UDD: Spooky Edition
Happy Halloween and welcome to a spooky, special edition of Unified Digital Digest!
We’ve seen so many frighteningly fun brand activations and marketing campaigns this spooky season, so we’ve put together a roundup of our favorites. Whether you want to get inspired for next year or just appreciate some haunted fun, we’ve compiled our 10 favorite Halloween campaigns from 2024.?
With each campaign, we also included a takeaway that marketers can apply to their day-to-day strategies to boost creativity, encourage engagement, and take advantage of unique marketing tactics.?
10 Frighteningly Clever Halloween Brand Activations
??Beetlejuice 2 Brand Partnerships??
The internet has been haunted by Beetlejuice 2 promos with brands partnering to create spooky campaigns aligned with the movie release. This type of marketing really took off with the Barbie movie and lends itself well to maximizing reach for movie promotions, creating conversation points, and finding ways to engage users outside of standard movie promos.?
A few of our favorite Beetlejuice 2 partnerships include:
Our top takeaway: Not all brands have huge budgets like this to work with, but all brands can use their resources to strategically reach new audiences. Find ways to do this within your own community/industry by looking for commonalities, understanding your audience’s interests, and seeking out partnerships.
???Dunkin’s Spider Donut???
Dunkin’ won Halloween this year by personifying its limited-time-only spider donut. The spider character has a big personality and some spunky commentary that’s been a huge hit. In a series of Instagram and TikTok posts, Spider Donut has taken over Dunkin’s accounts with playful jokes that aren’t very work-appropriate.
Our top takeaway: Don’t be afraid to take a risk on social! This campaign is so simple and yet so effective because of the meme-like style, Gen Z-coded language, and playful vibe. While it may not seem like it fits in with Dunkin’s typical brand, social is a great place to take risks and entertain. Dunkin’ understood its audience and took a leap with this campaign.
??Ring and M&Ms Trick-or-Treat Push??
Ring partnered with M&M’s to offer Halloween mode, which features spooky voiceovers from Red, M&M’s “spokescandy”. The quick replies activate when trick-or-treaters push the doorbell, and with a good variety of options, it gives the impression that Red is answering the doorbell. It’s a clever and playful way to engage kids on Halloween.
Our top takeaway: Building memorable brand experiences that your audience can participate in will almost always win. Ring and M&Ms partnered on an experience that creates FOMO, where kids will wish they had Red answering their own doorbell. And activating this partnership during a time when doorbells are getting a lot of extra use was an extremely strategic move.
??e.l.f. SKIN’s Divine Skintervention??
e.l.f. Cosmetics launched a sinister campaign featuring actress and comedian Megan Stalter as a devil figure trying to convince individuals to commit skincare sins, like neglecting to moisturize, sleeping in your makeup . . . you get the idea. The ad ends with e.l.f. product Holy Hydration coming to the rescue as skin’s salvation.
This idea is so fun, complete with an interactive landing page where users can confess their skin sins. It leans into e.l.f.’s core differentiator of making quality, affordable skincare products that make taking care of your skin easy.
Our top takeaway: e.l.f. came up with a campaign rooted in their product uniques, something any brand can accomplish. By standing by your brand and leaning into what makes your brand unique, you can create clever, engaging content that resonates with your target audience.
??Discover Ireland’s Home of Halloween campaign??
With an extremely creative twist on standard tourism ads, Discover Ireland launched a video campaign featuring Ireland as the official “Home of Halloween”. The video is in black and white and its scenes depict the origin of Halloween 2,000 years ago in Celtic culture. It entices viewers to experience Irish Halloween celebrations, specifically Derry Halloween.
Our top takeaway: Tourism ads can be fairly predictable, but this spot from Discover Ireland is so unique and appeals to a different audience segment. Many people love Halloween and seek out Halloween celebrations, so Ireland found a strategic way to insert itself into the mix as a Halloween destination.
领英推荐
??Samuel Adams At-Home Seance Kit??
Samuel Adams went all-in with an at-home seance kit by inviting its audience to “have a cold Sam Adams with a cold Sam Adams”, summoning the founding father using specific instructions. The kit is complete with two-pint glasses that display spooky images when filled with cold beer, an Oktoberfest can-dle, and a portrait of Sam Adams.
Our top takeaway: Involve your audience in your brand activations. Samuel Adams created a product activation, which is a fun way to drive user generated content and involve users directly in your brand. Brands that listen to their audience and create limited-time activations create ongoing loyalty and engagement.
??OpenDoor’s Vampire??
OpenDoor released a TV spot that features a vampire who decides to sell her house on OpenDoor after spotting her next-door neighbor planting a garden of garlic.?
Realistic? Maybe not. But having annoying neighbors is a universal experience, and OpenDoor wanted to affirm that even though spring and summer are touted as the better seasons to list your house, fall and winter work just fine too.
Our top takeaway: Find ways to create moments that connect your brand with your users and build on pain points that your audience is dealing with. OpenDoor took a spooky spin on a universal experience of having neighbors you don’t always get along with, making it a relatable and festive ad.
???Burger King’s Addams Family Menu???
Did Burger King go too far with this one?
Fans of the Addams Family were thrilled by four new menu items , including Wednesday’s Whopper, which is served on a purple bun, Thing’s Rings, Gomez’s Churro Fries, and Morticia’s Kooky Chocolate Shake, which features chocolate cake batter fudge and black and purple sprinkles.
Each item has its own creative packaging, so the whole collection has unique, spooky branding. Burger King does a spooky menu activation every year, so it’s a unique precedent that they’ve set over the years. This year, for true Burger King fanatics, they’re also selling Chicken Fries Halloween costumes .
Our top takeaway: By launching special Halloween menu items each year, Burger King has created demand and anticipation for an annual activation. Creating scheduled marketing initiatives that your audience can look forward to is a great move for any brand.
??Snickers’ Zombie Ad??
Snickers released a commercial featuring a twerking zombie that has received tons of positive feedback. Known for creating outside-the-box advertising, this humorous ad hits the mark by being both relatable and entertaining.
Our top takeaway: With so much content on the internet and ads infiltrating every corner of our digital lives, the message here is simple: entertaining, funny content wins. Entertain your audience by creating memorable and interesting content, and don’t take your digital presence too seriously.
??Liquid Death x Martha Stewart??
Liquid Death partnered with Martha Stewart to create a candle together, featuring a severed hand and some gruesome craftsmanship. The Dismembered Moments candles are creepy and totally in line with Liquid Death’s brand. The commercial displays Martha Stewart’s darker side and plays on spooky humor. While this might seem like an unlikely pairing on the surface, the campaign works well by expanding Liquid Death’s reach and playing on Stewart’s personality.
Our top takeaway: Unlikely partnerships can create meaningful results. Pairing a grim, tongue-in-cheek brand with a household name may not seem like a smart choice at first glance, but Martha Stewart’s humor and Liquid Death’s clever branding make this campaign a win. Think outside the box when it comes to brand partnerships; don’t just look for what might seem like the obvious choice.
What are your favorite Halloween campaigns from this year? Call ‘em out in the comments.?
Happy Halloween everyone! We hope your night is filled with more treats than tricks. See you tomorrow for digital marketing updates.