Halloween isn’t just about costumes and candy for marketers. It’s now a creative playground and a major seasonal opportunity. Brands have learned that consumers crave more than spooky fun. They want storytelling, innovation, and connection.
This year, Viral Omega dives into the Halloween marketing trends of 2025, exploring how creativity, strategy, and technology are shaping marketing campaigns.
Key Takeaways
- Halloween 2025 is all about craft, creativity, and authenticity, blending horror with humor to connect emotionally with audiences.
- Brands are using Halloween to show new sides of their personalities, replacing April Fool’s Day as the time for bold campaigns.
- The year’s standout trend: commitment to quality storytelling, from long-form horror films to clever, product-based stunts.
Why Focus on Halloween Marketing
Over the years, some marketing campaign ideas have doubled sales for brands! For instance, when Zombie Skittles launched in 2020, Mars did a complete 180 from their usual fruity flavors.
The pack featured five Halloween-themed flavors like Mummified Melon and Boogeyman Blackberry, but also included a “rotten” Zombie flavor that you wouldn’t realize until you tasted it.
The beauty of this marketing idea? Its viral potential through influencer marketing. The campaign blew up online. Bloggers and foodies posted video reviews, taste tests, and dares to see who’d get the “rotten” one.
Why It Matters
- Halloween allows brands to connect visually and emotionally.
- It replaces April Fool’s Day as the go-to time for light-hearted risk-taking.
- Audiences welcome it, they want fun, not fake news or pranks.
Marketers are also tapping into the psychology behind the holiday. As the world grows more uncertain, consumers are drawn to controlled scares.
Top Halloween Marketing Trends of 2025
1. Commitment to Craft and Storytelling
Today brands are focusing on quality and not just quick social moments. For instance, Six Flags launched an eight-minute horror film called Come Out and Play, produced by agency TMA. The film captured the park’s eerie night-time experiences and earned top marks for its jump scares and creativity.
Similarly, Gushers’ “Fruit Head” film stood out as one of the best campaigns of the year. Directed by Mike Diva, it reimagined a 1990s commercial character, a kid whose head turns into fruit. This turned it into a cinematic horror story. With actor Bradley Whitford (known from Get Out), it blended nostalgia, humor, and real fear, becoming a viral sensation.
2. Carrying Brand Strategy into Halloween
The most successful campaigns of 2025 didn’t just slap pumpkins on their logos. They integrated Halloween into their broader brand story.
Take Columbia Sportswear, for example. The brand recently launched its “Engineered for Whatever” campaign, emphasizing the harsh realities of nature. For Halloween, Columbia let the Grim Reaper take over its social channels, inviting fans to share their “near-death” outdoor experiences. It was a playful yet strategic tie-in that matched the brand’s rugged identity.
This is what modern marketing is about, keeping seasonal campaigns consistent with long-term branding while still having fun.
3. Long-Form Content
This Halloween, brands took storytelling to a whole new level. Instead of quick, snackable posts, we saw a shift toward long-form horror content. The kind that pulls you in and keeps you hooked till the final scream.
Yahoo and Skittles were leading the pack with immersive, narrative-driven campaigns that proved one thing: audiences are ready for more than just jump scares.
- Yahoo dropped “Reply All Is Scary,” a clever horror-comedy short promoting its email product. It’s a creative nod to that universal nightmare accidentally hitting “Reply All” on the wrong thread. (We’ve all been there, and it is terrifying.)
- Then came Skittles with “Ghost Roommate,” a mini TikTok sitcom released in six-second episodes. Horror + humor is a perfect recipe for Gen Z who love chaos, comedy, and candy.
Audiences aren’t just chasing cheap scares anymore. They’re drawn to stories with depth, creativity, and a twist and brands that deliver that are the ones haunting people’s minds long after the campaign ends.
4. Scary Is Back
One striking trend this year is the return of genuinely frightening content. Instead of soft, family-friendly spooky vibes, many brands embraced real horror.
This reflects a broader confidence in the industry. Brands no longer aim to please everyone. Instead, they’re targeting smaller, passionate audiences with bold, genre-specific content for emotional engagement.
5. Playful Product Stunts and Real-World Activations
Halloween isn’t just digital. Some of the most buzzworthy campaigns came from real-world products and stunts.
- Disney+ created a “sit-on-the-edge-of-your-seat” chair with furniture brand Fern, a literal edge-of-your-seat experience to promote its horror lineup.
- Airheads introduced Decoy Boy, a robot child for adults who still want to trick-or-treat.
- Mini dressed up as a Waymo self-driving car, declaring it the “scariest costume ever.”
Ranking
The ranking for 2025 has to be as follows:
- Scariest Ad: Six Flags’ “Come Out and Play”
- Best Spooky Product: A tie between Disney+’s edge-of-seat chair and Capri Sun’s impossible-to-open pouch
- Most Unique Take: Skittles’ Ghost Roommate
- Campaign of the Year: Gushers’ Fruit Head
The best Halloween campaigns of 2025 are not just spooky but smart, strategic, and self-aware.
Conclusion
Halloween 2025 proved that audiences crave experiences, not gimmicks. From emotional storytelling to product innovation, brands are learning to blend creativity with strategy.
For marketers, this season’s success offers three lessons:
- Invest in craft and storytelling.
- Stay authentic to your brand voice, even during seasonal campaigns.
- Be brave enough to stand out, even if it means scaring a few people.
At Viral Omega, we believe Halloween’s marketing magic lies in that balance between fear and fun, creativity and clarity. As brands continue experimenting with technology and storytelling, one thing’s certain: the next big trend will always come from those who dare to play in the dark.
Limited-edition products, themed treats, or social media challenges. Like Kylie’s FOMO-driven palette or Skittles’ viral Zombie flavor taste test giveaways.
Use local influencers, themed social posts, and website plugins like WP Social Ninja to display Halloween buzz and reviews directly on your site.
Posting themed videos, polls, and quizzes (like Dior’s campaign) encourages engagement, shares, and higher visibility, all leading to better conversions.
Send creative, spooky-themed newsletters with offers or countdowns like Yahoo’s “Reply All Is Scary,” blending humor with brand storytelling.
