17 Thrilling Halloween Promotion Ideas

7 minute read

Julie Foley Senior Customer Success Manager

Halloween Costume Photo Contest

A costume contest is a classic way to connect with your audience during Halloween! You can create categories for age ranges, specific costume types, or for specific awards (scariest, funniest, relevant.) We have a ready-made turnkey photo contest you can download today to quickly get this campaign running!

WVAA-TV’s Halloween Costume Contest featured three categories: Adults, Children, and Pets. They used email and Facebook to encourage their audience to enter the contest and vote. They even sent out email reminders on the last day photos could be entered. With a total of 233 entries, the photo contest received over 3,450 votes.

Halloween costume contest from WVVA

What Kind of Halloween Candy Are You? Personality Quiz

Aberdeen American brought in almost 500 entries and 100 opt-ins with this turnkey ‘What Kind of Halloween Candy Are You’ quiz. They secured a local insurance company to sponsor the contest, who contributed a prize of $25 Chamber Bucks to drive engagement. Aberdeen American used their email and Facebook to encourage people to participate and win the simple prize.

Aberdeen news candy quiz

Halloween Pet Costume Photo Contest

Pet photo contents are always a huge hit with audiences, so don’t miss this chance to engage pet parents with a costume contest!

Sponsored by a local veterinarian, this pet Halloween costume contest by WLOS-TV brought in over 200 entries. With a prize of a $200 gift card to a local pet store, they were able to drive participation within their target audience – local pet owners.

pet halloween costume contest

Halloween Traditions Poll

There are so many ways to add a traditions poll to enhance your Halloween content. The team at KSAT-TV did just that with this five-question poll. They tied the poll to a story on local teens facing jail time due to trick-or-treat incidents. They asked their audience to share their opinion on rules and traditions around trick-or-treating, including “At what age should kids stop trick-or-treating?”, and “What time should trick-or-treating end? The poll hit on a hot local topic and more than 5,800 people took the poll!

KSAT Halloween Poll

Halloween Coloring Contest

Coloring contests are a super fun way to engage families for Halloween. Create a coloring page PDF and include a download like at the top of the contest. Encourage your audience to print, color, and submit a photo of their creation!

Halloween Coloring Contest

Pumpkin Carving Photo Contest

Give your audience a chance to show off their pumpkin carving creations with a photo contest. KGET-TV used this photo contest to give their audience a chance to show off their creepy, spooky pumpkin carving skills! They gave away tickets to Murray Family Farms’ October Fun Fest where they can enjoy a pumpkin patch, corn maze, super slide, and more! The station included an email opt-in on the entry form to grow their email database.

Pumpkin Carving Photo Contest

What Halloween Costume Should You Wear? Personality Quiz

Costumes are one of the most fun ways to celebrate Halloween but it’s not always easy to choose your costume. Use this turnkey personality quiz to reach audience members looking for help making the decision.

The Daily Telegram partnered with the local Goodwill resale store on this personality quiz, “What Costume Should You Wear?” The results page even featured costumes users could get from the store. The winner of this contest received a Halloween prize package from Goodwill. With the help of email and Facebook, this promotion brought in 112 opt-ins for the paper and 115 for the local Goodwill.

Daily Telegram Costume Quiz 2

Halloween Joke Ballot

The St. Louis Post Dispatch promoted a Halloween Joke Contest Ballot, as it’s a St. Louis tradition for people to ask trick-or-treaters to tell a joke to get candy. Playing on fun traditions like this will engage your audience. The paper sent one email at the beginning of October and two in the middle of October to encourage people to enter into the contest, resulting in 224 participants and over 130 opt-ins. They also sent an email to thank the participants after their submission.

St Louis post Dispatch joke ballot

What’s the Worst Halloween Candy? Poll

A Halloween candy poll is a sweet way to connect with your audience and enhance your Halloween content. What do you hate to see go into your trick-or-treat bag? The team at Reading Eagle designed a poll to ask their audience for their opinion. Their audience loved the spin on the typical Halloween content and more than 200 people voted in the poll.

reading eagle worst candy poll

Trunk or Treat Virtual Event

Use a virtual trunk or treat event to help your audience celebrate the holiday while maintaining social-distancing. You can utilize our turnkey event signup to get started today!

Virtual Trick-or-Treat Event Sign-up

Best Costume of All Time Bracket

There are tons of classic Halloween costumes out there but your audience definitely has thoughts on which is the best. Use this turnkey ‘Best Costume of All Time’ bracket to give them a chance to vote for their favorites!

Best Costume of All Time Bracket

Halloween Sweepstakes

Sweepstakes are an amazing opportunity to drive huge engagement numbers, grow email databases, and generate tons of lead-generation opportunities this Halloween.

To celebrate the holiday, the Providence Journal ran a sweepstakes for a Halloween Adventure! The prize package included four tickets to a local zoo, a local paintball business, and a haunted house. It was a hit with their audience; collecting nearly 1,360 entries and almost 600 opt-ins for the Providence Journal.
Providence Journal Halloween Sweeps

Halloween Trivia Quiz

Use this turnkey trivia quiz to test your audience’s knowledge of Halloween trivia!

How much do you know about Halloween? Trivia Quiz

Pumpkin Carving Virtual Event

There are tons of opportunities to celebrate Halloween with virtual events this year. Try something like a virtual pumpkin carving tutorial, virtual candy making class, or a Halloween decorating demo to get your audience in the Halloween spirit. And, when you utilize Event Sign-Ups, you can quickly grow your email database! You can get started today with our ready-made Event Sign-Up turnkey.

KGET-TV Pumpkin carving photo contest

Best of Halloween Ballot

WDIV-TV got in the spooky spirit with their Vote 4 the Best: Special Halloween Edition, bringing in over 8,250 votes. Their ballot had eight categories, including Best House Decorations, Best Child Costume, and even Best Pumpkin Patch. WDIV’s Vote 4 the Best citywide ballot has become incredibly popular with their audience. They’ve now turned ballots into a $1MM annual revenue program.

WDIV-TV best of halloween

Halloween Decoration Photo Contest

Let your audience share their Halloween decorations with a photo contest. You can easily run this contest with our ready-made turnkey photo contest.

KHSL asked their viewers to show off their decorating skills by entering the Haunted House Decorating Contest! With a prize of $500 donated by sponsor Light It Up Solar & Electric, the contest was a scary success with over 840 votes!

home is where the haunt contest

Halloween Candy Bracket

Brackets take a fun single topic rivalry and ask your audience to vote for their favorites each round, until they’ve picked an overall winner. This is a perfect way to have your audience determine the best Halloween candy! Everyone has their favorites and a head-to-head competition will drive social sharing and traffic to your website.

Halloween Candy Bracket

For more ideas on how to drive engagement, entries, and opt-ins this Halloween, check out our Fall Revenue Guide.

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