Key calendar dates are always a huge sales opportunity for hospitality businesses, and spending on Halloween topped £1bn in 2023 (Mintel, 2023). Can you imagine not tapping into this earning potential? Spooky.

This spending was driven by a significant uptick in spending from younger generations; 16–34-year-olds were the highest spending age group for the occasion (Mintel, 2023), shelling out on costumes, events and decorations.

Interestingly, spending also shows a growing trend towards full-size chocolate bars and sweets over mini sizes and warming drinks, like hot chocolate, coffee, and spirits that go well in these – pun slightly intended… (Food Manufacture, 2024).

As Halloween celebrations become bigger and more extravagant, so does the marketing effort, making standing out from the crowd an even harder task than before. However, that’s no reason to give in to the competitive ghouls and goblins!

Here are 10 marketing ideas to help you gain traction around Halloween…

Halloween marketing ideas for social media

It’s cheap, it’s effective, and with the right social media campaign, you can increase sales and long-term engagement in your local area.

1) Costume party

Halloween costumes are hardly anything new but it’s how you use them that counts. Of course, you should encourage guests to dress up for your Halloween event but before the day itself, you can use social media to whip up excitement.

• Post pictures of your staff in their Halloween outfits a few days before Halloween to demonstrate how the whole team are getting into the spirit. Got a team member who’s great with make-up? Ask them to help out and create some great content.
• Ask your followers to post a picture of their Halloween costume in the days leading up to 31st October and then reward someone with a free meal or bar tab. User-generated content allows you to focus on things in-house while others create imagery for you. Announce a winner on Halloween morning.
• Costume contest: Host a Halloween costume competition. This is a fun and easy way to increase your social media engagement – especially if you offer a prize to the winners, such as a free drink, starter, or 10% off the bill.

2) Social checklist

When you’re using social media, be sure to:

• Use hashtags, both generic and niche. For example, #halloweencostumes and #halloweeninbirmingham
• Don’t forget to tag your location on Instagram to make sure you’re seen by those seeking out events in your local area.
• Include Halloween and local keywords in your captions, particularly on Instagram and TikTok. This will help you appear higher in search results.
• Get involved in trending Halloween topics! For example, is your pub near a good walking trail that’s popular in the autumn? You could recommend popular Halloween-related podcasts to listen to while people walk (before detouring into your pub, of course).

3) Go Live (and give back!)

During your Halloween night, go live on Instagram or TikTok to show everyone the atmosphere – whether it be family activities, costumes or live music, it will make your followers want to be part of the action.

After the evening, create a Halloween story highlight section so that your followers can see the best parts when they’re looking for a night out next year.

Another option is to give back to your local community. As an example, members of your team could get all dressed up in Halloween costumes and visit a centre for the elderly, volunteer at a pumpkin patch, or even deliver pub takeaways in costume.

In-house ideas to boost your marketing this Halloween

Market your in-house Halloween activity before, during, and after the night to keep building engagement long after the night is over.

4) Decorations

Go big on making your pub or restaurant look as spooky as possible and share images and reels of the transformation in real-time. Share a before and after picture on Instagram or a timelapse reel on TikTok, showing your team working hard to create a Halloween haven.

Followers will love to see a glimpse of what they can expect when they walk through the door, and it might help them decide to visit your place over somewhere else in your local area.

5) Halloween Drinks & Dishes

If you’ve got a special Halloween discount on food or drinks, then be sure to shout about it on your social channels well beforehand. Even better, create a frightful cocktail or dish that’s Halloween-themed and share images in the run-up to 31st October.

If that sounds like too much work, just try adding some grenadine to an existing cocktail to represent blood or crème de menthe for a ghoulish green tinge. Make them scarier with creative garnishes.

While you’re at it, why not go all out with a spooky Halloween cocktail party? Simply take your ghoulish new cocktails and throw a party, including themed decorations and perhaps even a horror movie quiz to go with it.

6) Photo booth

Go a bit further with your decoration and create a Halloween photobooth or corner with scary props like masks, costumes, spider webs and hanging bats. Make a sign that encourages guests to tag you in their social photos and then share, share, share.

User-generated content is gold.

Halloween goodies and giveaways: ideas to help boost your marketing

7) Giving away gifts and freebies

This is always a guaranteed way to make customers happy, both online and in-house. Create fun little goodie bags for kids and adults, though steer away from only sweets for the little ones – try stickers, pencils and vampire teeth instead. Show your goodie bags on your social channels before the day and make them limited to encourage early arrivals.

Other types of giveaways to share on social media might be a free Halloween cocktail for the first 20 people to arrive or 10% off before 9pm.

Halloween frights!

8) Scare your audience with engagement:

• Guess our ghoulish outfit: Share your team members’ Halloween outfits on social and see if people can guess what they are! Easy, simple and fun engagement for all ages.
• Start a scary story on your social media: Write the first sentence and then encourage others to add to it. Make it about your pub or restaurant so it helps others stick to a theme.
• Share your pub’s haunted history: Does your pub or restaurant have an in-house ghost or any freaky old stories that you can share? Make sure you share them and see if anyone has experienced a similar spook themselves.

9) Trick or treat

If you’re a family-friendly pub or restaurant, then why not hop on social media to let locals know that trick-or-treaters are welcome to stop at your door? Provide treats and strengthen your connection to your local community.

Got a few different pubs in the local area? Or do you want to work together with the other pubs nearby? Create a themed pub crawl, taking people from one pub to the next for the full collection of delicious trick-or-treat goodies.

Alternatively, you could create a themed pub crawl with yourself as the final destination, offering a small discount to anyone who visits all locations and then ends their crawl at yours for a Halloween meal.

10) Pumpkin carving or painting event

For a family-friendly event that could bring in more table bookings than bats, try a pumpkin carving or painting event! Either have a BYOP (bring your own pumpkin) set-up where people bring their pumpkins and you provide the tools, snacks, and drinks, or provide pumpkins for an extra fee.

It’s a celebration of the season, getting locals together for an evening of carving, painting, and indulging in seasonal dishes and drinks.

Beccy Lindon

Beccy Lindon is a Brew content specialist. She shares her expertise with our hospitality clients and manages their fast-paced content briefs from her home in sunny Mallorca.