Spooky Season is An Annual Event More Marketers Could Tap Into

We’ve reached every dentist’s favourite time of year once again when the sale of sweets to be handed out at parties and on doorsteps across the country soar. And while it is largely considered a day for kids, it is people aged 25-34 year-old who spend the most when it comes to celebrating All Hallow’s Eve.  

This year, according to YouGov, two in five Brits (41 per cent) say that Halloween is the most important holiday to them and their family and that just over half (52 per cent) shop for something related to the day each year.

This year, it is forecast to drive £776 million in retail spend in the UK, a marked increase on 2019, which was recorded at approximately £474 million.

Confectionary brands, will of course jump on board as standard. Mars Wrigley’s M&Ms has partnered with doorbell company Ring, for example, with an innovative activation that allows owners to incorporate video messages from the Red ‘spokescandy’ character.

Meanwhile, Haribo is bringing back its ‘Monsters Approved’ campaign which includes two glow-in-the-dark murals being placed in Manchester and Peckham. This promotes the launch of the UK's first sweets emergency service ‘TreatLine’ which it has created in partnership with GoPuff. This is highlighting Haribo favourites picked by kids to help grown-ups avoid disappointment on the doorstep.

Phil Murphy, VP of marketing at Haribo and Ireland, says that the occasion gets bigger for the brand each year which led to its latest initiative. “Haribo is helping grown-ups see the childlike joy and happiness in all the Halloween fun to be had, no matter your age. To help save Halloween this year, we want to help grown-ups match the effort kids go to and reward them fairly with Monster’s Approved sweets. Launching the ‘TreatLine’ with Gopuff is just one of the ways we’re making it even easier to do this, taking pressure off grown-ups to also have a little more time themselves to have some fun.”

However, British company KP Snacks reveals that it doesn't run ads during Halloween as it believes that producing assets for a limited time on air doesn’t prove cost-effective. Instead, it concentrates on partnerships, such as this collaboration between Butterkist and the forthcoming film Wicked.

What brand advertising there is also appears (understandably) to be limited campaigns placed on social media channels, largely aimed at reaching a young audience, but there are a few exceptions.

"There’s plenty of room to achieve stand out in a sea of bad puns and horrible Canva graphics. All hail, for example, Tourism Ireland and its reclamation of Halloween campaign, bringing us back to our pagan roots and rejecting the cotton candyfication of street WhatsApp groups everywhere," outlines Olivia Wedderburn, head of TMW Tomorrow & executive social influence director at TMW

Several unlikely brands are tapping into the freaky vibes this year including baker Warburtons which has featured special packaging designs since 2018. Meanwhile Nando's has teamed with Fanta to release a limited-time-only peri-peri sauce and McDonald’s introduced creepy visuals to promote its treats in-restaurant and across its app.

Elsewhere, Heinz has partnered with Monster Munch to release a special flavour for the season – Pickled Onion mayo.

On release, Thiago Rapp, director of taste elevation at Kraft Heinz, said: “With Halloween just around the corner, we wanted to create something truly special.”

It's a rich opportunity for brands to be creative. Last year's 'Nightmare on Market Street' campaign for Morrison's from Leo Burnett saw the supermarket promote sales of its cheese accompanied by a Ouija board for entertainment on 'the perfect night in'.

And supermarket aisles are a showcase for many others getting in on the act, from Mr Kipling to packets of Sainsbury's own-brand sushi for your more discerning party-goer.

Thomas Steel, director for Kantar Strategic Insight, highlights the significant boost in sales last year, growing by 12.2 per cent year on year according to the organisation's research. Although, he explains, that was primarily driven by rising prices during the cost of living crisis.

"The sugar and chocolate confectionery categories were hit the hardest, with prices rising by 19 per cent. Despite these price hikes, consumers still spent on these treats, making sugar confectionery the main driver of Halloween 2023’s growth," continues Steel, adding that the sales of pumpkins did drop by 17.3 per cent last year.

"Halloween 2023 generated an £83 million sales boost compared to the average fortnightly sales, with £39.9 million coming from chocolate confectionery alone. Overall, Halloween 2023 showed a strong performance despite economic pressures, outpacing both 2022 and 2021," he concludes, making the growing interest in the holiday, evident.

And yet, one of the biggest retail days of the year still has comparatively few brands advertising considering holidays such as Easter and Christmas. Surely it's time for more marketers in the UK to consider how they capitalise on the rising interaction with Halloween across the UK to scare up more revenue and build the character of their brand in tandem.

Here are the thoughts of executives from Edelman UK, TMW, VML, Weber Shandwick, FCB London, AMV BBDO, Mullen Lowe, St Luke's and Dentsu Creative on the potential of Halloween.

Hannah White, managing director, NCA

Anyone who’s worked with me for more than 30 minutes knows I love bringing up the time I worked in the States. But what that time showed me, amongst many things, was how to do Halloween well. Yes it’s an American import, yes you might already have Bonfire Night plans in the diary five days later, but it’s a moment to have fun, be silly and be your weirdest self. The same is true for brands. 

You’ve got to have a product that you can make relevant to the Halloween moment. Toothpaste x Halloween probably isn’t going to cut it, though I’d love to be proved wrong. If you can make your product relevant in a fun way then test it out on social, surprise with a collab that stretches your brand, even invest in special edition NPD if it’s a big enough moment for your target audience (Gen Z I’m looking at you). 

Nando’s always know how to lean into a moment - this Halloween it has launched their Nando’s x Fanta wings. Weird – yes. Orangey – yes. But surprisingly delicious and getting talked about on social. Reese’s always nails the brief too; maybe it’s because it's American, maybe it’s because it's brand colour is orange, but it's got a tone of voice and style that embraces the weird.

Tim Whirledge, brand strategy, Dentsu Creative

Over the weekend, my wife took our 2.5-year-old daughter on a spooky welly walk in Liverpool, surrounded by thousands of kids in Sefton Park in full fancy dress attire from famous US films and tucking into “candy” buckets. It got me thinking: Halloween in the UK has untapped potential for brands, but we’re playing it too safe, borrowing heavily from the American playbook of family-friendly fun.

Because let’s stop and reflect for a second; Halloween is weird. It’s an odd thing to "celebrate" – dressing up as ghouls, chasing fear, and eating sweets from strangers.

This strange, subversive energy is exactly where British brands could thrive.

While US brands go big on spectacle and commercial excess, we in the UK have always had a different relationship with Halloween. We thrive on subtle humour and dark irony, tones perfected by British entertainment. Look at The League of Gentlemen or Inside No. 9 – shows that take horror tropes and make them unsettling, odd, and deeply funny. Then there’s Shaun of the Dead, a film that turned the familiar zombie genre into a classic British comedy of errors. These examples embrace the weirdness of Halloween, showing that it doesn’t have to be polished or flashy to make an impact – it can be dark, playful, and just a bit bizarre.

Halloween is an invitation to embrace the strange, and brands have permission to play with that. It’s a moment to break the rules, to explore the darker, weirder, and more mischievous sides of their personality. By tapping into our cultural love of irony and oddity, UK brands could transform Halloween into a truly unique marketing moment – something subversive, clever, and unforgettable. Not just another knockoff of American sugary excess.

Dan Hulse, CSO and partner, St Luke's

Imagine you were inventing a calendar event to create maximum engagement in 2024. You’d want something that is highly visible, perfect for Instagram and TikTok. Something that makes it easy for people to express themselves. Something that gives people an excuse to indulge and treat themselves. Something with such broad appeal that 4-year-olds, students or office co-workers could all get involved. Something that brings communities together, when we’re feeling increasingly isolated. You’d want it stuffed full of symbols (meaning everything from confectionary to fashion to home decor could become merchandise). And unlike the big religious festivals, you’d want something that is free of any one religion, so everyone feels welcome. If it didn’t exist already, you’d want Halloween.

The ghost train of Halloween is on track to be just as big a deal here as it is over the pond. Between 2013 and 2023 the amount we spent on the festival quadrupled, and it’s speeding up. The big levers are self-expression and togetherness; we can all be different, and we can all be together. The US version of the celebration has embraced both. That’s why their costumes extend beyond the usual vampires and zombies, and anything goes. The community side of the festival is on display with parades and street parties. If I were a UK brand looking to ride the Halloween wave, I’d be looking to bring communities together.

Rowan Kisby, strategy partner, Mullen Lowe

Does Halloween scare you? It should.

With rituals now going far beyond just carving a pumpkin (apparently we have to go and pick it too, these days), and seriously scary decor dominating residential streets, Halloween is no longer a retail also-ran: Brits now spend a whopping £1 billion celebrating. What’s even more of a jump scare is the speed of growth; an increase of 342 per cent over the past decade, making it the fastest-growing retail occasion on the block.

Of course, it is. Halloween is social. Experiential. Playful. Rich in stories. It’s got every modern marketing buzzword under its thrall and vibes perfectly with platforms like TikTok to amplify its appeal and raise the bar on creativity.

Without a spend-heavy centrepiece meal or significant gifting element, it’s unlikely Halloween will knock Christmas and Easter off the top spot (soz, #codeorange obsessives). But at current growth rates, it’s on track to overtake Valentine’s (£2.1 billion spend in 2024) and Mother’s Day (£1.6 billion spend in 2024) PDQ according to Mintel research. And - most importantly for us advertising folks - those fast-evolving rituals mean a chance to break away from Halloween tropes and spooktacular puns with which much of our Halloween comms are littered.

It’s a gift to the retail world, where finding new insights each year is a literal nightmare. The speed of growth and change offers brands a chance to tap into new trends and diversify celebrations. Perhaps it’s even a chance to take Halloween more seriously. There’s a whole unplumbed emotional range to play to that’s often missing from second-tier calendar events.

Of course, there’s plenty of family fun, as seen in campaigns from every supermarket ever.

But then there’s a chance to play to a teen and young adult audience - as Fanta does so successfully. Push it a bit further and there’s also teen togetherness. Community closeness. Some serious nostalgia. And around it all a broader seasonal satisfaction, as demonstrated by Burberry’s latest autumn campaign - 'It’s Always Burberry Weather' - which embraces the cosy, mysterious allure of autumn as a whole.

Halloween has the potential to contain all the big feels we see in Christmas work, but so rarely encounter earlier in the season. Big feels that can turn Halloween from a simple sales moment to brand brand-building one, and offer serious stand-out for brands who are brave enough.

Do you dare?

Yolanda Davis, senior strategist, AMV BBDO

Fear is one of the most primal and powerful emotions humans can experience. Yet because of its negative associations, brands often shy away from or misinterpret its ability to create memorable connections with consumers. 

This ‘fear of fear’ is obvious when you look at Halloween advertising in the UK. It largely remains a collection of comedic takes, TV and movie references, feel-good nostalgia, and limited-edition products you never knew you needed (Ouija cheese board with cheddar pointer anyone?) But while these interpretations can be fun, they aren't unique to Halloween.

More importantly, these comms don’t deliver what consumers really want from Halloween or the true essence of the holiday. It's the one day of the year dedicated to terror and the one day a year when consumers are actively asking to be scared - and boy are they asking. The horror genre has never been hotter with people inexplicably queuing around the block for Terrifier 3, seeing caution warnings and emergency sick bags as a personal challenge and helping the disconcerting launch of the movie Smile make headlines globally.

Attention is in short supply globally. It’s why as good advertisers, at every stage, we set ourselves the challenge to find the white space, a way to surprise, to break out the expected, to create distinction. With that challenge in mind, there’s serious untapped potential in fear as an emotion, just waiting to be unlocked by any brand willing to give consumers a proper fright.

It’s why we chose to make the Meta Quest 3’s scariest titles the centre of the product launch last year. We knew a viscerally scary, nail biting go on the headsets would stick in the minds of consumers better than any other product demo we showed them. 

In a time where one of the biggest criticisms of advertising is that it’s boring and all been seen before, maybe it’s time we all embraced being terrified - even if just for a day.

Owen Lee, Chief Creative Officer, FCB London

Halloween is a hugely under leveraged opportunity for brands in the UK. The theme is crystal clear and it’s a great chance for brands to sell more,  entertain more, and connect more with their consumers. And for ad agencies, Halloween is a creative playground. There’s so much fun to be had for just about any brand, so it’s a surprise that marketers haven’t jumped in with both feet. 

Pretty much all of Gen Z have grown up Trick-or-Treating and most are more excited by Halloween than they are about the more traditionally English celebration of Fireworks night. Sure, it’s American, but the Americans do entertainment really well, look at Disney, Hollywood and American sport. And let’s be honest, Halloween is a far more attractive American import than Black Friday and brands didn’t hold back there.

I say put on the fancy dress, paint your face, and join the party. If nothing else, it may hold the ever-expanding run-up to Christmas at bay for a few days longer.

Francesca Raquet, director, Weber Shandwick

Against a backdrop of declining media interest in calendar moments, Halloween is standing out in all its orange glory. It’s become a cultural moment to mark the change of seasons across all ages.

Much like Christmas, its cultural presence is only extending across the calendar, stretching from the start of August in line with Pumpkin Spice Latte announcements, to just beyond the 31st itself.

The colours, the costumes and conviviality of Halloween make it a shareable moment and given increasing appetite across generations, marketers will flock to leverage it where they can. We’re seeing most earned engagement when brands are educating and inspiring at a cultural moment using data and insights, rather than simply communicating products and offers.

Knowing it’s a cyclical calendar moment, eBay has earned favour by revealing search data surrounding themed costumes and outfits. To extend the storytelling window and media coverage, eBay shared the average selling prices of costume items, so consumers keep in mind how much they can make back once Halloween is over, knowing most people (big and small!) look for new costumes year after year.

Pinterest, the go-to source of inspiration for Halloween, has produced its second annual Halloween Trends Report, which consumer media outlets have covered in detail. Using its own data, Pinterest has positioned itself as a leading barometer of this seasonal moment, covering topics from gothic beauty to ghost pizzas. When it comes to Halloween style, the brand is winning editorially by providing shoppable inspiration through pop culture references including the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders and the upcoming Wicked film to lead articles on costume dressing.

Our team of cultural storytellers is proud to be advising clients on where to play when it comes to cultural moments, earning attention by contributing value. For a platform such as Pinterest, providing inspiration backed by data has led to quality editorial coverage. With searches going up and up for Halloween, there’s no reason for creative industries to slow down.

Kate Nettleton, head of strategy, VML

As a parent to a 6-year-old, the Halloween hype is very real in my household. This makes the thought of more brands piling into the retail tentpole du jour all the more terrifying - cue scream face - as I foresee her pestering me for more fizzy eyeballs than her stomach can handle.

However, beneath the fake blood and sugar highs, there’s something special about Halloween—a few core emotional tenets of the season that often go overlooked as brands push pumpkin puns down your throat.

There’s community - When else do people willingly chat with their neighbours while their children scramble for the last Chupa Chups?

There’s creativity - When else do you set aside time for crafting with your kids - using winter squash?

There’s closeness – Finding an excuse to snuggle up next to a loved one in front of a horror movie, to be terrified into an even tighter cuddle.

And there’s comedy - when Brits genuinely let down their guard to find joy in dressing as a decapitated member of the afterlife.

Of the brands doing this well, I’d always call out Asda, who, while featuring an array of Halloween treats & tricks, use their own colleagues to foster community spirit (pun intended) around spooky season. But also deliver on making the emotional value, as well as actual value - that Halloween can bring, accessible to everyone.

With Christmas mired by the threat of incoming relatives, and never ending to-do lists, Halloween presents untapped emotional opportunities that, if used effectively, can help brands engage with consumers in a more meaningful way and help them to sell more than just sweets.

Olivia Wedderburn, head of TMW Tomorrow & executive social influence director at TMW

Halloween feels heightened every year in the UK, a trend reflective of the flattening of culture globally as our landscapes become ever more entwined. There is opportunity for brands to be braver, moving from small scale activations into full-blown experiential moments, as well as leaning into the areas that consumers fear outside of traditional jump scares. This is a rare occasion where I’d say content on its own doesn’t really cut it -  to really get attention during Halloween you have to live and breathe it as a brand. 

There are two ways to leverage Halloween to appease a UK and Irish audience – lean in or spit on. As someone who’s wondering whatever happened to the love of Bonfire Night, I feel there is ripe opportunity to vocally eschew the Americanisms that are rotting out toffee apples by playing against it. There’s plenty of room to achieve stand out in a sea of bad puns and horrible Canva graphics. All hail, for example, Tourism Ireland and their reclamation of Halloween campaign, bringing us back to our pagan roots and rejecting the cotton candyfication of street WhatsApp groups everywhere. 

Naturally the confectionary market has the lion’s share of brand moments, and at the risk of being obvious I would say Haribo are doing some particularly good stuff in the lead up to the 31st. A glow in the dark mural of their trick or treat SKU is currently haunting Camberwell with a particularly impressive presence. Similarly, I think the entertainment industry has done an incredible job of elevating horror-adjacent titles to big experiential events or, at a lower level, social activations. Take last year’s Ghostface trend, born out of ‘spicy booktok’ – this was an excellent opportunity for the Scream franchise to lean it to an behaviour and align with the release of Scream VI. But they, admittedly, have it easy: the opportunity lands on their lap.  What I really enjoy is seeing brands who usually have ammo in the holiday space by aligning with family, feasting, and decoration, leaning into Halloween in unexpected way, or brands who use other less obvious codes of Halloween to their advantage. For example, lingerie brands often do a great job at this time of year by leaning into the kink codes that come with horror or the macabre. 

James Woods, ECD, Edelman UK

Halloween is a brilliant time for brands to join the fun, but a lot of the work ends up looking the same. Lots of bats, pumpkins and scary faces. That’s why we looked for an insight that would give Haribo a point of view and a clear role at Halloween. Starting with the insight that kids put lots of effort into costumes, makeup and going out in the cold but don’t get fair reward, meant we started somewhere unique. And Haribo's role became the champion of fair rewards for trick or treats. This year the Halloween Monsters returned to not just remind grown-ups that kids deserve fair rewards, but create a service to help them. TreatLine, the UK’s first sweets emergency service that delivers ‘Monster Approved’ sweets to grownups who have either forgotten to stock up or simply run out. ’