Halloween Packaging
Halloween is a fun and festive time of the year. It’s also a time a significant sales period for retailers who embrace the season. It’s expected that this year, 179 million Americans will participate in Halloween activities – that’s more than the 171 million who participated last year according to NFR’s annual survey. And it is projected that consumers will spend a whopping $9.1 billion on Halloween-related activities in 2017. Halloween is a great opportunity for companies to create new hype around existing products with special limited edition packaging. Seasonal packaging is often a hit with consumers and Halloween is no exception. This spooky time of the year allows you to play with colours and textures in cool and creative ways.
Here are some tips for creating creepy and creative Halloween packaging:
Incorporate packaging that reflects current costume trends.
Use social listening tools such as Brand Watch and HootSuite to research what your consumers are talking about and what’s trending. Then use those insights to generate ideas for your packaging.
For example, this year, the top children’s costume is a superhero according to surveys. So, if you have an apparel product aimed at kids, incorporating superhero motifs into your packaging could allow you to score big with kids. And, if budget allows, this may be a good time of the year to roll out limited edition packaging in collaboration with the makers of popular television shows or films. For example, apparel companies Old Navy and Under Armour have both produced Batman clothing in the past.
Use spooky symbols and characters to spice up current packaging.
Burger King commissioned spooky versions of its food packaging for Halloween. Burger King’s iconic crown got a spooky skeleton makeover and its Whopper wrapper was made to like a zombie. The spooky crown is a brilliant design that consumers can wear again at Halloween parties this season. This limited-edition Halloween packaging was a hit with consumers, especially on social media.
Incorporate traditional black and orange Halloween colours.
Oreo’s Halloween packaging incorporates the traditional black and orange Halloween colours. It also features limited-edition haunted house designs on the cookie.
Similarly, these black and white salt and pepper shakers with skull designs give the product a spooky but sophisticated touch.
Play with unique 3D printing techniques to bring your Halloween designs to life. Holographic printing and lenticular printing are popular packaging trends.
Create packaging that can double as a Halloween decoration.
For example, this Halloween-themed Fanta box can be transformed into a jack o’lantern when it’s emptied. Placing a flashlight or night light inside the box turns it into a fun Halloween decoration — a hit with both kids and adults.
These tin cans can by the confectionary brand Lyle’s Black Treacle can also be transformed into jack o’lanterns when they’re lit from within. The design won a Dieline Package Design Award for confectionary, snacks, and desserts and generated new buzz for the brand at a time of the year that is generally slow for the company.