With Halloween just days away, companies are rolling out their best seasonal campaigns to boost engagement. As the pandemic places restrictions on traditional activities of the holiday – namely, trick-or-treating and parties, brands have used ingenuity to capture the spirit of the season while encouraging safety. Here are our three favorite campaigns.
1. Scaredy Cat by Temptations Treats
What is the scariest thing a cat could encounter? Temptations, a pet food brand, answers this question in a short film called Scaredy Cat recently released just in time for Halloween to promote their “Creepy Catnip.” The company even made an iMBD page and “trailer” for the video, to boost hype. Composed in the style of a horror flick, it follows a nervous cat around his house as a mysterious ball of yarn apparently causes supernatural calamities to happen. At the end, the true culprit is revealed, a horror beyond all imagining: a cucumber. Frightened to death, the cat leaps in the air and runs away, only to go to his window to see an army of cucumbers awaiting him. The plot plays upon cats’ well-documented fear of cucumbers as shown through viral videos.
2. BK Scary Places
Burger King gets savage by poking fun at their rivals’ failures in the spirit of Halloween. In a new campaign for spooky season, the popular fast food chain encourages their customers to visit the creepiest abandoned locations of their rivals. Dilapidated McDonalds and Wendy’s of years past serve as the spots for geotags. By visiting the locations, Burger King fans can claim a free Whopper for pickup or delivery thanks to geolocation technology. Mobile Marketer explains:
The app used geolocation technology to guide those customers to the nearest Burger King for a free Whopper. The innovative campaign demonstrated how a brand could harness various mobile technologies — namely, mapping and geolocation — to target customers when they were most likely to visit its archrival. The campaign also drove 1.5 million downloads for the BK App, helping the chain reach more consumers through their smartphones.
3. Reese’s Trick-or-Treat Door
As countless neighborhoods face restrictions on in-person trick-or-treating amidst coronavirus transmission concerns, candy companies have been left in a bit of a quandary this Halloween. In a creative effort to preserve the fun of trick-or-treating in a safe way, Reese’s is offering Instagram users the chance to win a visit from a robotic candy-dispensing door that is activated with the phrase “trick-or-treat!”. Fashioned like a haunted mansion entrance, the door will be sent to the neighborhood of the lucky winners. To win, fans simply have to follow the brand on Instagram and post about where they would like the door delivered, including the hashtag #ReesesDoor.
The “Reese’s Trick-or-Treat Door” hands out candy through its mail slot whenever someone says, “trick or treat,” according to an announcement. The Hershey-owned brand designed the door to travel through neighborhoods on motorized wheels while being steered by remote control from as much as 5,000 feet away. The nine-foot tall door has a Bluetooth-enabled speaker that responds to voice commands and hands out packs of Reese’s candy on a retractable shelf.