Halloween is fast approaching. But the build-up to it is often a challenge for brands. Preparing the campaigns and crafting the right messages can leave marketers distracted from their critical day-to-day activities.
Halloween has been growing in Australia every year and this year sales are currently up by 42 per cent from last year, indicating that this Halloween is set to be the biggest in Australian history. Here are some frightfully creative ideas that will add some dark delight to your marketing campaigns.
The devil is in the design
Go kitsch. Do cheesy. Halloween invokes seasonal images of pumpkins, candied apples, autumn leaves, and shades. Don’t be afraid to incorporate these into your design, even if down here we are in the middle of Spring! It is a great way to make your page or email visually relevant.
Spice up the holiday spirit a bit with a trick or treat game, with two separate offers behind their respective calls to action: trick or treat. A festive angle on your shopfront emits warmth and nostalgia. Be loud, clear and informative and creative with colour and design.
Also, how about building some suspense around special edition products? If you developed a special spooky product line, then have some fun and shout about it before it’s too late.
Spook-ify your subject lines
Great Halloween subject lines should be creative, urgent, and specific. Embrace the cliché, because every other marketer will be. Here are some best-practice examples:
- Celebrate Halloween with our terrifyingly good offers.
- Style so good, it’s spooky.
- Did you hear who won the skeleton race? No body!
- Send your Boos some love.
Personalise the trick (or treat)
Personalisation is key to customer engagement and should be used from January to December, not just during holidays. And that doesn’t just mean using a first name either. You should include numerous relevancy points such as location references, preferences, or a loyalty scheme.
Right message, right time. Spooky, right?
Knowing your audiences is important all year round. But at Halloween, you’ll need to work out who your personas are and how you can target them. Few things to consider are; Throw/attend a Halloween party, carve a pumpkin and make pie or soup, buy candy for trick-or-treaters or take their kids trick-or-treating.
Don’t forget that not everyone celebrates Halloween; some despise it and avoid it. Tapping into their Halloween hatred is a clever way to make sales. You can use all of the above to send a tailored marketing message that leads to a monster sales boost.
According to the Halloween & Costume Association, more than nine in 10 celebrants purchase candies, with 70 per cent spending money on decorations. Nearly seven in ten buy costumes and a quarter of celebrants get greeting cards. So, give your time-strapped shoppers exactly what they want this October.
Put a spooky spin on retargeting ads
Halloween is your opportunity to turn something inherently negative into something fun. Get creative with your ad designs and put a spooky spin on them making them relevant with a personalised touch to it. Anything can be Halloweenesque, make sure you bring your products to the forefront.
Witch tactic will it be?
Witchever tactic you adopt, just be fun! Halloween is the perfect opportunity to engage dormant contacts and delight regular customers. It all comes down to giving them a good spook and making them laugh. Remember that embracing the season is competitive: Whether you put a Halloween spin on your products, re-skin your emails with a ghostly template, or tell chilling stories, your brand’s authenticity is what people will remember.
Aparna Gray, Head of Marketing – APAC, dotdigital
