Anyone who's ever created a holiday campaign for social media knows that finding inspiration is an essential component. Before you can put your pen to paper - or hands to the keyboard, as it may be - you need to jolt your creative thinking, and finding seasonal content which has already performed well can be a great place to start.
To help with your Halloween campaigns, we've collected a set of posts which resonated on social in years past. Take a look, and hopefully they'll help to get your spooky creative juices flowing.
Food Network: Theme Up Your Sweet Creations
This BOO-tiful Halloween cake caught a massive audience on Facebook, with over 140,000 shares and 71 million views in just five days. Food Network is known for regularly posting recipe videos, and they've probably created countless cake-making videos. The only difference with this cake was that they simply added a “ghostly” touch.
From Halloween posts of spooky cakes to unconventional cocktails (such as, bloody margaritas), Food Network’s Halloween social media campaigns generally consist of fun themes which tie into the event in simple but effective ways.
You can take a leaf from Food Network's book and use the season to employ your own spooky-creative spirit. The more you delve in, the more Halloween post ideas you'll likely come up with.
Lush Cosmetics: Get Spooky Scary
Just a week before Friday the 13th, Lush jumped-started the season with a haunting sneak-peek of their Halloween limited collection. With a total of 3.9k interactions within two weeks, they were able to reach their audience organically with a thrilling post of a beautifully manicured hand covered in their featured product.
Even though Halloween doesn't immediately trigger thoughts of face masks and bath bombs, Lush was still able to create an eye-catching, seasonal post to market their limited collection. The post saw great organic reach, and the visual element remained consistent with Lush's brand.
Lush's strategy here is simple – memorable with a thrill. You can establish a similar connection with your audience by keeping your posts on theme, and including a great visual element, like this one.
Wish: Take a Step Away from Promotional Posts - Add a Personal Feel
Halloween is the time to show off your decorations - but when it comes to shopping, it can become overwhelming, as you get bombarded by an influx of bright, flashy Halloween campaigns.
In order to counter this, eCommerce giant Wish posted a homely photo of a child’s decorated bedroom, which ended up reaching over 3.3k Facebook Reactions in less than a week.
There's nothing corporate about this post, there are no flashy discounts or promo codes. It's simply a child’s bedroom, with Halloween decorations (and, of course, the dog). But you might be surprised at how relatable a post of a normal photo can be.
The lesson here is that you don’t necessarily need a massive budget or expensive photographers and designers. Posting a normal, everyday, relatable image can sometimes be just as effective, as it can help evoke emotional response by bringing up past memories of the same.
Sometimes it’s good to take a break from the promotional-feel, and add some personal touches to your social media campaigns.
Boohoo: Show Off Your Wicked Humor (With Memes)
Some companies are also now including memes in their social media marketing strategies - UK-based online fashion retailer Boohoo, for example, was able to generate a huge amount of organic reach with this cheeky Halloween post.
With Halloween being one of the best holidays for memes, this could be another interesting, engaging and fun way to spice up your seasonal campaign.
The key is to ensure that the meme you choose aligns with your target audience and brand, but if done right, it could become one of your new social media marketing strategies going forward.
Disney World: Taking Audiences Behind-the-Scenes
Last year, Disney World's Halloween transformation post generated almost 240,000 total interactions, outperforming all of their other posts for the entire year.
Disney's post was successful because it took their audience behind-the-scenes, using a time-lapse video to show how they transformed the popular fun park into a Halloween-themed land, right before their eyes.
Of course, Disney always goes the extra mile to wow their guests with holiday decorations, which obviously not all businesses can do - and definitely not at the same scale. However, this video enabled viewers to see all of the hard work that went into decorating the park, and that behind the scenes, insider access could be something to consider in your own approach.
Hershey's: Sinking Their Teeth into DIY Videos
We can't talk about stellar social media campaigns without mentioning an FMCG brand - Halloween is their time to shine.
And compared to other FMCG brands, Hershey's' Halloween post came out on top in 2018, with nearly 10,000 Total Interactions on Facebook.
Hershey's tapped into the popular DIY trend, and created a short clip which 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 - and as a result, their audience may just drop by the candy aisle for small Hershey's bars to do crafts with their children, or to prepare for an upcoming party that will be complete with some batty treats.
Urban Decay: Calling all Ghouls and Gals
A popular trend among beauty brands has been to create Halloween makeup tutorials, which can be a great way to highlight the seasonal relevancy of cosmetics, while also giving their audiences content that's useful to them.
Urban Decay, went on a similar (but different) path which earned them a spot as one of the most engaging beauty brands during last year's Halloween season.
Urban Decay created a contest that was promoted across their social media channels. In their campaign posts, they urged their audience to share their own Halloween looks with them in order to receive a cash prize, or Urban Decay products. By including their Facebook audience in the Halloween fun they were able to spark nearly 17,000 total interactions and more than 1,000 shares.
The campaign goes to show that audience participation can be a highly effective element, which can lead to even more exposure as your fans share your contest across their own channels.
But always make sure you stay within the relevant platform rules related to social contests.
Tapatio: Sugar, Spice, and Everything Social
Chances are, when you're thinking about Halloween brands, the Californian hot sauce Tapatio doesn't immediately spring to mind.
In 2018, however, Tapatio turned up the heat for Halloween, and found creative ways to get their brand into the conversation.
Tapatio had no shortage of spicy Halloween posts. One of their best-performing seasonal posts was pretty simple - the hot sauce brand creatively transformed their logo to fit a Mexican-styled Halloween themed logo. And their Fans loved it.
What's most more impressive is that Tapatio's Facebook Fans were so taken by the logo that they began to request T-shirts with the design. Tapatio listened to their audience's request, and created a limited edition 'Day of the Dead' shirt which could be purchased online.
The Takeaway
Like any holiday season, Halloween gives marketers a lot of creative freedom, which they can utilize to help draw 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, but nevertheless, there is a lot of room for creativity here, as shown by these featured brands. Use the event as a way to have fun, get in on the conversation, and take your audience behind-the-scenes.