invited users to “recreate Flo’s look with 10 accessories,” even allowing you to download the Progressive logo, name-tag, and button, or buy the official costume on Amazon. See more.
8) Topshop – Trick-or-Tweet
How would you like to buy goods using TWEETS AS MONEY? Sounds pretty awesome, right? Through the “Topshop Tweet Shop,” customers presented their tweets in return for cosmetic items. The best tweets were judged each day and rewarded with a $150 gift card. See more.
9) Tesco Wine – #Hallowine
Wine and cheese are a match made in heaven. But what about wine and Halloween? Tesco, a UK supermarket, made it work. The company shared an invitation to the ‘Twitter Party’ where fans interacted using the #Hallowine hashtag. Those who retweeted the invite were entered to win prizes from Barefoot Wines. See more.
10) Benjamin Moore – The Scariest Job in The World
To promote some of its new paint, which is supposed to do a “scary good job” “scary fast,” Benjamin Moore lured some unsuspecting painting contractors into working on a creepy hotel, where they encountered loads of nightmare fuel… all caught on hidden cameras, of course. See more.
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