Unified Digital Digest: Spooky Edition??
Happy Halloween, and welcome to a terrifying new edition of Unified Digital Digest! Today we'll be covering some of the biggest highlights in digital marketing over the past few weeks as usual, but we'll be adding a little pumpkin spice to the newsletter by talking about some of our favorite Halloween campaigns and just adding a little more tricks and treats than usual.
Ready for a scare? Let's get started.
Spooky Halloween marketing campaigns that just might keep you up at night??
Looking for some ghostly inspiration this Halloween? Come along with us as we explore some hauntingly clever marketing campaigns from past and present that are just as creative as they are spooky.
?? Fanta's Halloween promotions
Fanta has a history of fun Halloween marketing campaigns and promotions. In their latest Halloween stint, Fanta released a promotion offering a pool of prizes and scary surprises . By scanning QR codes on limited edition Fanta bottles, consumers can play Halloween games and win prizes. It's a great way for Fanta to get users engaged while running a promotion around their own drinks.
?? Heinz Tomato Blood & Terrifying Tomatoes
Heinz has created some pretty clever Halloween content over the years, including Tomato Blood and Terrifying Tomatoes. Terrifying Tomatoes is an ad campaign that supports a "100% natural Halloween." The ads, which look like normal pieces of content at first glance, prank viewers with the sudden appearance of a terrifying tomato.
Another Heinz Halloween stint was when the brand created Tomato Blood, a spooky twist on their usual ketchup that came with its own ad campaign and branding. A great way to connect with their audience around a fun event!
?? Airbnb haunted stays
In a fun campaign, Airbnb promoted some of their most "haunted" stays that users can travel to for Halloween. Through this campaign, Airbnb did a great job of connecting with its audience and creating buzz.
Back in 2015, the company took it so far as to rent out the Paris catacombs as a contest award for a lucky winner. But the winner probably didn't get the most restful sleep – after all, the catacombs are filled with 6 million dead bodies.
?? Burger King Scary Clown Night
Burger King pulled off an impressive marketing feat when they targeted McDonald's fans in an eerie campaign that encouraged fast food diners to ditch McDonald's for Burger King.
Featuring promos and truly creepy creatives including a digital ad depicting the creepiness of clowns, this campaign took a stab at one of Burger King's top competitors while positioning itself as a better option. With the tagline "Come as a clown. Eat like a king," it was hard not to get the true meaning behind this campaign.
?? Crest Candy Safe
A few years ago, Crest crafted a spooky safeguard for Halloween by creating a Candy Safe meant to keep candy safe for longer periods of time with the idea being that kids won't eat all of the candy at once and will therefore protect their teeth.
It's a fun play on dental hygiene during Halloween when excess amounts of candy can lead to cavities. But rather than focusing on the less exciting parts of Halloween, Crest played into the idea of protecting candy. After all, no one wants to worry about their teeth on Halloween!
???? Disney TikTok voices
Last year, Disney Parks partnered with TikTok to create text-to-speech features that align with spooky Disney characters from the Haunted Mansion and Pirates.
These fun integrations were a great move on Disney's part; Disney has a large following on TikTok, and since voice effects have been a pretty big deal on TikTok, this was the perfect integration to reach a younger audience of content creators.
?? Ikea Monsters Not Included
Ikea is a master of Halloween advertising, and this year is no different.
In a spooky campaign called "Monsters Not Included ," Ikea released ads showing traditionally spooky decorations or pieces of furniture where monsters might lurk in children's rooms, including behind curtains, under the bed, or in the closet. These ads are nostalgic, slightly creepy, and fun for the Halloween season.
?? Discover Instagram users who are hauntingly close by
Instagram is testing out a "Nearby" Stories feed that will show public content in the local area. While users might enjoy this feature, it's a useful tool for brands who want to target a set location through their advertising efforts. To avoid getting featured on this feed, users will have to update their privacy settings.
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?? HubSpot + TikTok partnership
HubSpot and TikTok are partnering together to provide marketers with a CRM integration that can track leads in real time. This integration will allow for automated lead capture from TikTok, which could allow marketers to turn engaged followers into customers.
?? What digital costume are you wearing this year?
Do you have a Meta avatar? If you do, you can now dress it up for Halloween , just like you can dress up your Bitmoji.
These avatars allow users to experience Meta's 3D VR environments, which funnel into the metaverse, something that Meta invested in heavily.
With more ways for users to express themselves through the avatars, Meta hopes to continue growing that aspect of its business.
?? Meta under fire for addictive qualities
42 attorneys general from 33 states have filed a federal case against Meta for intentionally building their social media algorithms and notifications with the intent of keeping young users on Meta's apps for longer periods of time and encouraging them to keep coming back more and more frequently. The case also alleges that features of Meta's social platforms lead to negative mental health effects on teens.
This case likely won't go far as Meta has safeguards in place for teenaged users, but it's a big deal and one that won't shed a positive light on Meta. It's a big step in raising a red flag about the issues that social media platforms create for young, susceptible users and the addictive qualities of those platforms.
Meta could also face new penalties and regulations if this case were to proceed.
?? Collaboration is ghoul
LinkedIn is updating its collaborative articles that came out earlier this year. The articles are meant to drive engagement on the platform while giving users the chance to elevate themselves as contributors.
Here's the list of recent changes:
Have you contributed to any articles yet? Have you noticed a benefit?
?? AI Google Maps
New AI features coming to Google Maps will greatly improve the user experience, search functionality, and AR usage within the app.
With a new "Immersive View" feature, users will be able to see a detailed preview of their route before beginning. This might not sound all that interesting, but this view will include a simulated view with interactivity and the ability to change elements including time of day and weather conditions to truly get a feel for the route.
Users will also be able to utilize the "Lens" feature in more cities, which involves holding up your phone's camera to reorient yourself.
Lastly, Google Maps is improving its search functionality by allowing for descriptive searches that will bring up relevant locations. For instance, someone could search thematically for something like "ice cream cone", and get served images for matching locations. It's a cool new way to use Maps.
?? Google image fact-checking updates
In three new updates, Google is rolling out tools that should help users better evaluate images for credibility . Its new feature, "About This Image", is expanding globally to continue providing historical context about images to prevent AI-generated content from passing as human-created content.
As technology continues to evolve, initiatives like this are hugely important to preventing the spread of misinformation on the internet.
?? A magical update to beauty ads
Google's new advertising product, AR Beauty Ads , allows brands to promote their products using AR, which enables users to "try on" the products in a virtual setting. This capability allows for more engagement and interaction, and it also lets consumers experiment with a product in a digital sense before pulling the trigger and making the purchase.
These ads are currently only available for lip and eye products, but foundations will be added soon.
?? PMax search themes
In an effort to get Performance Max campaigns to capture more relevant search traffic, Google is launching new Search Themes . This feature allows the advertiser to provide input on specific categories and topics that are relevant to the business, making the targeting more effective. It combines AI-powered campaign generation with the human expertise that the campaigns still need to be successful.
?? ChatGPT all-in-one
OpenAI is planning a new update to ChatGPT that would allow users to access All Tools without switching back and forth. Now, users can upload many types of documents that ChatGPT can answer questions about or analyze, and users can utilize all of the tools including Browsing, Advanced Data Analysis, and DALL-E without switching. It will be interesting to see how users start combining these platforms to power even higher-quality, complicated responses.
That's a wrap on this edition of Unified Digital Digest, but the spookiness doesn't have to end here! Let us know what your favorite Halloween campaign was this year and tell us what you're dressing up as in the comments.
Happy Halloween! Have a spooky and safe rest of your day.