After a scary couple of years battling the global pandemic, Halloween 2021 was expected to make a rebound, and with consumer sentiment and purchases up 65% from the year before – it was certainly a good year for businesses selling costumes, candy, decorations, and pumpkins!

To celebrate the build up to Halloween this year, we’ve scowled the internet for our 4 favourite Halloween social media campaigns to help inspire you. Check out how some of the biggest brand names are marketing during the spooky season, and use these as a springboard to get creative with your own Halloween campaigns.

1. Netflix & Chills

The best thing about Halloween in our eyes? The puns! We love what Netflix did here, taking advantage of the popular term “Netflix and Chill,” the streaming service marketed their chilling inventory of movies and series with “Netflix and Chills”.

The streaming giant has continuously led the marketing pack at Halloween, from interactive Snapchat filters to promote Stranger Things to scare factor infographics, so users could choose what horror films or TV shows to watch based on just how horrified they wanted to be.

This year Netflix has added a Streams & Screams section with all the classics and some newbies. Over October, they also make sure to release their company’s own Netflix Original bone-chilling entertainment to maximise views.

2. Disney + and the Hallostream ‍♂️

You’ll find another spooky-season streaming success story at Disney+. Not only did the company create a Hallowstream campaign with all the best ghoulish content, but they also teamed up with Lego to release a special Star Wars show.

Since Disney+’s target audience is families and kids, the company’s partnership with Lego was the perfect way to begin the Hallowstream with their original spooky special. They released Terrifying Tales, which included a series of short episodes with fan favourite characters and Halloween plots. With jokes, jump scares and a call to the dark side, it encompassed everything about Halloween family fun (and Lego Star Wars.)

To supercharge UGC and create organic growth for this campaign, Disney+ used the hashtag #hallowstream on TikTok and collaborated with plenty of creators (like the stop motion artist @samplertimes and recipe account @tastemade) to promote the activity. The hashtag has over 5.2 million views, showing just how powerful this strategy was.

3. Unicef’s Trick or Treat Campaign

For Halloween, established charity United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) combined their child-protective work with a key component of child-friendly Halloween: fun.

Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF has raised more than $195 million since it first launched back in 1950. The program historically involves the distribution of small orange boxes by schools to trick-or-treaters, in which they can solicit small change donations from the houses they visit.

In 2022, the organisation has a fully-integrated campaign that includes social media filters, TikTok influencer marketing and “Trick or Treat” halloween decoration posters with digital QR codes that lead to the UNICEF website to donate.

On TikTok, the hashtag #TOT4UNICEF (“Trick or Treat For Unicef”) has accrued 944k views. Ambassadors on TikTok create fun costume ideas under the hashtag; influencer Noah Beck (@noahbeck) gained over 725k views on his video. He encouraged people to save on Halloween costumes and donate to UNICEF instead.

4. Crest – #BringOnTheCandy Safes

Candy, kids, cavities! It’s not hard to make that leap when you consider how many sweets gets eaten during Halloween season. And that gives toothpaste brand Crest every reason to get in on the action. This year, they’ve run with the theme of protecting your candy and protecting your teeth. As mentioned above, parents are notorious for taking their kids’ candy stash on Halloween. So, customers were invited to enter a competition to win a limited edition Candy Safe, where your kids sweets can be safely locked away from prying eyes and hands! To enter, participants had to post on Instagram why their family loves Crest toothpaste and why they want a Candy Safe, with all the right hashtags of course. Marketing lesson? Figure out how your brand can fit into the celebrations, and go for it!

Whatever you get up to this Halloween, we hope these spooktacular examples provide you with some inspiration this Halloween to help get creative with your social media campaigns!