The Best Of: Scary Stunts

31st October 2019

Halloween is an experiential and stunt marketers dream. Being able to draw on something widely engaged with by the general public is always one of the best ways into the consumer market.

Whether they draw on classic Halloween themes or more spooky topical issues, this type of marketing proves highly successful year on year. We’re counting down some of our favourite campaigns that draw on this eerie time of year to get people engaged with their brand and/or cause.

  • Bumble

Ghosting – a modern-age dating disaster and an age-old Halloween costume. A PR dream. The dating app decided to take a stance on the new method of ignoring a potential partner by having people finding a card on the app and submitting their question. These were answered by an array of social media figures, from influencers to journalists, the dating hub offered an array of solutions to the general public’s dating disasters. 

  • Women’s Foundation

Here at House of Experience, we love a great stunt for a charitable cause. The Women’s Foundation’s Halloween social experiment acts as a stark reminder of the inequalities women still face, utilising the usually joyful time of year to highlight this issue makes for a poignant clip.

  • Airbnb

No one had ever woken up alive in Airbnb’s first Halloween competition. The rental company launched this competition for two people to spend the night in Pari’s infamous Catacombs. “Before bedtime, a storyteller will have you spellbound with fascinating tales from the catacombs, guaranteed to produce nightmares. Finally, enjoy dawn with the dead, as you become the only living person ever to wake up in the Paris catacombs,” reads the listing.

  • GiffGaff

The mobile phone network bought back their popular Halloween Salon event, spread across two floors the event featured make up artists that would give guests scary makeovers before they headed out to their Halloween events. The event offered an array of make up styles, accompanied by a ‘Nail Rave’ bar.

Popular holidays are a great way for brands to engage with a new and their existing audience. Halloween is the one time of year where experiences and stunts can be designed to scare people, this ability to add in a rare twist makes these campaigns more memorable, shareable and press worthy.

If you’re looking for some seasonal stunts and content, then check out some of our Halloween work here.