by Alicia Weans
https://www.wearebottle.com/blog/ultimate-halloween-marketing-campaigns
Why Halloween is a PR Playground
While Halloween is primarily known for tricks and treats—in the PR world, Halloween is the perfect stage for brands to get creative. Each year, companies fully embrace the spooky season as a chance to showcase their storytelling skills and engage audiences in unexpected ways. In public relations, Halloween campaigns stand out because they combine strategy with entertainment, and use emotional appeals like humor, fright, and nostalgia to connect with consumers. Over the years, brands like Burger King, Heinz and Fanta remind us that October isn’t just about costumes, candy, and the start of a new season—it’s about curating memorable experiences that bring brand personalities to life!
Burger King: “The Call”
On Halloween in 2023, Burger King proved to consumers that fast food can be frighteningly fun. Inspired by the horror film The Ring, the brand released an ad directed by American Horror Story’s Alfonso Gomez-Rejon. To promote new ghost pepper menu items for Halloween, the ad follows a woman who receives a mysterious phone call warning her, “It’s back. It’s coming for you,” after which the new menu items start to levitate toward her. Now as spooky and fun as this sounds, what made this campaign truly stand out was its interactive twist. Audiences could visit thecall.bk.com to send friends personalized, AI-generated creepy phone calls in the same hauntingly ominous voice from the ad. This creative and clever mix of horror tropes and campy humor transformed the campaign from a simple product launch to an immersive experience. After the campaign’s debut, searches for the Ghost Pepper Whopper surged by more than 50%, proving that even a little light-hearted scare can drive major engagement.
Heinz: “Tomato Blood”
Heinz turned childhood nostalgia into clever branding with its “Tomato Blood” campaign. First launched in 2020, the brand released a limited run of just 570 bottles of Heinz Tomato “Blood” Ketchup as part of a sweepstakes—which is a playful nod to the longtime Halloween joke that ketchup doubles as fake blood. Its large success in 2020 prompted a 2021 relaunch with full public availability and a costume kit sold through HeinzHalloween.com, encouraging fans to craft DIY Halloween looks by using the product. By 2022, Heinz introduced Toby, a vegetarian vampire influencer who swapped human blood for Tomato Blood Ketchup. This humorous and self-aware introduction resonated with Gen-Z, helping the campaign reach over 5.1 billion TikTok views under #HeinzHalloween. “Tomato Blood” thrived by embracing nostalgia, audience participation, and personality, showing that even a simple condiment can steal the Halloween spotlight.
Fanta x Universal Pictures/Blumhouse: “Horror Icons”
Ahead of the Halloween season, Fanta turned Halloween into a global brand event this year with limited-edition cans featuring classic horror characters that we all know and love. Partnering with Universal Pictures and Blumhouse, the campaign highlighted five iconic figures: Chucky, Freddy Fazbear, The Grabber (Black Phone), M3GAN, and Michael Myers, each paired with a Fanta flavor and collectible packaging. Die-hard horror fans could scan QR codes on the cans for exclusive content and interactive experiences, while pop-up events, influencer-driven social media content, and cinema tie-ins with new Blumhouse releases (Black Phone 2 and Five Nights at Freddy’s 2) brought the campaign to theaters and fans worldwide to participate in all of the spooky fun. With a mashup of cult-favorite horror figures, eye-catching collectible cans, and interactive digital content, Fanta showed that even a soft drink can be scary-good at creating PR campaigns and turning Halloween into a must-see experience.
Beyond the Boo: Lasting PR Takeaways
Overall, these campaigns prove that successful Halloween PR is about more than just spine-chilling gimmicks for the season—it’s about creativity, connection, and audience participation. Burger King, Heinz, and Fanta all used humor, nostalgia or immersive experiences to turn products into memorable stories. From AI-powered pranks and collectible cans to influencer content and interactive events, these brands demonstrated that strategic storytelling drives engagement, loyalty, and virality. Therefore, as a clear lesson for future PR pros: the best seasonal campaigns don’t just sell, they entertain, involve the audiences, and, most importantly, they stay true to the brand’s personality.
References:
https://www.wearebottle.com/blog/ultimate-halloween-marketing-campaigns
