It’s only just the build-up to Halloween, and we’re already seeing some truly awesome ideas rearing their fantastical heads. What else could the Halloween of 2020 have in store for us?
As a child growing up in South Africa, we never celebrated Halloween. Most likely because knocking on an unknowns’ door was against everything we’ve ever been taught about ‘stranger danger’. But given the influence of American TV on our society, and the ‘ker-ching’ an occasion like this can deposit into a retailer’s cash register, it was only a matter of time before South Africans got on the Halloween bandwagon.
Now, two young kids in, and owner of an embarrassingly enviable craft box (I mean cupboard), I LOVE the spooky ‘holiday’. As a mom, I look forward to planning my kids’ outfits with them. I look forward to getting to know new neighbours at the adult beverage top-up stations next to the kids’ candy-filled tables (if anything, we’re a community of thoughtful parents). And as strange as it may sound, I look forward to coming home with two sugar-fueled children, giddy with the excitement of it all. It is truly otherworldly. And I know many of these sentiments extend to my millennial colleagues who are as excited about Halloween as I am.
Also, as a creative, exploring ideas that will achieve the most amount of fantastical, ghoulish fun is something I look forward to, along with seeing what other frightfully scary campaigns other creatives and brands conjure up for the ‘holiday’.
But this year (yes, you guessed it…) Halloween is going to be a bit different blah, blah and all that heard-it-way-too-many-times-before BS. The thing is, dealing with an out-of-the-ordinary year means you have to think ‘out of the ordinary’. And scanning the media, it’s starting to look to me like people and brands alike, have put a twist on trick or treating in 2020. Here are three such examples which have already caught my attention.
Hershey have unleashed a robotic door that’s going to cruise around neighbourhoods this weekend dispensing candy, contact-free! To earn a Reese’s King-size Peanut Butter Cup you tell them where you are on Instagram using #ReesesDoor, wait for the robotic door to arrive at your doorstep, and you guessed it, you then give it your best ‘trick or treat!’
Desperados will be throwing a party from the home of Halloween itself, Bran Castle, Dracula’s fearsome abode in Transylvania. The unique virtual event, Horroween, will be live-streamed on 31 October, and will feature UK DJ, Eats Everything, and Elrow resident DJ, Tini Gessler, along with performers dressed as clowns, zombies, monsters and other spooky things. Tune in to Elrow’s Facebook, Twitch and YouTube channels on Halloween to join them, if you dare…
And one of my personal yummy favourites, Skittles is running a competition where fans can stand the chance to win a ‘Zombie Skittles’ Halloween costume. The costume resembles a Skittles box and is just the required social-distancing size, ensuring people don’t enter your Covid-free bubble. But just in case someone oversteps the mark, so to speak, it comes with a button hidden on the wrist, which, when pushed, releases a foul “rotting zombie aroma” that “will keep even the creepiest ghoul away”. It’s just ridiculous. It’s just bonkers. It’s just fun. And it’s sure to get people talking… or walking.
This week is only just the build-up to Halloween, and already we’re seeing some truly awesome ideas starting to make the online rounds. I, for one, am super excited about our Haribo Halloween campaign that sets to be bags of fun, but more will be revealed on that next week (insert evil laugh here…).
2020 to date has been a strange year to say the least, and this has given big and small brands alike the creative freedom to be different and try new things. Halloween is all about spooky, candy-filled fun, (and living out your dress-up fantasies) so, as a brand, if you’re going to do something, don’t be afraid to explore the unknown, test the limits of your creativity, and do something awesome. And if you’ve missed the boat on Halloween, never fear, there’s still time to go BIG this Christmas, something we can always help you with ;).
Happy Halloween, and be safe out there, folks.