The spookiest season is upon us and with Halloween comes some of the most playful ad campaigns of the year. Halloween 2024 brought an incredible ad lineup from some of the biggest brands.
While All Hallows Eve might not be top of mind when you think of holiday ads, it should be. Halloween is growing in popularity and is the second-biggest retail holiday behind Christmas. With retail on the rise this year, advertisers should take note and take advantage of audiences ready and willing to spend on some spooky fun.
Our top ads from Halloween 2024
Every year there are so many fun and engaging ads to watch and 2024 is no exception. Here are the best of the best from Halloween this year.
Snickers
Snickers takes a fun spin on its famous “you’re not you when you’re hungry” campaign with this Zombie-building ad. The familiar format of the ad keeps things comfortable, while the twerking zombie animatronic makes its audience laugh. The ad gives its audience memorable humor while reminding them that Snickers are not just great for trick-or-treaters but for grown-ups too.
Disney+
Fear is here in Disney+’s 2024 Halloween ad. This ad does a great job of stringing together clips for everyone’s favorite Halloween movies and TV shows to draw in audiences and definitively show that Disney+ “is your haunted home.” Every year major streaming platforms and TV networks create ads to highlight their Halloween lineup, but this year Disney+ takes first prize. In part, this is because it cleverly leads its lineup with Agatha All Along, Marvel’s latest show and a viral success.
Disney Parks
Disney isn’t just leading the pack by highlighting its TV and film content this spooky season, it is also doing a fantastic job promoting its parks. Travel is a big ticket in 2024, with holiday travel jumping 59% in the past two years. Disney Land and Disney World get the princess treatment in this spooktacular ad, getting the attention of parents and kids keen for their next holiday destination.
Spirit Halloween
Spirit Halloween is a spooky season favorite for its huge selection of decor and costumes, but it isn’t usually noted for its commercials. And while this ad is a smaller production than the others on this list, it does what it needs to for its brand, and it does it well. Spirit Halloween latched onto 2024’s trendiest movies and online memes and uses this simple ad to highlight its selection of fan-favorite Halloween must-haves. The ad leads with costumes from Beetlejuice and the Joker, drawing in and engaging their target audience.
Key Halloween trends for advertisers
The spooky season is growing rapidly with consumers, but it isn’t catching on as quickly with advertisers. While retail spending is on the rise for Halloween, only the most traditionally spooky brands have ads on our list – or big-ticket ads at all! While we’ve come to expect fun ads from candy companies like Snickers, family-friendly entertainment brands like Disney, and costume houses like Spirit Halloween, other big brands that sell Halloween have yet to make a big appearance.
In future years, as Halloween continues to grow in popularity, there’ll likely be more competition. We’ve got our eye out to see which new brands jump on the Halloween bandwagon first.
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