It’s almost time for everyone’s favourite holiday of the year. For ages, we have imagined ourselves living the Americanised version of Halloween that we have seen in films. Without the hidden serial killer of course. But you know what we mean. Buckets are full of ‘candy’ and hundreds of kids flooding the streets and boulevards. Anyway, once Halloween hits, so do the Halloween themed products and each year they seem to get better and better.
Here are some of our favourite limited edition Halloween products. Let’s look at why the company took the route they did, and how you could learn lessons from the masters of Halloween. So without further hesitation, welcome to Create8’s crypt of creepiness.
Taste the rainbow…or maybe not
OK. So we know Halloween might not be the same this year, as Covid-19 has seemingly cancelled the festivities. But that hasn’t stopped Mars, who pretty release something awesome every year. Halloween was met with ‘Sweet Heat Skittles’, which offer customers the opportunity to enjoy one of the nation’s favourite sweets but with a fiery twist. The skittles had an aniseed taste which gives a chilli-like burning sensation in your mouth.
Mars never fail to impress year-round with their limited edition offerings and this one fits right in. The reinvention of a classic is always a safe bet when it comes to sales, your customers will appreciate something they already know rather than something completely new. The blacked-out packaging is a brilliant touch and immediately makes the product recognisable as a Halloween twist, fantastic work from the confectionary giant.
This is not a drill: Spicy @Skittles and spicy @Starburst are coming: https://t.co/4zKK9w1Lon
— InStyle (@InStyle) May 24, 2017
The combination of two classics – Mr Kipling + Roald Dahl
The next offering of Halloween brilliance comes from the nation’s favourite cake-maker. Mr Kipling is a household name and has acquired the help of another well-known brand to leverage success from their Halloween product offering. The beauty of this move is that Mr Kipling already has a limited edition Roald Dahl range. So for the Halloween period, they simply added more products to their list.
With the Grand High Witch’s Chocolate & Vanilla Slices and Formula 86 Chocolate Tarts, the cake-maker offers Halloweens product for multiple generations. Mr Kipling is something you would traditionally attribute to the older generation and Roald Dahl’s ‘The Witches’ a popular Halloween children’s fable.
Here’s the brilliance your business can take from these cakes. Firstly, widening an existing product offering is safe. As mentioned with Skittles, when people already have a connection to a product, it makes driving sales much easier. Secondly, accessing multiple markets with one product is always a tricky strategy, when you add the combination of an already well-known brand, in this case, Roald Dahl, you have a recipe for toil, trouble and success.
Halloween is fast approaching and we’ve launched some frightfully fantastic treats to mark the occasion. Inspired by Roald Dahl’s classic story ‘The Witches’, our new Formula 86 Chocolate Tarts and Grand High Witch’s Chocolate & Vanilla Slices are available now.#NewProduct pic.twitter.com/fvLKBfxB6k
— Premier Foods (@PremierFoodsPLC) October 23, 2020
The moon and more – Lunar Beauty
Limited edition Halloween products aren’t reserved for the confectionery sector. As proven by beauty giant Lunar Beauty. The company launched its ‘Moon Spell Collection’ with a half-hour long-form video introduction as well as building the product up online to viral status pre-release.
Lunar Beauty executed the release of an aesthetically brilliant product by tapping into that much-needed dash of nostalgia. As mentioned in the introduction, who hasn’t wanted one of those amazing Halloweens we see in the movies?
Lunar Beauty based the collection on the most popular witches of yesteryear. So whether you were Sabrina or Marnie from True Blood, there’s a spooky shade for you. The product was so hyped-up and limited that it had die-hard Lunar Beauty fans begging to purchase the Palette before its release.
So what can we take from this? First and foremost, nostalgia sells. And it sells BIG! Everyone loves a memory and in this case using witches from popular TV shows was a genius marketing move by Lunar Beauty.
As a society, we commit a lot of time to immerse ourselves in television programmes and we buy into them, time and time again. Secondly, if we take a look at Lunar Beauty’s product, it is a Halloween aesthetic masterpiece. With rich golds and lifeless blacks as the primary product colours, we were already wanting this product before any of the brilliant colours inside are unveiled. Driving us to buy on the packaging alone is a trick and treat that shouldn’t be reserved for Halloween alone.
As branding and marketing specialists we love Halloween, and we love the opportunities it brings. Every year there’s increased spending and as consumers, we often buy what we don’t need when holidays roll around.
We buy for nostalgia, for feeling and for those around us to appreciate our efforts. We love tapping into this consumer emotion and building invigorating campaigns based around all the holidays a year has to offer. If you are looking for someone to work on your next campaign, branding revamp or brand new website, then we are waiting for you.
Happy Halloween everyone.
Take a look at some more of our blogs for helpful tips, tricks and advice:
