Will your brand be 'scary' this Halloween?

Halloween is one of my favorite times of the year. It's the start of the holidays, the ides of football season, and all the sweet candy you could wish for is going on sale. (My personal favorite is Reese's peanut butter cups.) My least favorite part of this holiday is all of the poorly executed advertisements by local small businesses. One of the best ways to be effective with your advertisement is to be relevant to current events, and holidays fall in that category. Holidays are your chance to do unique things with your marketing and advertising. Halloween in particular is a great opportunity to make your ads 'scary' this season while still being effective? I'm glad you asked...

Narrow your focus.

I always see small businesses trying to make up ground with larger companies by offering the world to their customers. You give away your product like a last ditch effort from Groupon. (I'll talk about the fails of Groupon in a later post.) What you should be doing is focusing on one promotion and making it a good one. Don't sell yourself short. Your products are good and you just need to advertise THAT. Sure you can take a little percentage off, or some other promotion. Just be sure to focus your advertising on your product, not your price. A consistent, well thought out plan is the key here.

Don't be cheesy.

It seems everyone wants to use crazy colors and sunbursts and huge letters in their ads this time of year. Dial it back a notch and make your ads simple. They should be clear and to the point with an easy to understand message. Go ahead and be ominous and use some cool imagery of skeletons and pumpkins but keep it to a minimum. Just consider the last advertisement you remember and I bet you it was very clean and simple.

Be scary.

Lastly, be scary. By that I mean do something that might not have ever been done before in advertising. Try something new, take a risk. Use guerrilla marketing tactics to surprise your audience. Perhaps try using a social media campaign that you've been wanting to try. #BeScary. Maybe have a sale with the lights off or wait around the corner in a costume with a free sample of your product. Just be sure to be professional.

Let me here what your plans are for your branding these holidays. Leave a comment or email me with your questions.

As always #BeAmbitious.