Halloween haunts marketing campaigns

Halloween is an increasingly popular holiday in the UK. By one estimate, Halloween spending by consumers will reach £320 million this year.

Not surprisingly, to catch the eye of their targeted audiences and encourage viral sharing, more UK marketers are adding Halloween themes to their marketing. For example:

• Coca-Cola's Fanta soft drink invites brand fans to use its 'spooky' Snapchat lenses and filters for Halloween messages (see above). Users scan the code on a Fanta can in order to participate. The head of marketing for Coke GB says: 'Halloween is a fast-growing sector in the UK and this is largely driven by millennials--Fanta's key demographic--making it the perfect occasion to engage with our fans'.
• Top Shop is weaving Halloween themes into its in-store marketing. The retailer launched a clothing line based on Netflix's Stranger Things series, along with a limited-time pop-up shop recreating some sets from the series.
• Spooky treats are traditional this time of year, and Marks & Spencer is marketing Colin the Caterpillar cakes in Halloween colors, with a bit of red icing for ghoulish fun.
• Budweiser beer has a Halloween party pack for retail support that includes a variety of 'King of Fears' masks (given away by stores that sell the 'King of Beers'). The beer brand is also sponsoring a three-day holiday event at London's Magic Roundabout, featuring music, food and more.

Halloween marketing is on the Burger King menu

Burger King UK has special menu items for Halloween this year. Above, its Halloween Whopper, already a limited-time regular on the menu in the company's Japanese restaurants (but not under the Halloween name, of course). This marketing is geared to consumer behaviour principles like targeting variety-seekers who like trying different foods and customers who simply want to be the first to try something different.

Keep an eye on BK's UK Facebook page (more than 200,000 likes) for other Halloween treats, including its Chicken Fries. Also watch its Twitter feed for posts about Halloween foods and promotions. The company is using #UnleashYourFreaky to emphasise its unusual foods and Halloween marketing.

Marketing for Halloween 2013

Halloween is an increasingly popular marketing opportunity for UK businesses and nonprofits.

Especially now that zombies and vampires are part of pop culture, Halloween is easing into the mainstream and spending may be even higher than for Guy Fawkes Day festivities.

According to Planet Retail, Halloween is now the third-largest holiday in terms of UK consumer spending, after Christmas and Easter.

Here are just a few of the many All Hallow's Eve offerings being marketed for the 2013 holiday:

• Splashing out on a costume? Think about the one-million-pound Morphsuit, with more than 20,000 diamonds (at left).
• For a ghoulish day with lots of exotic animals, visit Bristol Zoo and join the lantern parade (see above).
• How about a spooky evening ride on the Ghost Train in Leicestershire?
• The London Canal Museum has a special Halloween boat experience waiting, complete with children's activities.
• Tour the haunted castle at Muncaster in Cumbria, with magic and a baby dragon and more.

A few tricks and a lot of treats for a day of trick-or-treating!

Halloween: Spooky sales success!

From costumes and candy to party supplies and pumpkins, Halloween accounted for only £12 million in UK consumer purchases just a decade ago. This year, UK purchases of Halloween goods and services are expected to exceed £315 million.

Why this spooky sales success? One reason: Contemporary culture is filled with books and movies about zombies, vampires and other fun/frightening creatures--and Halloween simply continues this fascination. The global marketplace is another reason: Halloween celebrations are increasingly popular in the US and some other countries.

Finally, don't bonbons, bats, top hats and black cats seem more fun and less fearsome than the economic gloom of recent years?

A growing number of companies are creating limited-edition Halloween sweets, cakes and biscuits (see above). Winchester is one of many areas using Halloween-themed events to attract visitors. Supermarkets and other retailers are promoting Halloween merchandise, with window displays and online specials to catch the eye and the purse of shoppers. 'Tis the season to be scary, at least until October 31.

Halloween gains momentum as UK marketing theme

Boo! From tourism to sports to adult events, Halloween is gaining momentum as a seasonal marketing theme. At least one estimate puts Halloween as the UK's third-largest high street sales season.

Here are only a few of the many Halloween-themed promotions for charities, historic places and cities around and beyond the UK:

• The Stroke Association is holding a series of fundraising fun runs with a Halloween theme in Liverpool, London and Belfast (see above).
• Derry's Banks of the Foyle Halloween Carnival includes dozens of events in the weeks leading up to a big spooky night celebration.
• Dover Castle is promoting its haunted castle event for Halloween Week.
• The Real Mary King's Close in Edinburgh promotes its haunted legends for Halloween visitors.

Marketing Halloween

Boo! Halloween is becoming increasingly popular in the UK, mirroring its popularity across the pond.

Here are a few examples of marketing activities connected to the traditions of the 31st of October:

• Derry City Council sponsors 'Banks of the Foyle Halloween Carnival' on Halloween weekend, a fun way to attract visitors.
• The London Canal Museum sells tickets to Halloween boat trips through Islington Tunnel, with costumed staffers and fun-fright doings.
• The Alton Towers Halloween Scarefest, which runs for two weeks, provides a 'chilling combination' of indoor and outdoor theme-park scares for all ages.
• The Food Standards Agency gets into the spirit of the holiday with recipes and craft ideas.
• ASDA aims to increase Halloween sales for the third year in a row by creating an in-store party atmosphere for adults and children alike.
• John Lewis sells stylish Halloween-themed accessories for the home online and in its shops.
• For a bit of history about Halloween plus holiday recipes, see the BBC site.