Eight brands making the most out of Halloween

Boo!!! 

Got ya! I make absolutely no apology, I am a massive Halloween fan. If I could dress up like Jason Voorhees and knock on my neighbour's doors demanding handfuls of sweets all year round, I would.

If only the world's various brands had the same commitment. Then that ghostly M&Ms advert on the left would never have to disappear. Still, I suppose Christmas marketing has to roll out at some point, so this is all just a pipe dream. 

Let's take a look at which brands are making the most out of this most evil, witch-filled and sugar-high fueled of holidays.

Threadless

Threadless has built its own customer community through crowd-sourcing, so Threadless obviously knows its key demographic incredibly well, and this is a demographic that loves Halloween.

This is reflected in brilliant garish tones throughout the homepage.

Threadless is also offering a 30% off everything discount during part of the Halloween period.

Threadless has also grouped together its most horrifying products, of which there's a great many, and are all easily accesible from the homepage.

Threadless has also produced this wonderfully made video showing a zombie apocalypse happening in its very own warehouse.

This Thriller pastiche is a perfect way to show off the products and engage with its core demographic, and it also gives you a little chill too.

American Apparel 

American Apparel has gone through its stores' racks, picked out their own items and created various custom Halloween costumes, highlighting them on the homepage.

The items that comprise the costume are listed on the left. As you can see, American Apparel hasn't had to manufacture specific items for the season.

The carousel moves through various creations of its own making. I chose against highlighting 'Sex Robot' here.

American Apparel is also running a Halloween photo contest.

 

Take a photo of your costume that uses at least one item from American Apparel, upload to Twitter using #AAHALLOWEEN, and you could win a gift card.

Tootsie Roll Industries

Tootsie Roll Industries (the 'industries' part contrasting wildly with the first two words in that name) has rolled out Halloween themes on its various products' individual Facebook pages: Tootsie Roll and Tootsie Pops.

Tootsie Pops began its Halloween campaign on Oct 15 with this puzzle. 

Find all the Tootsie Rolls and win a prize! The prize is a pin badge. The lack of candy as a prize is disappointing.

Tootsie Roll Industries has also used Halloween as an opportunity to slip in this cheeky ad.

This was posted on 15 October. Last chance to stock up?

I've now written Tootsie so many times the word has lost all meaning...

Hershey's

Hershey's post daily updates on its Facebook wall of varying degrees of popularity. This Halloween the most liked posts have been Hershey's Halloween recipes that use the brand's chocolate products.

On its own website Hershey's also features craft ideas for Halloween to keep things suitably spooky.

Chipotle

Not strictly an online offer as this is an in-store promotion. However by advertising the Boorito offer on Facebook, Chipotle has amassed 1,233 likes and 424 shares, helping drive customers through the doors on Halloween and raising some money for charity.

 

It's not just the USA getting in on the Halloween fun, there's also a few UK brands giving their online presence a spooky makeover.

The Whiskey Exchange

The Whiskey Exchange has grouped together its more spooky themed liquors and spirits on its own home-page.

Featuring some particularly frightening looking Tequila and a vodka distilled by Dan Aykroyd!? I assume the link is Ghostbusters.

Tesco 

Tesco has added a Halloween tab to its top navigation bar. Clicking on this brings you to a specific Halloween page.

Featuring product pages for pumpkins, sweets, costumes, accessories and other ghoulish regalia for your Halloween party.

There's also this great looking Halloween recipe selection.

Firebox 

Firebox has grouped together all of its Halloween themed goodies under a #halloween hashtag.

Glow in the dark loo roll or shower gel in a blood bag anybody?

Asda's own Halloween effort, the fantastic augmented reality assisted campaign, has already been highlighted here.

Have you spotted any other brands making the most of this gruesome season online? Add your picks in the comments below...