📌Ready for Halloween 2025? Early Engagement = Big Returns!

Get ready for Halloween 2025, engage early and offer identity-driven experiences that make an impact.

Thank you for being here, and a special thank you to our VIP Lounge members and sponsors who make this newsletter possible.

🌞 Welcome To This Week's Newsletter

Most hospitality teams plan Halloween too late to matter. By the time most venues launch, your guests have already booked somewhere else.

To stay ahead of the competition, you need to start your Halloween 2025 campaign now, capture your market share early and lead the seasonal narrative. Here’s why 👇

• 41% of people now say Halloween is the most important holiday for their household.

• 36% of buyers start Halloween shopping in September.

• Another 39.5% engage in the first half of October.

• 24% of consumers plan at least a month before the event.

With consistent spending patterns and strong intent signals, Halloween has become a key seasonal milestone. Millennials and Gen Z are leading this trend, spending more on costumes, decorations, and unique experiences that allow them to express their personal style.

Campaigns that begin ahead of time, tapping into micro-anticipation windows, allow brands to capture attention before the rush. Instead of relying on tired, generic horror tropes, experiences are crafted to centre on self-expression, allowing participants to engage authentically. Music-led content, designed to sync with TikTok's algorithm, builds momentum far beyond traditional event calendars.

Let’s break down the key strategies to ensure your Halloween campaign outperforms the competition.

• Explore the emotional build-up that drives spending before Halloween

• The strategic case for ditching default theming in favour of identity rituals

• This year’s trending Halloween music and how to use it

• The campaign timeline most teams overlook, but successful campaigns master

Let’s Check In ☕

Upgrade to VIP Membership today for exclusive Halloween insights and strategies that give your campaigns a competitive advantage.

🕸️ Buyer Behaviour Trends

💀 Spending

Halloween is a lucrative opportunity for hospitality brands, with bars reporting a 15% sales increase on 31 October compared to regular nights. Restaurants see an 11% rise in takeout orders when Halloween falls on a weekday. In 2024, Halloween footfall was 5.4% higher than the daily average.

Gen Z and Millennials increasingly focus on immersive experiences, prioritising events, nights out, and seasonal menus over traditional products.

For hospitality brands targeting these high-spending groups, the key to success is early engagement. Capture attention and secure bookings before making decisions, ensuring your offer stands out in a highly competitive market.

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🕯️ Pre-Halloween Rituals & Preparation

Halloween isn’t just a one-day event; it’s a season. People start preparing weeks in advance, as shown by Pinterest searches for “Halloween preparation party” and “pumpkin-carving party ideas.” Retailers also see craft supply sales spike from late September, with consumers already gearing up for decorating and DIY projects.

On social media, hashtags like “pre-Halloween,” “Halloween prep,” and “Halloween countdown” reflect the growing buzz in the lead-up to the holiday. These signals tell us that consumers are building anticipation early, and brands have the chance to tap into this by engaging with guests long before the event itself, becoming an integral part of their seasonal plans.

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For Gen Z and younger Millennials, Halloween is more than just a costume; it’s a chance to express identity through pop culture, humour, and style. Costumes are carefully selected to stand out, align with trends, signal affiliation with subcultures, or reference shared in-jokes. These choices influence where they go, what they share, and who they go with.

🎃 Halloween Costume Trends

Pinterest’s 2024 Halloween Trend Report highlights a 170% increase in searches for trend-forward costumes that reflect the year's biggest cultural moments.

👉 Read Pinterest's full 2024 Halloween Trend Report here

🎭 Halloween A Time for Expression & Experiences

Interest in Halloween doesn’t build all at once; it happens in short, trackable bursts. Search spikes for “costume ideas” and “Halloween events near me” start as early as the last week of August. Pinterest boards and TikTok compilations around autumn aesthetics emerge at the same time. Even pumpkin spice and décor queries increase before September begins. These micro-anticipation windows reveal when planning starts, and aligning your campaign to these early signals is key to getting chosen before the inbox or feed becomes crowded.

DIY costumes, niche character builds, and makeup transformations tied to TikTok trends begin circulating well before October. Meme-driven group looks are often finalised by mid-September, and the venues that understand the reference and tone are securing bookings.

Make it easier for guests to act on their plans. For example, a meme-driven costume theme that aligns with current cultural trends, a well-lit photo backdrop that encourages natural photos, or music that matches trending TikTok sounds all appeal directly to guests’ intentions.

Personal relevance is what drives the decision to book. If your venue aligns with the Halloween guests are already imagining, you’ve already captured their attention.

This demand for self-expression also reframes how hospitality teams approach Halloween experiences. Immersive formats still work, but they need to feel current. Walkthrough horror, when paired with storytelling and strong visuals, continues to perform well. Venues with underused areas can reframe them as mini escape rooms, haunted corridors, or paranormal bars. The detail matters—lighting, pacing, and staff performance need to feel deliberate.

Retro horror is also proving popular, with classic characters and 80s/90s references having broad appeal. A retro costume night or horror screening, matched with themed drinks and period styling, encourages group attendance and repeat visits. Tracks like “Somebody’s Watching Me” or “Ghostbusters” can anchor the mood, keeping things fun and nostalgic.

Ready to move from theory to execution? Here's how to structure your campaign around what guests act on

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🗝️ Join Me in the VIP Lounge 🔒

The VIP Lounge is where strategy turns into action. Each week, I break down the how-to, from emerging trends to campaign tools and timing, so you can apply the tactics that matter with confidence.

Most teams wait too long and miss the real opportunity. In VIP, you'll see exactly when and how to act before the Halloween window closes.

This week in the Lounge

• 🎵 The Power of Music in Halloween Marketing. Which tracks to choose and how to use them to boost reach and relevance

• 🔄 The Halloween Nostalgia Cycle. Which early 2000s references are back, and how to use them in your campaigns

• 🕰️ 7-Phase Halloween Campaign Plan. timelines, tactics, and a VIP-only prompt to sharpen your offer using AI

• 🔐 VIP Only Tips & Recommended Resources
  

You can also ask questions in the member-only comments, where I’ll reply with practical, tactical advice, without the consulting fee.

Let’s get to work 👇

🎶 The Power of Music in Halloween Marketing

Halloween campaigns built with music-first thinking will outperform those that treat audio as an afterthought. In 2025, TikTok and Instagram Reels will rely heavily on the right track to determine whether your content reaches new audiences or disappears in the scroll.

On TikTok, videos featuring trending sounds or music see 66% higher engagement than those without. Similarly, Instagram Reels show a 30.81% higher reach compared to photos and carousels, making audio-optimised Reels a powerful tool for expanding your audience.