Award-winning creative brand experience agency, N2O, is set to captivate shoppers this Halloween with the Trail to Treats touring roadshow, born from the retailer’s new Halloween toolkit.

This engaging event will reach selected Tesco stores nationwide, designed as a way to bring the toolkit’s spooky characters to life with Tesco shoppers. Kicking off the retail experience, visitors can sample products from an array of specially selected brands, including Mr Kipling, Monster Munch, Jammy Dodgers, Party Rings, Chupa Chups, Maryland Cookies, Accolade Wines and Diablo Wine.

Customers are then be invited to hunt for the characters within the aisles, using clues to find letters that spell out a mystery word. To add to the attraction, a fun photo opportunity will feature in the foyer, where shoppers can capture a memorable moment with one of the spooky characters featured on the trail.

Steve Frith, Art Director at N2O, said: “Halloween is an increasingly popular seasonal moment in consumers’ calendars, so we wanted to encourage customer engagement with a bit of theatre and entertainment, bringing Tesco’s Halloween toolkit to life like never before. With a whole host of spooky new characters to play with, we wanted to introduce them to customers in an interactive and memorable way, weaving them through a retail experience. The activity is set to entertain and inspire; from the sampling of treats and the fun of the trail, to a themed prize and promoted supplier offerings.”

The Trail to Treats is live from 5^th to 31^st October. Locate your nearest activity at: Tesco House of Halloween (tescohalloween.com)

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Multi-award-winning creative brand experience agency, N2O, has designed an immersive brand experience for Fruit-tella to drive awareness of its new product line with an engaging Halloween activity for families.

Executed as part of the brand’s Halloween Hotel creative platform, which includes an Alexa Halloween Countdown Calendar, the Bluewater pop-up will immerse visitors in the World of Curiosities, offering free samples of the new Fruit-tella jelly product (which has 30% reduced sugar) and driving to store. Three creepy doors will each hide a task to receive a key to unlock a prize at the end of the trio of quests. From tangled webs, giant ghouls and creepy cauldrons, the activity is set to excite and delight families with children aged 4 to 12, offering fun for the Half Term holidays.

Lauren Potter, Senior Brand Manager at Perfetti Van Melle, said: “We tasked N2O with finding a way to drive awareness of our new Fruit-tella Curiosities jellies range with a spooky, seasonal experience that would be a memorable Half Term moment with the family. Our brand is all about fun – family-oriented and joyful – and N2O brought that to life perfectly!”

Daljit Babber, Art Director at N2O, said: “It’s hard to cut through the saturated market at this moment in the year, so we had to come up with something that would stop people in their tracks. The result is a really engaging and eye-catching setup that captures families’ attention and was so fun to work on!”

The Fruit-tella Halloween Hotel will be at Bluewater Shopping Centre from 21^st to 29^th October.

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New research investigating UK household shoppers’ plans for Halloween has been launched today by leading retail and shopper marketing agency, Savvy. The findings indicate that UK shoppers’ interest in getting involved stands at 45 percent, with total expenditure on the event forecast to reach £387m this year, up 5.5 percent against 2018.

Alastair Lockhart, Insight Director at Savvy, commented: “Spending on Halloween is set to hit £387m this year as the popularity of the event with young adults continues to rise. Spending on food, drink and costumes for parties are all expected to increase. Of those planning to celebrate Halloween, our research indicated that 80 percent will be buying confectionery to handout, while 37 percent say they will stay in to watch a spooky film.”

Key research findings from the shoppers who do plan to celebrate Halloween (45 percent of UK shoppers) include:

Attitudes towards the event:

• Fewer men will be getting involved in celebrating Halloween than women – 40 compared with 49 percent respectively.
• 18-34 year olds are most likely to get involved, with 57 percent celebrating. This compares to only 25 percent of 55-74 year olds.

How they plan on getting involved:

• Amongst those planning to get involved, the vast majority (80 percent) plan to buy sweets, treats and chocolates.
• Among this group 43 percent plan to decorate their homes – the same proportion plan to buy Halloween outfits.
• 37 percent will watch Halloween films.
• 32 percent will go out ‘trick or treating’.
• Only six percent said they would celebrate with colleagues at work.

How they’ll be spending:

• The vast majority (88 percent) of shoppers start planning for Halloween a couple of weeks before the 31st. However, retailers left with stock to clear in the final hours will be pleased to see that 10 percent say that they plan to leave it to the last minute.

Where they’re looking for inspiration this year:

• In keeping with previous years, supermarkets are the most popular place for shoppers searching for ideas – with 73 percent of Halloween shoppers on the hunt for inspiration here.
• The importance of social media as a source of inspiration continues to increase with 33 percent looking to Facebook and 32 percent Google.
• The 18-34 age group are substantially more likely use social media for inspiration. 44 percent plan to use Google, 44 percent Facebook, 39 percent Instagram and 37 percent YouTube.

Lockhart concludes: “While some retailers have increased the size of their ranges, our retail audit this year uncovered little in the way of real innovation, with most retailers focusing on the core areas of price promotions, themed merchandise and POS materials. Other than a few notable digital initiatives, there is little in the way new inspiration compared to 2018. With Halloween maturing as an event, we suggest levels of innovation and creativity will need to be ramped up if retailers and brands want to see the market continue to grow at the same rate as recent years.”

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JBL, pioneers of immersive sound for speakers and headphones, have turned to content experimenter UNIT9 and Ranieri Communications to help create one of London’s most spine-tingling Halloween-themed brand experiences.

Taking place at Shoreditch Town Hall’s ‘The Ditch’ basement on Wednesday 31 October, the ‘Fright Club’ experience invites 240 guests and influencers to an underground labyrinth of macabre and delight. It seamlessly showcases JBL’s voice-activated Link range featuring the Google Assistant and the powerful new PartyBox wireless speakers with a built-in lightshow.

Briefed to create an unforgettably chilling yet socially shareable event that subtly incorporates key product features, UNIT9 conceived a twisted interactive horror experience where participants are encouraged to use voice recognition to interact with JBL products.

On arrival, after being met by a wall that transmutes into different bodily shapes thanks to stretched metallic plastic with actors behind, participants are greeted by an ominous hooded figure who tells them their safe word is: “Hey Google, lights on”. They then proceed into darkness, immersed in a soundscape – played on JBL products – of distressed animals, human screams and metal clunks. When they can bear it no longer, they shout the safe word to trigger a strobe light that reveals two terrifying twins snarling at them.

Once inside the space, people navigate through the eerie dark using streaks of light inspired by the PartyBox design to choose different rooms. Each participant has to go through rooms that require the Google Assistant interactions, but in a spooky Halloween-esque setting. The torture room, for example, uses a JBL Link View with the Google Assistant to initiate a “tortured ears” playlist of the world’s most dreadful music and a voice activated countdown timer.

Additional spaces include a bespoke projection mapped hypnotic portal that uses the Town Hall’s Victorian tunnels, textured lighting, silhouette acting and live-action capture of creepy crawlies to create a suitably spooky immersive landscape. Participants will also find a freezer room full of frozen bodies where the Link View and the Google Assistant show the room’s temperature; and the cell where ghostly prisoners past have left hundreds of psychotic ‘Hey Google’ requests scrawled across walls.

If they survive these experiences, they will eventually find themselves in a gory party interspersed with performance artists like fortune-tellers, dominatrix, ghouls and contortionists.

JBL’s Head of Marketing Simona Bara said: “Halloween inspires creativity and is an opportunity for everyone to go out and enjoy themselves, making it a perfect fit for our JBL brand. We wanted to create a fun experience for guests to see our products in a different context, and we knew that UNIT9 – thanks to their previous work on escape rooms and movie premieres – were the go-to for delivering a spine-tingling and mind-bending brand experience that stands head and shoulders above all others.”

UNIT9 director, Sean Pruen, added: “What was great about JBL Fright Club was that the product was heavily featured throughout but never felt forced. We integrated the actual product and its functionality into the heart of the experience’s many narratives in a way that just made sense. This, alongside exotic performances, immersive theatre, weird food, curious drinks, projected visuals, twisted set design and live music made it a truly terrifying yet hilarious party.”

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The Kraken Black Spiced Rum have relaunched their Halloween Kraken Screamfest activation across 5 UK cities. Delivering the campaign was brand engagement and live events agency, Hel’s Angels, who invited guests from carefully selected drinking establishments to join in toasting the Kraken’s evil escapades.

Armed with custom Kraken ink pens, the Hel’s Angels ‘Kraken Hunters’ called on imbibing members of the public to root for the dark side and sign their soul to The Beast. With their ghostly contract remaining in the ‘jar of souls’ until the close of the evenings festivities, the winning name was then drawn with one lucky winner receiving a rich Kraken Treat Box full of dark delights and a round of Kraken cocktails.

Consumers were gifted with branded Screamfest t-shirts and Kraken black lollipops, all the while being encouraged to share their experiences on social media for a chance to win even more prizes.

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Lauren Miles, Senior Account and Marketing Executive at Mando, lists some frightfully bad activations from brands that should have known better.

Some promotions can initially seem like a brilliant idea, but occasionally they can go wrong, and when they do, it turns into a nightmare that you can’t wake up from. Some of the biggest brands in the world have got it wrong. Below are a few spooky stories and how they could have avoided it.

Build-a-Bear

You would have thought that brands would have learned after the Hoover disaster, but Build-a-Bear created chaotic scenes across Britain’s high streets in July 2018. They created a “pay your age” promotion where you could build any type of soft toy but only pay your child’s age. E.g. if your child is 5, then you will only pay £5. These bears can retail for as much as £50 each. The queues started forming before the shops were even open with some reports that they were a mile-long inside shopping centres. Within a few hours, shops were having to close unable to keep up with the demand, resulting in very unhappy children and a backlash for the company across social media. Vouchers were handed out to try and appease the unlucky ones while they waited in line and Build-a-Bear said they would reach out to those who were disappointed.

Hoover

Possibly the most famous example of a brand getting it wrong. In August 1992, they launched their free flights promotion, and it certainly seemed too good to be true. The offer was extremely generous “spend £100 on any Hoover product and receive two return tickets to Europe” (this was also extended to America). The demand was overwhelming and while struggling to keep up with this demand, Hoover launched a second promotion in the USA offering something extremely similar. Hoover struggled to keep up with the demand and by this point they were drowning in negative publicity, which only made more people take advantage. The entire promotion ended up costing Hoover around £50m and some of the legal cases lasted over 6 years.

It’s not just the UK who’s gets it wrong, read below to see where companies have got it wrong across the globe.

Domino’s

In 2008, the US went through a recession, and a campaign idea was to use the word “bailout” and a code to get the user a free medium pizza. The promotion never came to fruition, but the code had still been approved and made active. Word quickly spread once someone had discovered it could be used and Domino’s had delivered over 11,000 pizzas before the code was deactivated the following day.

Pepsi

Back in 1992, in the Philippines, Pepsi wanted to increase their market share as it was only 17% compared to 75% of Coca-Cola. The inside of bottle caps were printed with 3 digit numbers that could win cash prizes of 1,000 – 1 million Indonesian pesos. 1 million was the top prize. When the winning number (349) was announced, almost 500,000 people had a winning bottle cap. Pepsi couldn’t honour paying our 1 million pesos to every winner, as it would have cost them $18 billion. This resulted in many lawsuits for Pepsi where customers were unhappy and sued the company.

Carl’s Jr

In 2009, Carl’s Jr online promotion for a free “Famous Star” hamburger went viral. 276 winning customers were texted a passcode and a URL that was valid for 48 hours to download a coupon for their free burger. However, word soon got out and Carl’s Jr soon had to stop the promotion, only being able to honour the coupons downloaded legitimately.

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Experience, design and engineering company Dare has launched an interactive charity web app: This is Scare. It aims to raise awareness and prompt action for people to adopt black cats, who have a hard time being re-homed – particularly around Halloween.

The site, which mimics a well-known dating app, urges users to swipe left or right through a series of cats’ profiles. When they swipe on Scare, the sole black cat, users will enter a chat with the witty cat-bot.

Scare highlights the difficulties black cats face when looking for new homes, before prompting a match to make a donation and encourage users to think about adopting a cat themselves.

On average, according to RSPCA data, it takes 30.5% longer to rehome a black cat than a tabby cat, and 70% of the RSPCA’s cats in care are either black or black and white.

Michael Olaye, CEO at Dare, says: “Who doesn’t love cats? It’s a shame to see so many black cats left behind while others get rehomed easily. It’s sad to think people are more likely to choose a tabby cat over a black cat just because of old superstitions, or because they’re not Instagram friendly.

“At Dare, we work with new technologies and create digital experiences every day, so we thought we’d use our skills for a good cause this Halloween. We want to raise awareness, dispel the myths surrounding black cats, and hopefully drive a few donations to animal shelters.

“With ‘This is Scare’, we’re looking to engage users with familiar dating app technology and at the same time, encourage them to change a cat’s life this Halloween.”

All donations will be split equally between Battersea Dogs & Cats Home, Cats Protection and Blue Cross. You can donate here.

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46 percent of UK shoppers will be getting involved in the spooky occasion, but this rises to 70 percent for those with children finds research by Savvy.

New research investigating UK household shoppers’ plans for Halloween has been launched today by leading retail and shopper marketing agency, Savvy. The findings, which reveal that 46 percent of UK shoppers are set to get involved in the occasion, predicts spending to reach £367m.

Speaking about the research Alastair Lockhart, Insight Director at Savvy comments: “Halloween continues to be one of the fastest growing retail events, with sales expected to reach £367m this year. More people are celebrating Halloween than ever before, and they are spending more too – not just on sweets for trick-or-treaters, but increasingly on parties and decorations. Rising adult expenditure on food and drinks is a key driver of growth.”

Key research findings:

Who plans to get involved?

• 46 percent of all UK shoppers plan to get involved in Halloween celebrations this year.
• 70 percent of parents said that they were highly likely or somewhat likely to get involved in the event. 33 percent of non-parents said they would be joining in this year.
• 18-34 year olds will celebrate the event the most with 63 percent getting involved.

Of those engaging with the occasion, how are these Halloween shoppers planning to get involved?

• The most common way (with 78 percent) of joining in is buying sweets, chocolate and other treats.
• Decorating the house came in second place with 41 percent closely followed by purchasing fancy dress (40 percent).
• 34 percent are planning on buying party food and 31 percent are making drinks purchases.
• 19 percent plan on making a special themed tea or dinner for the family.
• Going out trick or treating is on the cards for 35 percent of shoppers.
• Making cakes or sweets is on the agenda for 30 percent.
• 20 percent will be attending an organised event whilst 17 percent will be hosting a party of their own.
• This year ten percent of shoppers will celebrate with colleagues at work.

Spending trends and market size (calculated by weighting shoppers’ reported spending intentions to all UK households, the research estimates the following):

• This year, the market size for Halloween is estimated to reach £367m
• The highest area of expenditure is expected to be on costumes and make up at £82m.

From the grocery retailer shoppers use most often, they’d like to see:

• A dedicated Halloween aisle tops the wish list (cited by 59 percent) followed by bargain trick or treat bags (51 percent).
• 49 percent want to see special products relating to the occasion and 35 percent of Halloween shoppers said they would like special event related discounts or coupons.
• Activities handed out instore for children to do at home is of interest to 32 percent of Halloween shoppers and activities instore such as free face painting appeals to 26 percent.
• Ideas for Halloween parties are on the wish list for 32 percent of Halloween shoppers.
• Themed dinner/tea meal deals for dinners are desired by 25 percent.

Where are shoppers looking for inspiration for things to do and buy for Halloween?

• Shopper expectations are highest for supermarkets – with 68 percent looking to them for inspiration.
• Google takes second place for inspiring shoppers (31 percent) and Facebook comes in joint third place with recommendations from friends, family and word of mouth with 29 percent apiece.
• Parents and non-parents are tending to look for inspiration in similar places, with the exception of parents using food magazines, websites and forums such as Mumsnet more frequently.
• 18-34 year olds are much more likely to find Halloween inspiration on social media or Google, whereas 55-74 year olds are more likely to use grocery retailers’ magazines and websites.

Where will shoppers head to for their goods?

• The research findings indicate that it’s very tight between the retailers this year. In the lead, is Asda with 52 percent of shoppers planning to visit the supermarket. Lidl, Aldi, Tesco and Sainsbury’s all tie for second place with 49 percent and Morrisons trails into third place with 47 percent.

Lockhart concludes: “With more and more emphasis on make-up, costumes and decorations this year, shoppers have an insatiable appetite for inspiration. Retailer winners are likely to be those who can inspire shopper using digital and social channels and then effectively drive people to store to buy.”

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As the nights get longer and Halloween season fast approaches, Nestlé UK is launching ‘Scaries,’ a spooky edition of Smarties, which will be hitting the shelves this week. This Halloween themed treat consists of a mix of autumn coloured brown and orange Smarties. The limited edition packs see the brand logo updated to ‘Scaries’ alongside a Halloween themed design.

Stephanie Scales, Brand Manager for Smarties, Nestlé UK, said: “With Halloween sitting firmly at the top of the social calendar we are really excited to launch Scaries to get Smarties lovers in the spooky spirit and help add some hocus pocus to their parties! This is the first time we are offering Halloween themed Smarties and we are sure our fans will love this new ghostly version of their favourite sweets.”

Scaries will be available from 6^th September in Asda stores across the country and in selected Tesco stores from 3^rd October.

The introduction of these limited edition Smarties follows the incredibly popular Unicorn Smarties and orange flavoured Smarties in a variety of special formats beginning with giant tubes last Christmas and now available in sharing bags.

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Fanta is running an experiential Virtual Reality campaign called ‘Fanta: The 13th Floor’ to scare audiences just in time for Halloween, with consumers entering a physical lift that transforms into an immersive Halloween experience.

Fanta’s campaign – which was devised and produced by MediaCom’s content division MediaCom Beyond Advertising – uses the latest technology to deliver a 360° virtual reality experience.

Each ‘ride’ lasts for four minutes, where the user arrives at different floors of a building on the way to a Halloween party. Each floor then presents a different scenario: on one floor something comes forth from the shadows in an otherwise unassuming corridor, on another a shadowy figure transports from the realm of flickering TV screens to the confines of the lift.

4D elements add to the excitement, with a lifelike rumble emitting from the lift floor as the elevator stops at the various levels whilst a whoosh of air greets the user as the virtual doors open. It is the first time the drinks company has used an experiential activation of this magnitude to drive engagement.

Thorpe Park and Westfield shopping centre in Stratford will host three lifts each, aimed at 16-19 year olds to generate buzz and excitement for the orange soft drink Fanta during the Halloween period. The innovative campaign will run at Thorpe Park until November 1st and Westfield shopping centre until October 28th.

To drive further scale to the activation, the 360° video can also be viewed on www.fanta.co.uk13thfloor.

Mediacom will be promoting this through online video and paid social channels.

Rosalind Brown, Marketing Manager, Coca-Cola Great Britain, says: “Halloween is the one time of year when we can all unleash our inner dark-side and embrace everything which is fun about the freakish and frightening. Our limited-edition Fanta cans and bottles, along with our exclusive Snapchat partnership, definitely help add a bit of drama and intrigue to the fright-night season. However for those brave enough, we have brought the fun of Halloween to life with our Virtual Reality experience which is now live at Thorpe Park and Westfield Stratford. For those who dare to enter it’s a shocking, fun filled ride to the 13th Floor!”

Mike Gibbons, Art Director at MediaCom Beyond Advertising, adds: “We love being able to draw from the different skillsets from within MBA, here utilising both the Original Content and Experiential teams, to create engaging campaigns. I recommend you track down some VR goggles, a pair of headphones and appreciate this immersive experience in all its glory.”

The media agency worked with video production company Kode Media and boutique VR Production agency TrojanVR, a joint venture that saw the two companies develop, shoot and deliver the 360° elements of the experiential campaign in an extremely short time frame.

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