It’s the most wonderful time of the year! No, I’m not talking about the Christmas season, I’m talking about Halloween! Since my birthday is November 1st, I have always held October 31st close to my heart and expressed my enthusiasm for All Hallows Eve with costumes, parties and seasonal treats. This year I am focusing my ghostly efforts on compiling a list of brands that have embraced all things spooky by creating products, hosting contests or running marketing campaigns that were all inspired by Halloween.
So why do brands bother to spend money, time and effort on holiday-themed campaigns and products? The holidays, Halloween included, offers brands a way to infuse their personalities into these joyous times and remind customers why they chose that brand in the first place. Brittany Burdoine-Lewis of leapfroginteractive says, “Embracing the holidays your audience enjoys establishes an understanding of your target customers and presents your fans with something fun to keep them engaged with your brand.” Take a look below and check out how brands like Kraft, Progressive and Honda are showing their love for Halloween this year!
Kraft:
Nothing says Halloween like brains, blood and green goo. Food and beverage giant Kraft has embraced all of these ghoulish traditions and packaged them up for sale. The beloved Kraft Cadbury eggs take a turn for the rotten during the Halloween season- the white cream filling of a traditional Cadbury Creme egg is replaced with green and white creamy goo for the Cadbury Screme Eggs (what a witty play on words!) To engage the more DIY crowd, Kraft gave away brain-shaped gelatin molds, complete with an 8-page recipe book, for only the cost of shipping and handling in 2011. If vampire tendencies are more of your speed during Halloween, be sure to pick up some Kool-Aid Ghoul-Aid. This dark red, “scary blackberry” flavored beverage is sure to provide your kids with enough of a sugar rush to trick-or-treat until the sun comes up!
Progressive:
For the past two years, Progressive has endorsed a “Dress like Flo” campaign, encouraging customers everywhere to don their best red lipstick and perky brunette hair styles. Progressive has even created a microsite that describes Flo’s wardrobe, down to the exact shade of lipstick for her infamous red smile. Of course the microsite doesn’t fail to deliver on ways to engage with the Progressive brand including Facebook “Like” buttons, customer service phone numbers and pop-up ads highlighting promotional insurance rates.
Honda:
Not all Halloween promotions are just about the brand; some companies go the extra mile to shine the candlelight on their fans. In 2010, Honda ran a Jack- o’-Lantern Facebook contest where fans carved Honda-inspired pumpkins. To share these carvings with the world , Honda created a specific Facebook photo album so any Facebook fan could comment on which pumpkin was their favorite and share with own Honda stories.
What are some of your favorite Halloween-embracing brands? Or do you say bah-humbug to the commercialization of Halloween? We want to know your thoughts!
Contributed by Lily Brock
