How social insights get your brand into the Halloween spirit

Happy post-Halloween! After a truly scary 2020 made celebrations difficult, 2021 marked a welcome return to more traditional frights for many people. Millions of trick-or-treaters, costume-contest champions, and scary-movie screamers were able to safely gather to celebrate together over the weekend — even if the masks did look a little different this year.

The phantasmic festivities weren’t just shared in person, either; they also took place in thousands of social media conversations across dozens of channels. Social listening data and Sprinklr’s real-time insights dashboards paint a vivid picture of what everyone was cheering (or is it booooing?) about this Halloween. From candy and costumes to our favorite monsters, let’s take a look at a few of the trends that made this spooky season special.

Tracking treats with Sprinklr

As a kid, my friends and I were very strategic trick-or-treaters, paying close attention and swapping intel on the houses that gave out the best candy. With Sprinklr’s social listening tool, I can do the same thing on a national scale. As you can see in real time, Snickers dominated the scene as the top-mentioned candy in 2021 for most states — though it’s no surprise that the cattle-loving residents of Montana had more to say about Jolly Ranchers.

No matter what your favorite candy is, it pairs perfectly with your favorite scary movie during this time of year. Based on conversations drawn from the entire spectrum of social media channels, lots of horror classics are in heavy rotation. But Halloween is head and shoulders above the rest with 14,000 mentions. It’s that kind of buzz that also makes Michael Myers 2021’s most-referenced villain by a wide margin over stalwarts like Chucky and Freddy Krueger.

Social listening unlocks the power of trends for every occasion

Holidays and special events always bring people together for shared experiences and cultural moments. Being a part of these conversations where and how they’re happening is fun, but it can also be critically important for your brand. The National Retail Federation estimates that shoppers will spend more than $10B on Halloween-related merchandise this year, which is an all-time high and $2B more than last year.

That spending is certainly a great sign for candy manufacturers and mask makers. But even if you aren’t in a directly related industry, conversations among your customers and data on their most common purchases tell you what’s important to them right now, and that can create a powerful identification with your brand if you’re there when they need you. With visibility into real-time social listening data, your brand becomes more agile and the stories you tell more dynamic.

Here’s are just a few things that are possible with Sprinklr social listening around Halloween and other special events:

Nail your messaging

Personalized messages delivered to the perfect audience at the perfect time can have a huge impact on purchasing decisions and brand loyalty. Maybe you’ve already got a fun Halloween campaign planned, but the messaging is built around Dracula. Social listening can show you that your choice of monster is out of step with the movie villains people discuss most, so your message might not resonate. But it can also show you that kids in Alaska and New Mexico are dressing up as vampires a lot this year. This context helps you zero in on your audience and customize your campaign so it is more personal and effective.

Make a better plan

Building and executing a brand strategy is a complex challenge, but social listening helps you identify variables that might impact it in advance. For example, most customers and brands are feeling the pinch of dramatically disrupted supply chains — a problem that’s only likely to increase around big events. If you own a retail store in Maine, it’s nice to know that your customers will be thinking about Kit Kat bars more than any other candy this Halloween. You can anticipate demand, better control your inventory, and navigate supply-chain delays. Social listening helps you make a better plan for key demographics and specific geographies.

Be there for the entire customer journey

For lots of customers, a simple engagement with one small idea can set off an avalanche of activity that can be extremely beneficial to your brand. If they’re like me, your customers’ journey might look something like this after one candy-related encounter:

• Fun graphic! I love Snickers, too!
• I’d like to have a Snickers right now. I’ll go to the store.
• While I’m here, I’ll get groceries. Let me send a WhatsApp message to my partner to see if we need milk.
• Christmas decorations are up already?? I’ve got to tweet my dismay.
• Still, it’d be great to get my shopping done early for once …
• Better check my niece’s Instagram for some gift ideas.

The quest for a Snickers fix can set off a chain reaction of seemingly unrelated buying decisions across multiple channels. If your brand is locked into the voice of the customer through social listening, that’s multiple opportunities to be there when those choices are made and influence the outcome.

Think differently through visualization

People tell and receive stories in different ways, and the unique visualizations possible through Sprinklr social listening can help your brand see a new connection or understand a piece of data in a new way. For example, if you were to simply list the two most-discussed scary movies this year, Halloween would be number one and Scream would be number two. But visualization shows you that Halloween is dramatically ahead of its closest competition. Second place might not even be a relevant data point. Seeing that difference in scale visually unlocks an important insight.

Now that you’ve seen how social listening with Sprinklr can make Halloween a frighteningly fun time for your customers and your brand, don’t forget something truly scary: the holiday season is right around the corner. Connect with us today so you’re ready for it.

​​If you want to learn more about how Sprinklr’s unified customer experience management (Unified-CXM) platform and Sprinklr Insights uses omni-channel listening, industry-leading AI, and data democratization to help your brand make customers happier, we’d love to talk to you.