This year the aftermath of the pandemic plus the frightening rise in inflation is (shock, horror!) having a knock-on effect on the UK's third most profit-generating holiday - Halloween.

With cautious shoppers everywhere, it feels pretty scary. But it's not all doom and gloom. The estimated spending for Halloween 2022 totals £687 million, following the predicted linear growth we've seen for the past twenty years.

So, as a treat for you, we've put together five tips for planning your Halloween strategy.

1) Keep it frightfully family friendly.

The biggest Halloween spenders are parents with children under 5, making up 85% of the total spending. Costumes are the number one priority, with the average family of three spending £122.55 on spooky getups.

37.1% of people hit supermarkets to find their costumes, so there's room to create a fun, family-friendly in-store experience where consumers can get excited for the holiday. An activation where they can search for the perfect creepy outfits and try them on with themed photo opportunities could produce high engagement levels and further boost sales.

2) Pumpkins are profitable.

In 2020, 25% of Brits bought a pumpkin for Halloween. 2021 saw a 2.5% year-on-year increase in value sales of pumpkins in the ten weeks leading up to October 31st. So seeking a strategy to sell these sought-after squashes is advantageous.  

During the height of the pandemic, pumpkin picking soared in popularity as a Covid19-safe activity. Plus, it's no longer just families who attend, but also young couples and friends foraging in the fields for their perfect pumpkin and searching for an autumnal photo for social posts. Creating an experience that mirrors this growing trend is a clever way of inspiring shoppers in the lead-up to Halloween.

It's also an excellent opportunity to promote brand sustainability, a growing need of most consumers. Sharing innovative information on ways to reduce pumpkin carving waste is an area worth exploring, for example, making pumpkin soup, toasting the seeds for a crunchy salad topping or using the pumpkin as compost after Halloween is over.

3) Hitting that sweet spot.

80% of people purchase sweets to give out to trick-or-treaters. So it's no surprise that 40% of total spending is sourcing tasty treats. Offering promotions on confectionary through social campaigns or via smart mass sampling is a novel way of streamlining this process for shoppers and introducing new or seasonal products.

In 2020 (mainly due to the pandemic), Halloween home baking went up 31% from the previous year. Baking is an entertaining family activity that is easy to build into a campaign. Spooky biscuit recipes, teamed with in-store activations where families can bake their Halloween treats with ingredients sourced in the aisle, offer chances to get people together. It also elevates the typical Halloween shop, engaging consumers who may not usually participate in the holiday.

4) Halloween's not for everyone.

It's hard to ignore a decrease in the number of people planning to celebrate Halloween this year. In 2021 41% of consumers said they'd be putting more effort into their celebrations, compared with just 32% this year.

But is there a way of including people who don't want to be involved or actively dislike Halloween traditions? Last year 40% of people said that they pretend not to be home or ignore the doorbell when trick-or-treaters come a-knocking. No one likes holing up in their home in the dark as a way of diverting costume-clad candy seekers, so themed signage asking them to skip the spooks on this house could capture an audience that feels forgotten during this time of year.

5) All about the fun!

63.2% of Brits accept Halloween as a fun but purely commercial opportunity. So embrace that sense of fun - engage with consumers in ways that entertain them, bring them together and take Halloween shopping from a simple stop-and-shop to a full-blown memorable experience.

We may have a rocky road ahead of us this spooky season. But there's no need to be so afraid of the dark with these ideas and insights piercing through the uncertainty, delivering ways to make Halloween 2022 a ghoulishly good time.

Sources

Mintel, IRI, Statista, Savvy, Real Business, RAJA UK, Webloyalty, Eventbrite, YouGov.

https://www.finder.com/uk/halloween-statistics

Instagram drives growth in pick-your-own pumpkin farms - BBC News

PVM & Kam Media consumer research on Halloween, published May 2022.

Pumpkin farmers are reporting roaring sales as people fall in love with the versatile squash (inews.co.uk)