It’s that time of year again, when the kids appear hunting for sweets, the ghosts come out of nowhere and brands bring out some of their biggest and scariest campaigns of the year. Turn down the lights and hold on tight as we explore some of the best Halloween campaigns of 2014.

Chupa Chups Get Lolli

Chupa Chups have used Instagram in one of the most inventive ways I have ever seen for their Get Lolli campaign. Users are directed to the @getlolli Instagram page from social media and YouTube videos. First they watch a short video and read the instructions in the description to learn how to play the game. From here users take “Finger” on an adventure through the abandoned mansion so they can save the damsel in distress “Lolli.”

The mansion is created through various Instagram pages and images, all cleverly linked through photo tagging and stories in the descriptions. Along the way users will find various booby-traps and surprises, appearing in the form of videos where the baddies turn “Finger” into finger food, and extra Instagram profiles.  

Chupa Chups have proved what is possible with Instagram in this engaging and entertaining game. My only criticisms are that if you are not familiar with Instagram this could be a difficult game to use with clicking through to multiple profiles. You could also say the game is a bit long, but apart from that, this is one of the best Halloween campaigns.


Schuh

Schuh have cleverly modified their homepage, with products rebranded to have a spooky Halloween feel.  They have sections including “little ghouls” shoes (white kids trainers) and “Devilish Heels” (red high heels). These take you through to filtered product pages showing all relevant products. 

The great product photography, clever titles and simplicity of this campaign show what can be achieved using what you already have.  

Target

The American retailers Target have created the fictional town of Halloween Hills for their Instagram Halloween campaign. Users are taken on a journey through images, up the main street of Halloween Hills and must select a trick or treat in each image. They are then taken to a separate profile where they are shown instruction on how to make various DIY Halloween projects, from sweet buckets and cookies to spooky plant pots and costumes. All of the ideas are great for Halloween parties and trick or treating, and I’m sure many people went back through the journey multiple times to see all of the great DIY ideas.

All of the items shown in the DIY instructions are available in Target, however this isn’t mentioned anywhere on Instagram, which is a nice touch as it does not feel like a marketing campaign.

Ikea

One of the slightly scarier adverts, Ikea Singapore takes inspiration from The Shining to advertise its late night opening hours. The advert recreates the famous scene of the child pedaling his tricycle through Ikea before being met by some spooky characters. 

 Alongside the video, Ikea have launched a Facebook competition offering the chance to win Ikea gift cards. They have uploaded images of products that appear in the advert to their Facebook page and fans have to comment a screenshot of the relevant product to be in with a chance of winning. 

Ikea have commented “Relax...this video is purely fictional. No customers have reported any weird sightings at our stores nor have we found any skeletons in our closets. “However I don’t think I would want to be stuck in one of their stores overnight after watching this. 

 

ASOS #TrickOrTweet

Fashion retailer ASOS ran one of the most engaging Halloween campaigns, of Halloween  using Twitter and the video streaming site uStream. The campaign gave followers the chance to win either some ASOS goodies, or a trick prize. 

For the first game a live uStream was set up with the childhood favourite pairs game ‘Pairs’. Followers then had to tweet two numbers between 1 and 52 using the hashtag #TrickOrTweet. The selected cards would be turned over and if the tweeter correctly matched two spooky images, they would be told if they had won a trick or a treat. 

For the second game two similar images of an ASOS stylist were posted. In a spot the difference style users had to tweet one of the differences using the #TrickOrTweet hashtag to have a chance of winning. 

ASOS promoted the campaign days in advance across its multiple Twitter accounts as well as sharing it on other channels including their Instagram page, and their stylist’s personal social media accounts, which have large followings. Their twitter header image was chaged to a Halloween style image that included the #TrickOrTweet hashtag.

On 30/10/14, the date the game ran, there were 6,500 tweets using the #TrickOrTweet hashtag.

If you want some more inspiration for your Halloween campaigns, check out our Top 9 Halloween Campaigns from 2013.