E-carve a pumpkin, drink a Franken Frappaccino, and put on your emoji mask, it’s your round-up of inspiration, trends, and marketing to know this Halloweek!
1. Jack O ’Lantern 2.0
It’s 2014, so pretty much anything we can do offline should have a digital equivalent, right? While young consumers want to unplug from time to time, they still love when hands-on activities are made interactive and sharable online. As a Halloween experiment, one web developer has made the longstanding pumpkin carving tradition a virtual endeavor with “Jack O’Lantern,” a JavaScript site that lets visitors “carve” digital 3D pumpkins and share the creations on social media. Thanks to the stencil menu and the ability to upload any design, even the un-artistic can e-carve a professional looking gourd.
2. Frozen Frankenstein
Sometimes it seems that brands are so eager to get a jump on the winter holiday marketing that they miss what could be a pretty big opportunity in Halloween marketing—but Starbucks is not guilty of this oversight. Not only is the chain an autumn staple thanks to their infamous Pumpkin Spice Latte, this year they’ve honored Halloween with a “secret off-menu limited edition” Franken Frappaccino, an icy drink comprised of green tea Frappuccino, white mocha sauce, peppermint syrup, java chips, whipped cream, and mocha drizzle. Yum?
3. I’m An Emoji
36% of Millennial 14-32-year-olds plan to dress up for Halloween, and the most popular Halloween costumes tend to be a mix of the classics (witch, cat, ghost) and the cleverly topical (Presidential candidates, currently popular celebs, memes), so in some ways it makes total sense that this year you can dress up as an emoji. After all, they’ve taken over young consumers’ communication. These emoji masks have gotten quite a bit of attention, and come in “sly guy, poop, smile, grin and heart eyes.” Yes, you heard correctly, you could have dressed up as the poop emoji. Don’t worry, you can still order one for next year!
4. Who Are You Gonna Call? Middle Schoolers.
News that an all-female Ghostbusters sequel is in the works set the internet into a tizzy this month, but for all those who can’t wait for the movie to come out, this shot-for-shot trailer remake by a group of talented middle schoolers can tide you over. The very-funny short was made as a filmmaking project and is an exact replica of the original, but with the genders flipped and teen girls playing the roles of Venkman, Ray, Egon, Winston, and Tully. The girls’ trailer has been online for a few months, but went a bit viral this week, perhaps thanks to the ghoulish holiday?
5. It’s Just A Bunch of Hocus Pocus!
In our survey of 1000 Millennials 14-32-years-old this month, we found out that 68% planned to watch Halloween-themed programs this year, with 30% planning to tune in to a scary movie on TV, and 29% saying they would be streaming Halloween content. Some of that viewing is definitely nostalgia-driven, when we asked last year which Halloween-theme movies/specials they liked, 39% choose ‘90s kids classic Hocus Pocus and 40% picked The Nightmare Before Christmas, both of which were much more popular than spookier horror fare.
