3 Killer Halloween Influencer Marketing Campaigns

As we approach the end of the year, marketers are often strategizing around major retail holidays like back-to-school season and Black Friday Cyber Monday — but another shopping frenzy happens around this time as people eagerly await Halloween, buying costumes, decorations, candy, and more in preparation for the October holiday. 

In 2023, total Halloween spending reached $12.2 billion, with candy spending accounting for $3.6 billion alone. This year, these numbers are expected to jump as a new survey revealed:

• Candy and food spending will increase 2.3x and 2.5x, respectively, with over 55% of survey respondents saying they’ll purchase candy multiple times during the Halloween season.
• 24% of shoppers plan to spend more than $100 on costumes, an increase from 18% last year.
• 22% of shoppers plan to spend more than $100 on decor, an increase from 15% last year.

To get in front of these excited Halloween shoppers, work with influencers. These social-savvy creators can boost awareness and drive conversions through authentic Halloween content — from Halloween costume ideas to party decor inspiration.

Need a little Halloween magic to spark your campaign ideas? We’ve compiled our favorite Halloween influencer marketing campaigns from the past few years to help you brew up the perfect plan for this spooky season. Keep reading to learn how Spirit Halloween, Heinz, and NYX Cosmetics leveraged influencers to cast a spell on their audiences and make the most of this fun holiday.

Spirit Halloween

We can’t talk about Halloween without highlighting Spirit Halloween. Because the retailer eats, sleeps, and breathes Halloween 24/7, Spirit Halloween has a creative social strategy that spans year-round. In addition to its annual “Halfway to Halloween” giveaways and the hilarious “costume bag” memes, Spirit Halloween’s evergreen social strategy also relies heavily on its community of creators.

Spirit Halloween partners with superfan creators, who live the brand 365 and are “rabidly engaged,” according to Carly Korman, Spirit Halloween’s Social Media Manager. Of course, Spirit Halloween ramps up their partnerships around Halloween, but the team engages with these influencers throughout the year in various ways:

• Hosting events and store openings: A few weeks ago, Spirit Halloween had a grand opening for its flagship store in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey, hosting thousands of customers and influencers to gather, create content, and build stronger relationships with the brand.

• Encouraging user-generated content: Spirit Halloween actively engages with influencer-generated content, not only by engaging with their organic posts, but also repurposing it in their feeds, inspiring other fans to create and share their own user-generated content.

• ‍Fostering a passionate community of brand fans: Spirit Halloween interacts closely with its “Spirit Halloween Fanclub” on Facebook — a group created by brand fans — by partnering with the admins, offering exclusive sweepstakes, and sharing early access to product launches.

Heinz

Each year, Heinz transforms its iconic ketchup to match the Halloween theme — rebranding it into “Tomato Blood.” To promote its limited-edition “Tomato Blood” packaging, the legacy brand worked with TikTok influencer EJ Marcus (510K followers), known for his tongue-in-cheek impressions, and turned him into a fictional character named “Toby the Vegetarian Vampire,” who prefers Heinz Tomato Blood over actual blood. 

Throughout October, Toby took over Heinz’s Instagram and TikTok channels, posting exclusively at night in true vampire fashion. Leveraging his social media expertise, he leaned into influencer trends, such as #GRWM, What I Eat In A Day, and a room tour. 

To take it one step further, the brand also created a PSA-style video featuring Toby the Vegetarian Vampire, originally aired during the AMC premiere of Interview With the Vampire. In the ad spot, Toby urges other vampires to become vegetarians and consume Tomato Blood instead of humans, stating that “humans are people, too.”

The campaign resulted in a 12.5% lift in sales of Heinz Ketchup and over 457 million earned impressions — 83% over the company’s benchmark goal. Not to mention, the brand had 10x increase in daily average follower growth, 30% increase in total profile likes, and surpassed all of its benchmarks on Instagram and TikTok. Unsurprisingly, this campaign earned Heinz a Shorty Award. 

NYX Cosmetics

Last year, NYX Cosmetics partnered with Universal Pictures to launch its “Mon-Star Bash” Halloween campaign that highlights the magic of its makeup products. For the campaign, the brand worked with talented makeup artist Mimi Choi, who is known for her optical illusion makeup artistry, to turn several Gen Z influencers into the iconic Universal Monsters utilizing NYX products.

This cohort of Gen Z influencers, including Landon Barker, Reginae Carter, DJ Phoenix Brown, and Grace McKagan, were then featured in a music video for a NYX original song, which the brand used to remix and rework across several digital platforms, including TikTok.

In addition to the social media star-studded music video, NYX enlisted the help of several other influencers to post their own “Mon-Star” transformations, stretching the campaign’s impact with the help of Gen Z’s favorite influencers. 

Brew up a killer Halloween campaign with influencers

These Halloween influencer marketing campaigns from Spirit Halloween, Heinz, and NYX Cosmetics showcase the power of creative, community-driven partnerships. Lean on social-savvy creators to tell an engaging story around your brand this Halloween. By doing so, you can seamlessly get in front of audiences and drive conversions leading up to the holiday. 

Learn how other top brands are leveraging influencer marketing to drive full-funnel impact for their business in our guide, The Secret to Efficient Growth.