“Scary” Good Halloween Campaigns to Get Your Creative Juices Flowing

By Samantha Santora, Account Supervisor at PRLab

Holidays provide a plethora of soft news opportunities. Creative public relations and content marketing campaigns garner attention from both audiences and media. Here are five recent examples of unique Halloween campaigns.

Burger King as the ghost of McDonald’s

[Source: Spooktacular! The brands who nailed their Halloween PR. (2016).]

A New York Burger King “dressed” in a giant white sheet labeled as the ghost of McDonald’s. The brand also poked fun at their rival by posting a sign that read, “Booooooo! Just kidding, we still flame grill our burgers. Happy Halloween.” According to Meltwater, the stunt fuelled 51,042 conversations, landing it on many of last year’s “Best Halloween PR Campaigns” lists.

Airbnb and Dracula’s castle

[Source: Trick or treat? 2016’s most successful Halloween campaigns. (2016).]

The winners of Airbnb’s Twitter competition were invited to stay the night in Dracula’s Castle. Hosted by the great grandnephew of Dracula’s author, winners experienced a truly spooky night with a horse-drawn carriage ride, candlelit dinner, and, of course, velvet coffins to sleep in. Meltwater found almost 5,000 social media conversations covering the competition.

M&M’s Dark Movie Challenge

[Source: The 5 Best Halloween Marketing Campaigns of All Time. (2015).]

M&M’s created a creepy game inspired by horror films. Visual riddles kept players captivated for hours. The “Dark Movie Challenge” game also tied in with the launch of dark chocolate M&M’s. Debuting in 2006, this campaign was well ahead of the curve considering the popularity of viral videos and online pranks we find today. The game is even still available to play now.

LG’s elevator prank

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=104&v=NeXMxuNNlE8

LG took their product demo to a whole new level. To support the claim that their monitors have “lifelike colors,” LG lined the floor of an elevator with their screens. When unsuspecting riders pushed the button, the floor seemed to drop out from under them, prompting some gasps and shrieks. Since its launch in 2012, the video has garnered over 40 million views on YouTube.

Target’s Halloween Hills

[Source: The 5 Best Halloween Marketing Campaigns of All Time. (2015).]

Target utilized Instagram to showcase over 30 different Halloween DIY ideas. The “Halloween Hills” page linked to other Instagram accounts, each with its own craft or recipe. As a “trick-or-treating adventure for grownups,” the campaign amassed more than 28 million social media mentions. The agency behind the campaign reported that “Halloween Hills” received over 28 million social media mentions, as well as 111,000 social actions.

And for 2017… Mars Candy and Fox’s “Bite-Size Horror Films”

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYZMn_f5Guk

Those watching the Yankees-Indians playoff game on FS1 were in for a shock when the game went to commercial. Instead of the typical Skittles ad, viewers were glued to their screens for a two-minute horror film titled, “Floor 9.5.” Mars Candy and Fox have partnered with up-and-coming horror film writers and directors to create high-quality ads with little brand promotion other than a logo. Though the campaign is not over yet, it has already created a buzz on social media, especially Twitter.