Taking a stroll through my town centre on an early October afternoon, I could be forgiven for thinking that I had stumbled onto the set of ‘The Walking Dead’.
Shops are stuffed to the gills with ghoulish gifts and undead décor. So much so that the usual end-of-September influx of Christmas paraphernalia has become almost invisible. It is most definitely not limited to the bricks-and-mortar high street either, the web is awash with ghoulish gifts, get-ups and gimmicks.
Hallowe’en is big news and big business. Plum in the sweet spot before Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas, it now serves to provide retail and marketing opportunities at a time of year that would more often than not have a bit of a lazy slump to it.
With Mintel announcing 2013 sales of Hallowe’en products of £230m, which rose by a further £10m in 2014. A staggering 43% of Brits bought products or services for this fiendish occasion.*
Who wouldn’t want a slice of that pumpkin pie?
And we all love a bit of scary online inspiration.
There are now 45 million Hallowe’en boards on Pinterest – with more than 176 million pins!
Not forgetting all those who love their more spooky books and films find a place to call home too.
With the Twilight film franchise exploding onto the scene in 2008, the thirst (excuse the pun) for vampire chic made Hallowe’en the ideal holiday for the self-named ‘Twi-hards’ and with the official Facebook page boasting a fan base of 42.3 million, they really do deserve to be taken seriously as a Hallowe’en target market.**
But they pale in comparison to Harry Potter Facebook fans, who peaked at a mind-boggling 72.2 million in September of this year.**
A word to the wise – this only serves to highlight the massive captive audience on social media. If your marketing campaigns haven’t yet utilized this incredible (and cost effective!) resource, it needs to go to the top of your list. With Britons spending 1 hour and 20 minutes every day managing their social networks***, with the right approach, the potential is extraordinary when compared to more traditional types of marketing.
Your product doesn’t need a natural link to the spooky season, just find a seasonal twist or a play on words to connect with it and drive your social media presence across multiple social media platforms.
Take a look at our Hallowe’en campaign by clicking our social media links or by reading our two seasonal blogs.
Sources: * Mintel.com, ** Socialbakers.com, *** GWI.
