Frighteningly effective Halloween ad campaigns

To get you in the mood for the season of spooks (and to show you what you’re up against), we rounded up our favourite Halloween marketing campaigns from over the years. From haunted houses to creepy clowns, Halloween apps to experiential pop-ups, find out who’s had us spooked – and impressed with their application of scarily good tech.

In 2017, consumers in the UK were expected to spend a total of £320 million on Halloween goods. Global market researcher Mintel found that older millennials (aged 27 to 36) are more likely to spend big at Halloween, with 30% of this group likely to make impulse buys. With a millennial market expecting the latest tech developments and experience-driven marketing from brands, agencies need to step up their game when it comes to delivering impactful, engaging campaigns to capitalise on the Halloween hype. The consequences for doing otherwise could be frightening…

Without further ado… our top Halloween campaign picks!

Fanta’s 13th Floor (2017)

Our pick for: Genuinely scaring the hell out of us

Coca-Cola’s ‘13th Floor’ campaign for the Fanta brand made use of experiential marketing, virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), in an experience that was seen more than 21 million times. Viewers are taken down a virtual lift to the -13th floor, with increasingly spooky (really spooky in some cases) things happening on each level. The physical VR experience ran from 13th October to 1st November, and those who wouldn’t make it to either of the two locations could view the VR video online (if they dared…).

Fanta worked with MediaCom, creative agency Kode Media, and partner Trojan VR to develop and create 360° elements for the video, while Create Productions brought the experiential installation to life. Consumers could also get involved by purchasing limited edition Halloween cans of Fanta, and use Snapcodes to unlock Halloween filters and lenses.

“The limited-edition Fanta cans and bottles, exclusive Snapchat partnership and VR tech all came together to add a bit of drama and intrigue to the ‘fright-night’ season,” says Rosalind Brown, Marketing Manager at Coca-Cola GB. The experience attracted 47% more participants than forecast, with the brand seeing a 30% uplift in online advertising engagement, and sales increased by 14.5% year on year.

Dirt Devil (2011)

Our pick for: ‘We didn’t see that coming’

In a horror parody directed by Andreas Roth for Dirt Devil vacuum cleaners, a priest arrives to help a young woman who appears to be possessed… or is she? With the tagline “you know when it’s the devil”, this suspenseful short ends with a twist and a very strong statement about the Dirt Devil product.

The ad received instant internet success, and has over 30 million views and 820,000 shares on Facebook, which made it the fifth most successful viral video in 2011 worldwide. The aim of the short was to raise brand recognition amongst the male demographic, and with a 39% raise in recognition among that group and an increase of 52% in site visits, we think they nailed it.

Boost Mobile Halloween 360 video (2016)

Our pick for: An all-round haunting experience

Tapping into the ‘found footage’ genre of horror films a la Blair Witch, creative agency 1 Trick Ponycreated a 360 video experience for Boost Mobile, featuring three Halloween party-goers trying their luck on a Ouija board. The ad is presented as a video found on a Boost Mobile phone and captured using a Samsung Gear 360 (nice subtle product placement).

The ad makes effective use of 360 video, feeling low-budget enough to be believable as ‘amateur’ footage, but with enough narrative pull (and ‘what’s behind you’ moments) to draw you in. It’s also nice that the product is made more of a footnote, in favour of telling a spooky story.

Burger King’s Scary Clown Night (2017)

Our pick for: Best demonisation of a competitor

Directed by award-winning filmmaker Rodrigo Cortés, and created by creative agency LOLA MullenLowe, Burger King’s Halloween ad and promotional tie-in definitely got a few hearts pumping last Halloween. While poking fun at their main competitor and their mascot, Burger King encouraged people to “come as a clown, eat like a king”, awarding free Whoppers to the first 500 customers to arrive at certain restaurants dressed as a clown.

“Burger King never had such a great opportunity to troll the McDonald’s mascot Ronald,” reads creative agency LOLA MullenLowe’s website. “The strategy was clear: take advantage of the context and well-known rivalry to come up with a cheeky and bold publicity stunt.” The campaign hashtag #ScaryClownNight reached 2.1 billion earned impressions and a total media value of £17.1 million, with global sales increasing by up to 15%, and restaurant traffic increasing up to 21%.

Tesco’s Spookermarket (2015)

Our pick for: Hidden camera pranking

In an experiential campaign by BBH London, Tesco shoppers got more than their weekly supply of beans at the tricked out ‘Spookermarket’. One shopper is followed by a shopping trolley moving seemingly of its own accord, while those perusing the meat counter have their regular butcher swapped out for a creepy clown. There’s even something hiding in the toilet paper stacks…

The video received 10 million combined views across Facebook and YouTube in less than a week of being released, and reached number three in the viral video chart during Halloween week 2015. Viewers were also directed towards further videos featuring tutorials on Jack-O’-Lantern carving, clown face painting and creating a ‘severed head in a jar’ decoration (we can confirm, the severed head is fake).

Svedka Vodka’s Curse (2017)

Our pick for: Capitalising on a genuinely terrifying online phenomenon

Ever felt haunted by an online ad? With the help of creative agency Bensimon Byrne, Svedka Vodka tapped into that feeling of being watched with a Halloween spin. Consumers who watched a forced pre-roll ‘Curse Video’ ad would then find themselves followed by a slew of digital ads, that used collected data to really freak people out.

To end the curse, and retargeted ad messages that seem spookily specific, such as “Should you be up this late?”, “On your phone, calling for help?” and “I heart following you around New York”, users must visit the Svedka Vodka website and share a clickbait article; “Are Svedka Cocktails Part of a Curse?” If their friends click on it, they’ll be redirected to the original ‘Curse Video’ and enter the nightmare themselves.

“For this year’s Halloween campaign, it felt like the right time to really have some fun and use a data-driven approach that sequences video and banners in a compelling and interesting way,” said agency creative director Dan Strasser. “The beauty of the insight is that it turns something inherently negative – banner ads – into a fun and seasonally relevant experience.”

WD-40 Haunted Door app (2016)

Our pick for: Least likely to be a Halloween product

Knowing their product would actually diminish the Halloween ambience, WD-40’s creative agency Bimm came up with an elegant solution: a motion-sensing ‘Haunted Door’ app featuring three creepy creaking sounds for when the trick or treaters come knocking. Alongside the app, they created a custom door hanger to hold the phone, with artwork inspired by Day of the Dead sugar skulls (but using nuts, bolts and pliers rather than the more traditional flowers).

“It’s the last brand that you would expect to jump on the Halloween bandwagon, which I think makes it almost more intriguing,” said Rene Rouleau, creative director at Bimm. “If WD-40 takes the creaks out of doors, then the one night of year you really want creaks – it’s a very logical hero position to be in.” As well as the creaking sound effects, users of the app were directed to the WD-40 website, where they could find 2000 other uses for the product.

Ready to create something spooky for Halloween 2018? Get in touch with our team to kit yourself out with everything you need to create a haunting campaign. Give us a call on 03332 409 306 or email DandP@Jigsaw24.com. For all the latest news and inspiration, follow us on Twitter @WeAreJigsaw24 or ‘Like’ us on Facebook.