Halloween is still big business—especially if you keep your advertising on point during the Halloween season. With over $4.1 billion spent on Halloween costumes alone in 2023, staying on the sidelines without a Halloween marketing campaign can feel like a missed opportunity.
So, it's time to put your creative hat on and start thinking about this year's haunting Halloween ad campaign.
Whether you're looking for Halloween ad inspiration or you need help choosing your color palettes, fonts, and design elements, we've got you covered. Click on any topic to jump straight to that section.
Creativity is king when it comes to Halloween advertising. With Halloween spending projected to reach $11.6 billion in 2024, it's no surprise that companies are trying to capture consumers' attention using eye-catching Halloween advertisements.
Before diving into the nitty gritty of Halloween advertising components, let's look at some of our favorite Halloween ad examples.
Pilsener Halloween ad
We see in the movies all the time how, after crazy parties, those who manage not to fall asleep will usually draw funny things on the faces of those who are fast asleep. This particular Pilsener campaign wants to encourage people to drink responsibly on Halloween to avoid getting a mask made by others.
Freddy Krueger, the antagonist from A Nightmare on Elm Street, is not the most joyful person—on the contrary. However, Halter Bonbons promises that their candy will turn anyone's Halloween into a sweet celebration.
Many people are afraid of Pennywise—and Suzuki knows this. Playing into this, Suzuki created a Halloween ad with Pennywise's face and tire marks all over it. What better way to conquer fear than by dealing with it head-on?
It's Halloween, so it makes sense for Freddy, Jason, Scarecrow, and Michael to sit in line and patiently wait for the best knife shop to open so they can do what they do best. The good news is that these are fictional characters, and we have nothing to worry about. Or do we?
Isn't Scream the perfect term when naming your Halloween product range? That's exactly what this brand did, but they didn't stop there. For this campaign, they used the ultra-popular setting from the movie The Shining to set the perfect context for their products.
You can probably relate to this ad if you work in an agency. This Halloween advertising campaign aims to show that Halloween is not just once per year when you work in an agency—it can happen weekly.
Guinness is known for its clever and powerful seasonal campaigns—and their Halloween ads are no different. For Halloween, they called themselves "The true brew of Halloween," and there's no statement more striking than that.
Who said you can't play around and have some fun advertising your product? M&M's Halloween advertisement used different colored M&M candy to create playful designs. In this particular case, a black and orange ghost.
Oreo inspires us with this terrifying advertisement of an Oreo cookie with vampire teeth made of dripping milk—such a simple idea with perfect execution.
Pepsi and Coca-Cola are two brands that have been competing for a long time, and Pepsi has found a way to incorporate this competition in one of their Halloween ads. Look at this ad below to see how Pepsi decided to cosplay as Coca-Cola for Halloween.
Heineken is also a brand that pioneers in creative ads, especially seasonal ones. The Halloween advertisement below perfectly captures one of the scariest things that could happen at a party.
This McDonald's Halloween ad is so simple and brilliant. Even though it just says, "Happy Halloween," the cheeseburger that looks like a wrapped candy takes you straight to trick-or-treating.
Here's a creative Halloween advertisement idea by Nintendo, where two Nintendo controllers are stacked on top of each other on a white roundtop coffee table to resemble a bat.
What candy would you dish out when trick-or-treaters come to your door? The fun-sized version, of course. In Snickers' Halloween ad, the lady opens the door, and instead of kids, she's met with younger, fun-sized versions of herself, which creepily conveys Snickers' message.
In Mini Cooper's creative Halloween ad, they used an upside-down black Mini Cooper to hint at bats. As a result, creating an image that resembles spooky figures lurking in the shadows while simultaneously showing the car's sleek features.
Jeeps' Halloween ad proves that you can keep things simple as well. A simple illustration can also be worth a thousand words, keeping your customers connected to the brand without hassle.
In their Halloween ad, Heinz tapped into the Joker craze. Their Halloween advertising campaign features actors with ketchup smeared on their mouths to mimic the iconic clown smile, paying homage to the Joker character while highlighting ketchup as the perfect condiment for treats.
Tim Hortons cleverly combines two themes often present during Halloween: zombies and post-Halloween fatigue. Showing a woman leaning against a wall, Tim Hortons urges customers to overcome their sluggishness and resort to Tim Hortons for a quick pick-me-up.
Fanta doesn't have to try too hard with their Halloween design elements. They already have one core component embedded into their brand: their vibrant orange packaging. Their Halloween advertisement relies on this, simply showing a Fanta bottlecap untwisted to resemble a carved pumpkin.
Harley-Davidson's Halloween advert consists of motorcycle parts forming the shape of a skull. This aligns with their target audience—those with a rebel flare–and taps into the spooky Halloween spirit.
Now that we've covered some examples of successful Halloween ads, you may be ready to start creating your own. But what makes a creative Halloween ad? What design elements should you consider? And how do you ensure they stay on brand?
In this section, we cover the three advertisement elements you need to account for when creating your Halloween advertisement:
Halloween color palettes
Halloween imagery
Halloween font
Halloween color palettes
While black and orange are the go-to advertising color combinations usually associated with Halloween, fall colors such as orange, brown, red, and yellow also work great. Here
Here are a few HEX color codes we recommend using for your Halloween banner ads:
Orange: #FF5100, #ED900B, #EA9E00
Black: #020204, #020202, #000000
Red: #D03506, #AC000B, #7C0105
White: #FFFFFF, #E1E1E1, #EBEBEB
Grey: #E7E7E7, #535550, #97978D
Purple: #65369C, #800080, #7F00FF
To see what some of these color codes look like, look below at the following ad color palettes and get inspired for your Halloween advertisements.
Palette 1: #FF5100, #65369C, #EA9E00, #432017
Palette 2: #ED900B, #020204, #D03506, #B5203C
Palette 3: #AC000B, #E7E7E7, #020202, #7C0105
Remember that your Halloween advertisement should stay true to your brand using your brand's style guide. Solely using Halloween color combinations consisting of reds, oranges, and blacks can result in your ad getting lost in the sea of Halloween ads. Our color code in HEX is just a simple, helpful start.
Halloween imagery
The best way to get customers in the mood for Halloween with your advertisement is with the right imagery. While you can tweak and twist these design elements to fit your brand, these are the core components that turn a standard ad into one that conveys the Halloween spirit:
Ghosts
Witches and cauldrons
Bats, scarecrows, and ravens
Skulls and skeletons
Black cats
Pumpkins and Jack-o'-lanterns
Gravestones and graveyards
Haunted houses
Blood drips and stains
Potions, brooms, and magic wands
Coffins
Full moon and clouds
Zombies and mummies
Creepy dolls or puppets
Candles and lanterns
Candy and treat bags
Werewolves and vampires
Dungeons, chains, and shackles
Clowns and circus tents
Spiderwebs and spiders
Fog or mist
Eyeballs and body parts
Horror film characters
Covering at least one of these in your ad copy, design elements, or across your Halloween ad background is essential for that Halloween flare. But don't forget to include your core brand elements to keep your ads recognizable.
Your Halloween ads need a sinister flair—and there's no better way to do that than using Halloween fonts. Here are a few different font styles you might want to consider when crafting your Halloween ad:
Story Brush
This Halloween-themed font is perfect for creating flyers, posters, or any type of design that you want to draw attention to. It includes over 240 glyphs and comes in two styles: Regular and slanted.
This font's name conveys its suitability for your Halloween marketing campaigns immediately. Its design can give your Halloween ads that horror-like, retro appeal that reminds customers of their favorite horror movies. This font comes in regular and slanted versions, with capital letters and OTF and TTF versions.
The Crow is a special, unique-looking font. The vintage and gothic aesthetic makes it ideal for Halloween use. It comes in eight different styles that you can choose from.
The Covenant brush font looks like it's taken straight out of a horror movie, mainly due to the narrow, slash-like letters. It's perfect for giving customers that fright on sight to keep your Halloween ads unforgettable.
Not all the fonts you use for your Halloween ads must be scary. If you're a family-friendly brand that wants to keep its Halloween marketing campaigns fright-free, this decorative font is a great way to do so.
If you're feeling overwhelmed by having to start from scratch when designing your Halloween ad banners, don't worry. Here are a few different Halloween banner ad templates you can start with immediately.
Just click on the Start from this link under the design you like.
Creating compelling ads doesn't have to be a heavy lift. The Halloween ad examples and elements we covered can be your guidelines for creating creative Halloween ads that help you stay memorable during the Halloween period.
Remember, though, that brand recognition during Halloween goes beyond punchy ad copy and spooky design elements. It's about merging creative freedom with branded design elements to ensure your brand resonates with customers across various campaigns and channels.
