Halloween Ads Scare Up Interest
Universal Studio Tours just discovered it. Coors beer found out about it three years back. And Knott’s Berry Farm saw the light 14 years ago.
That light is the marketing glow of the jack-o’-lantern--untapped advertising opportunities at Halloween.
For years, some companies didn’t have a ghost of an idea how to align themselves with festivities most-closely associated with witches, werewolves and ax-murderers. But with Halloween’s potential multibillion-dollar market dangling like a bobbing apple, advertisers are finding new ways to hook their clients’ products to the holiday.
“Halloween has come into its own,” said Stuart Zanville, director of public relations at Knott’s Berry Farm, which markets Halloween almost like Santa’s Village markets Christmas. “It’s no longer just a time for black jelly beans,” said Zanville.
Indeed, Universal Studio Tours--for the first time--has entered the foray with two so-called Halloween Horror Nights. And it has chosen to advertise this terrifying tram tour of the studio’s back lot in a truly ghoulish manner. In a 30-second TV spot, a jack-o’-lantern--with blood oozing out of its mouth--is wildly attacked by a chain saw. The ad was created by Foote, Cone & Belding’s Los Angeles office.
“The market for this kind of stuff has been almost untapped,” said Gordon Armstrong, executive vice president of marketing at Universal Studios. He denies that Universal is mimicking Knott’s, which originated its so-called Halloween Haunt more than a dozen years ago.
So successful has Knott’s found these often-sold-out evenings, that it has added two extra nights to its schedule this year. Indeed, ticket sales for the Knott’s event are up 57% from last year, said Zanville.
Besides a good scare, marketing executives have also discovered that the next-best seller at Halloween may be a good brew.
Coors, for example, has tapped local TV celebrity Elvira to do two Halloween-related commercials. The ads, which feature Elvira doing her Halloween shopping in a creature-laden supermarket, were created by Foote, Cone & Belding’s Chicago office.
Like most companies, Coors is constantly searching for occasions around which to market its products. “You just can’t drive another Christmas sleigh through the snow,” said Robert Klugman, Coors vice president of marketing. “We saw a window of opportunity at Halloween.”
But Coors’ life-sized, stand-up displays of Elvira are disappearing at a bewitching pace at grocery stores. “The truth is,” said Jim Gregga, a Coors account director, “I’m afraid to find out what people are doing with them.”
No Monkey Business
American Tourister Inc. can’t get the gorilla off its back.
So, nearly a dozen years after the nation’s second-largest luggage maker first put an angry gorilla in a locked cage with a suitcase, and three years after it put the primate to pasture, it has decided to reincarnate the ape in a new form.
This time, the primate will be a person.
In fact, American Tourister is in the midst of a nationwide search to find an amateur comedian to wear a gorilla suit for a yearlong national tour as the Warren, R.I.-based company’s spokesape.
The company has yet to determine exactly what commercial role the winner will play. But the champion will be selected in Los Angeles in late December.
“That gorilla campaign has the highest recall of any campaign we’ve ever done,” said John Pulichino, president and chief executive of American Tourister. “We don’t take that lightly.”
But the ad agency that originally created the gorilla campaign for American Tourister--New York-based Doyle Dane Bernbach--will not be doing the new one.
And it is hardly pleased about another firm--Cone & Co. of Boston--changing the ape’s demeanor to that of a quick-witted comic.
“American Tourister should have never left us,” said John Noble, executive creative director at Doyle Dane. “People still associate the company with the gorilla even though the commercials haven’t aired for years.”
Some folks still wonder how--in the original commercial--American Tourister got the gorilla to toss the suitcase around so violently.
“The gorilla wasn’t fed for a couple of days,” said Noble. “Then, when all they tossed in the cage was a locked suitcase, he got angry.”
Danish, Anyone?
AirCal hits the air--and the airwaves--this week with a new “executive class” service that will be highly touted in a new, $15-million ad campaign. A series of TV and radio commercials will boast more leg room and better food on AirCal flights--a service tested earlier this year on the Los Angeles-to-San Francisco route as “almost-first-class.”
“We decided to give the whole thing more of a business orientation,” said Jack Roth, president and chief executive of Admarketing Inc., the Los Angeles ad firm that has handled the AirCal account for four years.
But AirCal confirms that the changes will be something less dramatic. In fact, the added legroom will consist of 10 seats each being removed from just six of the airline’s 39 planes. And the improved food service will also be minimal--Danish and fresh orange juice will be added to the current breakfast menu, which currently begins and ends with coffee. Cheese and crackers will join the snack menu that now consists of nuts.
“They’re small things,” said Bill Slattery, senior vice president of marketing, “but there’s not a lot you can do on an airplane.”
And the competition’s response? “It sounds like cosmetics to me,” said a PSA spokeswoman. “We’re not shaking in our boots.”
Brand Loyalty Survey
The Boomer Generation is a fickle, loosely aligned lot--with about as much brand loyalty as an iguana.
So says People magazine in its soon-to-be-released national market study of young adults, “The Boomer Generation as Consumers.” Details of the study, conducted by the Boston-based research firm, Yankelovich Clancy Shulman, will be made public Thursday at a press conference at the Beverly Wilshire.
“Brand loyalty problems may be due to the Boomer’s overall lack of knowledge across many product areas,” said Kevin J. Clancy, chairman of Yankelovich Clancy. “This may produce an unstable, uncommitted relationship with a brand.”
Indeed, less than 40% of the 1,500 young adults surveyed said they felt “knowledgeable” about the products they purchase. And here’s one finding few wine makers will drink to--less than 20% of those interviewed said they were “well equipped” to make decisions on buying wine.
