It’s that spooky time of year again: Halloween.
As the air chills and leaves fall, your fans are getting ready to cozy up this autumn. To keep them on their toes, add a little scare to your marketing mix by joining the festivities. To get inspired, we’ve developed three engagement campaigns you can remodel to fit your goals and how to promote them with SMS or digital ads. Along with a few tips and tricks, we’ve included a few examples from our partners who had us knocking in our boots last year.
If you’re in a rush, here's the quick of it:
- Lose the trick and keep the treat with an Instant Win campaign.
- Say cheese! Add in a competitive edge this holiday with a photo contest.
- Are you a ghoul or a vampire? Find out with a personality quiz.
- Knock, knock. It’s you! Approach your fans through SMS and digital ads to have them join the fun!
The Witch’s Pot: What campaigns should you cook up?
If you’re reading this in hopes for a couple last minute ideas, you’re in for a treat. As the spooky night draws closer, take advantage of your fans’ high spirits with these simple, effective engagement campaigns that will give your fans “pumpkin” to talk about.
→ Like any spirited holiday, Halloween is a great time to experiment with initiatives that are more quirky and fun than your usual. Take advantage of the magic in the air by adding some flair and personality to any campaign that you decide to employ. Give your fans “pumpkin” to talk about.
Instant Win
Think back to your trick or treating days. What made the heavy costumes and hours of circling the neighbourhood worth it? The candy.
Your fans are no different. To get your marginal fans to participate, guarantee a prize in exchange for their answers to a few customized entry-fields. With an incentive on the line, your fans won’t be able to pass up the opportunity.
Beyond the data acquired during the campaign, work the wins in your favour. To do this, offer prizes to your own events and respective ticketing, merch, or in-house options. Whether this be a discount code to slow-moving merch inventory or a free meal ticket for the game, this is a great way to create future sales even in your off-season.
Pro-tip: Add sponsor-fulfillment prizes to the mix to promote the partnership. The fans driven to their products and/or services will incentivize your sponsors to partner with you again next year.
Photo Contest
Invite fans to share their costumes this year in a photo contest campaign. The format allows for the die-hard Halloween fans to share their hard work and vote on who they think are the scariest, funniest, or best-dressed!
If your event lines up with the freaky holiday, have fans submit their costumes worn at the event to keep energy high in the days following. The chance to boast they have the “best costume” is enough of an incentive to engage and answer questions helpful to your overall understanding of their experience -who was their favourite artist? Did they engage in the halftime games? Do you want to opt-in to email or SMS for similar events?
Personality Quiz
Whether it be Batman or the Joker, Halloween means becoming who you love for a single night. Tap into this with a personality quiz that lets fans identify with their favourite characters.
If you’re looking for inspiration, here’s a campaign championed by our partners at MoPOP:
The MoPOP Horror Personality Quiz was sure spooky, allowing fans to answer questions to determine which horror movie character best represented their “inner evil.” From situational questions about their running style to their social life, the quiz determined which character best represented them.
Lay the Figurative Breadcrumbs with SMS and Digital Ads
To promote your Halloween-themed campaigns or events fans need to be aware of how to join the fun. To showcase how this is done, we’re taking a peak at our partners at Outside Lands. Last year, the festival was held during the days leading up to Halloween, with the finale hosted the day of the holiday. The festival sold-out single day passes within four hours, while also rewarding their loyal fans. Here’s how they did it:
Maximize your reach by diversifying your channels
To reach fans where they are, mix and match your marketing channels to try out new strategies that will interest fans. Within the Tradable bits platform, this is easy using your email, SMS, or digital ads integrations. Your familiarity with a range of channels will better prepare your team for changes in advertising regulations or privacy policies in the future.
Use your existing fan data to segment your fans into targeted audiences
Halloween represents the undead -bring your old data to life by making it actionable. Using your fans’ interests and purchase histories, segment them into audiences so your digital marketing campaigns will peak their personal interests.
Develop specialized messages for each audience
Once you’ve created your channels and audiences, it’s time to send it (literally). Curate your messages to each audience to drive engagement, or push ticketing or merch sales.
Keep in mind your loyal fans -fans who have opted-in to your email or SMS systems, or purchase VIP tickets every year. Don’t “ghost” these fans, rather directly invite them with a jump-start message before other fans or a discount code.
That’s all from us. If you like what you read, subscribe to our newsletter to learn more or set up a quick chat with us. We wish you the best of luck with your spooky, scary marketing campaigns and a happy Halloween!