Whether you’re a lover or a hater of Halloween, there’s no denying that this spooky season is a marketing goldmine for businesses.
Growing more popular each year, even the biggest brands are rolling out freaky campaigns to scare their competitors and thrill their customers.
Let’s dig in and examine 5 of the best marketing campaigns that have seriously killed it at Halloween.
LG – So Scary It’s Real (2012)
Starting with a monster of a campaign, ‘So Scary It’s Real’ was a huge success for LG back in 2012 and quickly became a viral masterpiece for the tech giant.
To promote the launch of their new IPS monitors, LG technicians installed a grid of the new screens on the bottom of a lift – horrifying unsuspecting visitors as the floor appeared to collapse beneath their feet. The clever part of this cunning trick was that LG proved the images on their new screens were so lifelike that people couldn’t distinguish them from reality.
To make the stunt scarier, once a person entered the lift the lights went out and creaking sounds were played through the speakers – making the whole scenario a winning piece of frightful entertainment.
The video footage of this shocked many and hit over 10 million views in only one week, even national TV shows across the world broadcasted the viral film! As a result, the video had a big influence on sales – increasing the market share of LG monitors by 20% on average in key markets – a winning campaign!
See the video for yourself here:
Tesco – Spookermarket (2015)
Supermarket chain Tesco spooked the whole family with their immersive Halloween experience in-store and online.
Their comical campaign saw the aisles of their stores tricked out for Halloween with haunted shopping trolleys, staff members jumping out in ghoulish masks and even disembodied heads behind toilet rolls.
Hidden cameras recorded the startled responses of unsuspecting shoppers as they encountered the scary surprises in the nationwide stores. The video got more than 1 million views in less than five days creating a buzz around the brand and increasing overall sales.
To follow up, Tesco released Halloween themed tutorials showing customers how they could spook their family and friends with DIY projects featuring Tesco products. According to data by Campaign Live, Tesco was the most talked-about supermarket on social media and 80% of overall Tesco Halloween conversations were positive.
Watch the video here:
Heinz – Tomato Blood (2021)
This year the king of condiments has launched their new product; Tomato Blood, for a limited time only.
The tagline; “If you have Heinz, you have a costume”, plays on the fact that for years tomato ketchup has been commonly used to create fake blood at Halloween.
The rebranded sauce has been unleashed in supermarkets across USA as well on their new Halloween themed site: heinzhalloween.com
To take things one step further, Heinz have also created a Tomato Blood Costume Kit – a box that not only contains a bottle of the Halloween-themed ketchup, but also a a makeup palette, sponge, dropper, makeup brush set, rhinestone sheet, tattoo sheet, vampire teeth, and spooky eyelashes.
For fans that want to bring the Halloween spirit home, they can also purchase a range of costumes from the site or even the pop-up Heinz Halloween store in Los Angeles. As well as grabbing some fancy dress, the brand explains that visitors can also “start decorating costumes at the store’s interactive ‘drip stations’.
Overall this new campaign idea seems a great way to put a holiday themed spin on a famously beloved product!
See the creepy ad here:
Dior – The Beauty of a Dark Dream Starring Bella Hadid (2018)
One of the most recognisable names in high fashion and beauty, Dior, decided to bring the drama to halloween with a dramatic & dark video campaign featuring supermodel Bella Hadid.
Embracing her sinister side, Bella Hadid wore several looks showcasing the Rouge Halloween collection by Dior, which included its iconic Rouge Dior lipstick in a bright red shade.
In a series of mysterious videos and photos Bella poses with fellow model Ludwig Wilsdorff and can be seen slashing the red lipstick over the male models face, an image resembling the terrifying film villain – The Joker.
After the bewitching video was released, Dior continued the spooky theme by transforming the images of Bella into haunted GIFs.
This compelling campaign demonstrates that popular, gimmick-filled holidays can be incorporated into a high end brand’s marketing strategy in a sleek & modern way.
Watch the video advert for yourself here:
Burger King – #ScaryClownNight (2017)
Arguably one of the most frightening adverts going, Burger King took Halloween very seriously with their #ScaryClownNight campaign, which coincided with the hugely successful horror film, It.
In order to drive brand awareness and more traffic to its restaurant, fast food chain Burger King pledged to offer a free Whopper burger to the first 500 people to visit select Burger Kings dressed as a clown.
Their tagline ‘Come as a clown, eat like a king’ was tongue-in-cheek with McDonald’s famous mascot, Ronald McDonald, and an effective way to tease the competition at a fierce time.
Promoted by a creepy clown-filled YouTube video which went viral worldwide, this campaign delivered enormous results for Burger King. Overall, it achieved 2.1 billion impressions and the hashtag #ScaryClownNight was mentioned in more than 1100 articles in 40 countries.
To top it off, they followed up the video with further PR & digital activity, including a press release, social media posts and a special wrap for in-restaurant activation.
See below the haunting campaign in action:
There’s been some marketing campaigns so good it’s scary in recent years and we can’t wait to see what else is to come.
Let us know what your favourite Halloween campaign has been so far and follow us on our social media platforms for more marketing news and content!
