Key Takeaways
• Halloween has evolved into a major branding opportunity, with consumers embracing the spooky season earlier each year – driven by trends like “Summerween” – and contributing to projected record-breaking spending despite economic challenges.
• Creative and unexpected brand collaborations, such as Hellmann’s garlic-scented fantasy novel and Dunkin’s viral Spider Donut mascot, highlight how companies are leveraging humor, fandom and social media engagement to stand out during Halloween.
Happy Halloween, everyone.
Although a certain segment of the population will go full-send on jingle-bells holiday cheer as soon as the clock hits midnight on Nov. 1, Halloween has also slowly become a season with a – dare I say – equally dedicated selection of festivities.
Despite the economic challenges of 2025, the National Retail Federation forecasted a record $13 billion in Halloween-related spending for this year, up from about $11.5 billion last year. And that spending has started to come earlier in the calendar as well, with the “Summerween” trend – a combination of “summer” and “Halloween,” of course – seeing brands dropping Halloween lineups midsummer, and consumers giving themselves permission to get into the spooky spirit as early as July. In some cases, previously Halloween-exclusive decorations like skeletons are now a year-round occurrence.
In other words, people are taking their spooky season celebrations more seriously.
It remains to be seen whether the growth of Halloween is thanks to some strange commodification of young adults’ transition out of childhood or just the power of the pumpkin spice latte. But the branding opportunities of the holiday are undeniable, and top companies are certainly taking advantage with Halloween-themed promo campaigns.
There were significantly more Halloween-themed ESP searches made in the first half of 2025 than in the same period last year.
Distributors searched for terms like “Halloween” or “costume” in Q1 and Q2 at more than double the rate they have in the past two years.
ASI Research’s data from ESP, for example, reflects that there were more than twice as many searches for terms like “Halloween” or “costume” in Q2 this year than in 2023 or 2024 – and that’s without a significant change in the search numbers for the third quarter, when the bulk of Halloween promo prep happens.
In this special edition of ASI Media’s Best in Branding series, let’s take a look at some of the brands that won Halloween with the perfect spooky season merch.
Hellmann’s x Jennifer L. Armentrout
Ahead of the release of The Primal of Blood and Bone – the final book in New York Times bestselling Blood and Ash series – Author Jennifer L. Armentrout partnered with Hellmann’s mayonnaise for a garlic special edition of the fantasy novel. The book is printed with a garlic-infused ink – designed, of course, to ward off the vampire-like creatures called Craven that populate Armentrout’s series. It’s available for $31.99 through Armentrout’s bookstore – and the Instagram video of the author sniffing her special editions suggest that you can, in fact, scent the garlic aioli-inspired text of the novel.
Promo Takeaway: Did I ever see a mayonnaise and BookTok – the very vocal, very powerful online space for bookish creators and content – collaboration coming? No, I did not. Is this the funniest brand partnership of the 2025 spooky season? Without a doubt. I think the absurdity of it only works because it’s not the first thing that comes to mind when you combine fantasy novels and condiments. (I know that’s an absurd sentence, but come on – ketchup for blood would be the obvious answer). Now, I can’t say how many people would actually want a garlic-scented something stinking up their bookshelves, but Hellmann’s certainly knew how to make a statement, and props to Armentrout for going along with it. BookTok can sometimes be an oversaturated space, and, for better or worse, it’s often good marketing – not just good writing – that makes a book stand out.
Spidey the Dunkin’ Spider Donut
Dunkin’s social media accounts were once again hacked by everyone’s favorite unofficial mascot of Halloween: Spidey the Spider Donut. And to celebrate the season (or perhaps under threat of siege from the spider), the coffee brand launched a Spidey-centric merch line that included a foot-long plush spider donut, a glittery chain, appropriately deranged T-shirt designs and – of course – a Halloween costume.
Promo Takeaway: Dunkin’s promo projects are no stranger to this series, but there’s a special place in my heart for Spidey the Spider Donut. With text-speak galore and a chaotic, definitely not corporate-clean attitude, Spidey’s takeovers dramatically and consistently increase Dunkin’s Instagram engagement. Its first post alluding to Spidey’s impending return got nearly 500,000 likes, and scrolling through the comments on further posts yields engagement from top brands across niches, from Papa Johns and S’well to Five Below and Ulta. When you’ve created a character with such a significant following – commenters were asking for Spidey as soon as the calendar hit October – it only makes sense to capitalize on that engagement with merch. Bonus points for a merch line that matches the energy of the cultural moment you’re memorializing.
Columbia’s Last Will & (Outerwear) Testament
Outerwear brand Columbia also leaned into a quick social media takeover to get into spooky season – a takeover by none other than the Grim Reaper. While stalking menacingly through the woods with its signature scythe, the Grim Reaper introduces the Death Wishes Powderkeg jacket – a windbreaker-style jacket with a last will and testament sewn into the lining, including a spot for the wearer to fill in who the jacket will go to in the event of their demise. Why? Well, as the Reaper itself asserts, “Columbia makes its gear so tough that it could outlive you.”
Promo Takeaway: Columbia has long leaned into the idea that nature isn’t always pretty flowers and watching the sunset – it’s tough and often dangerous. Its marketing, featuring slogans like “Engineered for Whatever” and “Because Mother Nature can be a real mother…” reflects that, but this Halloween campaign takes things one step further, poking fun at that danger. I think Columbia knows that an extra patch with a silly, unserious will and (outerwear) testament sewn in isn’t an addition that people would necessarily pay for. But it’s the perfect candidate for a giveaway – it gets a core Columbia product into the hands of new consumers, and it’s just gimmicky enough to stop the scroll while still remaining true to the brand’s core message. A win-win.
