This week strange and spooky ghosts and ghouls will flood the streets of Lincoln, for October’s biggest national holiday.
With hundreds of families from across the county set to brave the cold autumn evening for trick or treating, Halloween is sure to be lots of fun for all the family.
In fact, with over £250m spent on decorations, costumes and parties each year, Halloween is quickly becoming one of the UK’s biggest holidays.
However, Halloween doesn’t have to be exclusive to just children. If you can look past the excitement, sweets, parties and pumpkins, the marketing possibilities are endless.
It’s no surprise that some of the UK’s leading brands are investing in Halloween campaigns – Topshop’s ‘Trick or Tweet’ social media strategy, Google’s spooky doodles and even Gregg’s Halloween themed viral adverts have all embraced the spooky spirit, but hooking on to national holidays doesn’t have to be expensive, and can be a new and exciting way to engage with your customers.
Allowing you to tap in to exactly what’s hot and current, integrating your marketing activity with annual events and holidays is a powerful business tool. From Christmas festivities to Easter excitement, a few simple ideas can go a long way.
A number of local companies have already embraced Halloween themes, from the Waterstones Witches, the RSPCA dog fancy dress competition and even here at Lava, with our online pumpkin carving Hallo’win competition.
With greater brand awareness, customer interest and increased online engagement, these simple tactics can provide huge business benefits and demonstrate a creative difference to competitors.
However, choosing the right tactic for your business is often a tricky decision. To make the process a little simpler, I’ve put together my favourite Halloween stunts and marketing campaigns, as well as ideas to tailor these tactics to your own business.
Dermablend Professional – Go Beyond The Cover
In the run up to Halloween 2011, the professional make-up brand Dermablend released a highly successful viral video clip, promoting their expert range of products.
Featuring ‘Zombie Boy’ – a Canadian model almost completely covered in tattoos, the video showed the Dermablend products seamlessly concealing his body, which is tattooed from head to toe.
Although recreating this unique video would be no easy feat, viral clips are a simple and cost-effective marketing tactic, which can easily be used by any organisation or brand.
To increase online engagement, the international fashion retailer is inviting fans to tweet Halloween tips or a picture of their Halloween outfit with the hashtag #TrickorTweet.
In a number of stores, customers can also present their tweets in return for cosmetic items. The tweets judged the best each day will be rewarded with £100 gift cards.
This creative approach to social media, using simple tactics to reward customers, has seen sales soar.
Does your business use social media to interact with customers? Can you provide a giveaway or promotion over the Halloween week? This simple tactic is sure to increase engagement with your brand.
Tango – Sponsors of Halloween
With a complete packaging redesign for just a few weeks in 2010, the soft drink manufacturer introduced a campaign to ‘sponsor’ Halloween.
Playing on the soft drinks brand’s tongue-in-cheek advertising approach, the campaign was a fantastic success with consumers, despite being a simple idea.
Why not sponsor a local event, linking your own company into the holiday spirit. There’s loads going on over the next week, so why not show your local support and explore a new marketing idea at the same time!
Greggs – “Britain prepare for zombies: only humans allowed”
Using a whole host of viral videos and online engagement tactics, Greggs enlisted the help of five zombies in a digital campaign to promote its Halloween range.
Supported by 14 sampling events across the UK for the retailer’s range of “pumpkin doughnuts” and “spooky ringbuns”, the campaign increased online engagement and shop sales dramatically.
Do you have a range of products for Halloween? Could you introduce a new product or limited edition design for the period? By giving customers something different and creative, you can keep them interested and generate buzz throughout Halloween.
Gocompare.com – Headless Adverts
Price comparison site Gocompare.com looked towards a special Halloween TV advert to further enforce the brand’s creative and fun personality.
The ‘Ghost Appearance’ ad ran for a short period in the run up to Halloween 2011, and helped to put the Go Compare brand in the minds of consumers.
Why not theme your own adverts to fit with national holidays, events and even seasons? If it’s something that your consumers are talking about, doing something a little creative will help to keep their attention and interest.
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Ed Willmott is a PR executive at Lava, an award-winning marketing communications agency in Lincoln. He is a B2B comms specialist, as well as a published academic. Ed has a first class PR degree from the University of Lincoln and previously worked as a freelance for the NHS, Nestle and the BBC.
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The Lincolnite welcomes your views. All comments are reactively-moderated and must obey the house rules. Please stay on topic and be respectful of other readers.
It has been a tragic week with three deaths on Lincolnshire’s roads after two male motorbike riders and a man on a pedal bike lost their lives.
The roads are now busier again after further lockdown restrictions were eased on April 12, but since then three men have sadly died.
A man died after falling from his pedal bike in Branston on Wednesday, April 14 and police said his death is not being treated as suspicious.
On the same day, a 34-year-old male died after a crash involving two motorcycles near Gainsborough.
The man who lost his life in the collision was riding a silver Wuyang motorcycle. The second motorcycle was a blue Suzuki being ridden by a man in his 30s, who was taken to hospital with suspected serious injuries.
A 54-year-old man from North Lincolnshire also died after his motorbike crashed with a Royal Mail post van on the A631 near Glentham at around 4pm on Thursday, April 15.
This comes after it was revealed on March 11 that for the first time in over three decades nobody had died on the county’s roads in the first months of the year, according to Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership.
Lincolnshire Police revealed earlier this week that between 2018 and 2020 twenty five motorcyclists lost their lives on Lincolnshire’s roads.
There have been 285 coronavirus cases in Greater Lincolnshire and eight COVID-related deaths so far this week – a 7% drop in cases and one less death from the previous week.
The government’s COVID-19 dashboard on Friday recorded 32 new cases in Lincolnshire, eight in North Lincolnshire and three in North East Lincolnshire.
On April 16, three deaths were registered in Lincolnshire and none in Northern Lincolnshire. These figures include deaths both in and out of hospitals, as well as residents in hospitals outside the county.
NHS England reported two hospitals this week so far, compared to none this time last week.
On Friday, national cases increased by 2,596 to 4,383,732, while deaths rose by 34 to 127,225.
In local news, Lincolnshire health bosses expect COVID-19 cases to rise in our region as lockdown is eased, but are optimistic that if numbers are kept low enough, then people will be free to enjoy the summer.
Andy Fox, Deputy Director of Public Health at Lincolnshire County Council, said the lifting of coronavirus restrictions this week had not caused any specific concerns yet.
Since Wednesday, Greater Lincolnshire has again seen a decrease in its infection rates overall, against an increase nationally.
All districts have seen a fall in their rates, except small increases in North Lincolnshire and South Holland. Lincoln has stayed the same and has the lowest rate in the region.
Boston has the highest infection rate of COVID-19 in Greater Lincolnshire and is ranked 9th in the UK.
Here’s Greater Lincolnshire’s infection rates up to April 16:
Greater Lincolnshire’s infection rates from Apr 9 to Apr 16. | Data: Gov UK / Table: James Mayer for The Lincolnite
England’s R number has dropped slightly to between 0.7 and 1 according to the latest data this week. This means for every 10 people infected with COVID-19, they will pass it on to between seven and 10 others.
The new Indian variant of the COVID virus that’s been detected in the UK has all the hallmarks of a very dangerous virus.
It has two new significant mutations in the spike protein that help it infect cells and evade the immune system.
People are “likely” to need a third dose of the coronavirus vaccine within 12 months of getting the first two, Pfizer’s chief executive has said.
Dr Albert Bourla said a booster jab could be necessary “somewhere between six and 12 months” after the second one – and every year thereafter.
Coronavirus data for Greater Lincolnshire on Friday, April 16
Greater Lincolnshire includes Lincolnshire and the unitary authorities of North and North East (Northern) Lincolnshire.
58,919 cases (up 43)
41,028 in Lincolnshire (up 32)
9,275 in North Lincolnshire (up eight)
8,616 in North East Lincolnshire (up three)
2,185 deaths (up three)
1,613 from Lincolnshire (up three)
304 from North Lincolnshire (no change)
268 from North East Lincolnshire (no change)
of which 1,302 hospital deaths (no change)
810 at United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust (no change)
41 at Lincolnshire Community Health Service hospitals (no change)
1 at Lincolnshire Partnership Foundation Trust (no change)
450 in Northern Lincolnshire (NLAG) (no change)
4,383,732 UK cases, 127,225 deaths
DATA SOURCE — FIGURES CORRECT AT THE TIME OF the latest update. postcode data includes deaths not in healthcare facilities or in hospitals outside authority boundaries.
Plans to demolish part of a former play centre and Chinese takeaway to build 41 new student flats, have been submitted to the City of Lincoln Council.
Killingbeck PLG has applied for permission to demolish “most” of the existing facade of the former home of Imagination Station and Big Wok, on Beaumont Fee, and rebuild it as part of the development.
The main hall, a warehouse and a recently built “link block” to the rear of the building will also be demolished, and will be completely replaced with a new extension.
In documents to the council, the applicant describes how the 41”study bedrooms” will be en-suite and open off a central circulation area.
The build will form part of the Iconinc post-graduate residential units development next door and will sit opposite the Park Court student accommodation on Park Street.
It will include 12 apartments on the ground floor, 11 at first and second floor and seven units on the third floor.
How the build could look.
The application said: “There is a clear need for good quality, post-graduate, city centre, residential accommodation and the economic case for the redevelopment of the site is reinforced by the fact the site can be linked with the new Iconic development so amenities can be shared.
“The demolition of the existing property and the proposed redevelopment will bring positive benefits to the area economically and aesthetically.”
As part of the build, residents will gain shared access to existing facilities including the gym.
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