October marks a spooky time of year when brands can spice up their social media content to commemorate Halloween. There are several things that brands can do to engage with their target audience from switching up content to contest promotion.
Anyone who has ever created a holiday social media campaign knows that finding inspiration is an essential component. Before one can put pen to paper - or hands to the keyboard, one must jolt creative thinking to curate content that plays well on social media.
With Halloween behind us, who were the shining stars? What brands had successful Halloween social media campaigns and what drive their success?
Walt Disney World: Taking Audiences Behind-the-Scenes
This year, Walt Disney World took a creative approach to Halloween on Facebook. One of The Happiest Place on Earth’s best-performing Halloween posts received nearly 240,000 total interactions. What makes this post unique is that it was 100% organic, which illustrates how strongly the content resonated with their audience. One can only imagine how well the post would have performed if it was promoted.
Disney's post was successful because they creatively took their audience behind-the-scenes, using a well-crafted time lapse video. The audience was able to see the fairytale land transform into a festive Halloween amusement park, right before their eyes. Of course, Disney always goes the extra mile to wow their guests with holiday decorations, and this specific video allowed viewers to see all of the hard work that goes into decorating one of the largest theme parks in the entire world.
Marketers don't have to be an amusement park to give your audience a sneak peek. Time-lapse videos are a great way to take audiences through a time-consuming process in seconds, which make the final result even more spectacular.
Hershey's: Sinking Their Teeth into DIY Videos
Halloween is FMCG’s time to shine—and the brand takes social media originality very seriously. Out of the various FMCG brands analyzed, Hershey's' pre-Halloween post came out on top with nearly 10,000 total interactions on Facebook.
Hershey's tapped into the wildly popular DIY trend and created a short clip that demonstrated how their audience could turn their chocolate into a cute party favor. This is a perfect way to create marketing content that doesn't feel like marketing. Hershey's provides their social media audience with content that has value. As a result, their audience may just drop by the candy aisle for small Hershey's bars to do crafts with their children or prepare for a Halloween party complete with batty treats.
Urban Decay: Calling all Ghouls and Gals
A popular trend among beauty brands has been to create Halloween makeup tutorials, which is a great way to highlight the seasonal relevancy of cosmetics while giving audiences content that is useful to them. Urban Decay went on a similar path, which earned them a spot as one of the most engaging beauty brands during this year's Halloween season.
Urban Decay created a contest that was promoted across their social media channels. In the campaign posts, the mega-beauty brand challenged their audience to share their own Halloween looks in order to be considered for a cash prize or Urban Decay products. By encouraging their audience to take part in the Halloween fun, Urban Decay sparked nearly 17,000 total interactions and more than 1,000 shares. This goes to show that audience participation is a crucial element to a campaign’s success, which leads to even more exposure as fans share the contest across their own social channels.
Tapatio: Sugar, Spice, and Everything Social
Chances are when thinking about Halloween brands, the Californian hot sauce, Tapatio doesn't come to mind first. This year, Tapatio turned up the heat for Halloween, so to speak, finding creative ways to insert their brand into the conversation.
Tapatio had no shortage of spicy Halloween posts this year; in fact, the brand’s best-performing seasonal posts were relatively simple. The hot sauce brand transformed their logo into a Dia de los Muertos themed logo, which was incredibly popular. Even more impressive was that their Facebook fans were so taken by the logo they began to request T-shirts with the design. By listening to their audience, Tapatio extended the life of their Halloween campaign, creating a limited edition Day of the Dead shirt available for purchase online.
The Takeaway
Like any holiday season, Halloween gives marketers tons of creative freedom, which can help draw more attention to their brand during the busy season. While some brands can draw a strong link between their product and Halloween, other brands don't have it so easy. Before jumping into building a Halloween post or campaign, marketers must be sure to assess if this is appropriate for the brand and evaluate if the resources invested will be worth it.