Halloween offers an opportunity for brands to show personality and stand out from the crowd, but there is a debate around who started this so-called holiday. The event’s rapidly growing popularity and the feel-good atmosphere make it an ideal time for brands to launch creative, impactful, and engaging themed campaigns. Marketers fearful of going big with their efforts are likely to be left feeling tricked rather than treated.

When I was a kid, the only reference to Halloween I remember was a John Carpenter Horror movie starring Jamie Lee Curtis. We did not have ‘trick or treat’ or any of the things often now associated with this event, and from a more religious standpoint in the UK, it was actually frowned upon to celebrate death and the devil. My father, a clergyman, to this day, does not like the growth of Halloween.

Despite those reservations, the holiday started growing in popularity in the US and more recently, internationally and has become a key pillar in the autumn events. Halloween is more than just ghouls, costumes, and candy. It’s a staple of the cultural calendar and a major seasonal spending event. While the US may still do a spooky season better than us, with American celebrations often extending across the whole month and spending there predicted to hit $11.6 billion (£8.5 billion) this year, the UK is catching up in terms of its interest in and purchasing around Halloween.

The Irish claim that Halloween has a Celtic Heritage from a festival called Samhain, which means Saw—when. This is a day when the Celts believed that spirits and faeries could cross into our world, which would only happen on one day of the year, All Souls Day, as it became known. Indeed, a recent Irish Tourism Ad promoted the heritage of Halloween. The fact that the origins of this event are the subject of debate has shown us how far we have come from that 1978 film.

The numbers speak for themselves: 20% of UK people now prefer Halloween to Christmas, and last year’s celebration saw UK consumer spending surpass the £1 billion mark.

Seizing the spooky season

The timing of Halloween at the start of the  ‘golden quarter’ for most brands provides the perfect platform for sales momentum across Singles Day, Black Friday/Cyber Monday and Christmas. However, as popularity increases, so does competition. More and more brands have begun to identify the potential success that Halloween can deliver, and many risk falling behind if they fail to approach the holiday with the right strategy.

Brands need to focus on being inventive and innovative, considering not just the types of products that may interest consumers but also the types of ad content that are most likely to make a consumer choose one brand over another. Ultimately, campaigns need to be engaging, and the way to achieve this lies in being well-informed of consumers’ interests. This means utilising data-led insight to deliver in relevant environments with exciting, impactful creative.

Carving out successful campaigns

Whether consumers are carving pumpkins, dressing up as their favourite characters, or providing a fright, many of the purchasing decisions around Halloween are made on the fly and on the day itself. Food, drinks, party supplies, and costumes are often bought in the moment—and sometimes even in a last-minute panic, such as on the way to a Halloween party.

In fact, last year, treat order volumes of treat dramatically increased on Uber Eats, peaking on 20th October 2023 at +141% above the month’s daily average. Interestingly, alcohol orders jumped by +45%, and with this came a surge in demand for partygoers to get home safely using Uber. Uber UK data finds a remarkable surge in urban trips, and on the spooky Saturday in 2023, rides reached a +66% spike compared to any other weekend in October.

This data shows that brands, whether they be holiday-oriented retailers or CPGs, have a tremendous opportunity to capitalise on these windows for rapid purchasing decisions by serving ads that are both relevant and timely- capturing the consumer in the moment. This requires a profound understanding of your audience and what may be of interest to them. That’s why marketers should leverage quality, first-party, and contextual data to help them provide the relevance consumers are searching for.

Insights can be harnessed to target consumers through display, video, and/or sponsored product ads based on a multitude of data points. That could mean serving ads based on anything from the destination they’re travelling to via transport or the food preferences they have.

 While data is important for targeting the right audience, it can only get you so far; it’s the creativity that truly grabs attention and recognises the consumer mindset. Engaging, impactful ads, such as interactive polls, quizzes, and immersive video, can take any campaign to the next level. These formats enable consumers to engage with the brand and form a positive association with it, even if they don’t ultimately convert that time around.

Fancy-dressed for success

Tapping into the seasonal Halloween boom can be a significant revenue driver for brands, but only if they get their approach to the celebration correct. As with everything in this complex world, context is everything.