With four days to go until Halloween and a weekend ahead of haunting house parties and spooky nights out, it seems Brits are set to spend more than ever on Halloween this year.
Traditionally a US holiday, Halloween has been a part of British culture for some time and is now one of the largest calendar events of the year. The experience driven occasion drives retail sales throughout Autumn, mostly on food and drink, but also heavily impacting the fashion, homeware and beauty markets.
Here are the frightful stats from a recent Mintel report…
- Halloween spending is set to reach £320 million this year, up 3.2% from £310 million in 2016 and £295 million in 2015
- Almost half of all consumers spent money on Halloween last year
- Most consumers spent under £25 in 2016, but 1 in 6 spent more than £50
- Confectionery is the biggest category for Halloween spending, with more than 1/3 of UK consumers buying sweets and/or chocolate in 2016 (following the “trick or treat” tradition)
- Top five categories receiving the highest spend last year were confectionery, pumpkins, fancy dress, decorations and then cosmetics
Clearly, Halloween is an opportunity not to be missed in the retail market, especially for food pr brands. Being the food lovers we are here at Escapade, we got as far as the middle of October before having to try the entire range of Krispy Skreams! More food brands than ever seem to have tapped into Halloween this year with spooktacular limited edition products. Some of our favourites (and still yet to try!) are Mr Kipling’s Fiendish Fancies, M&S’ Percy Pumpkins and Soreen’s Scream range including a Chocolate and Blood Orange flavour.
Another trend which has come over from the US and appears to be more prevalent this year than in the past is of course the Pumpkin Spice flavour. Starbucks set the trend with its Pumpkin Spice Latte and now the flavour is completely widespread. This year saw Baileys introduce its Pumpkin Spice variant and Skinny Dip even partnered with Starbucks to launch a Pumpkin Spice Glitter phone case. It’s taken social media by storm with the #pumpkinspice hashtag being used on 1,225,481 Instagram posts and #PSL on 735,492. I think it’s safe to say the #PSL will be returning to the menu next year!
Food snaps and social media go hand in hand, so here are some of the top new Halloween recipes trending on Pinterest and Instagram this year: pineapple pumpkins, stuffed pepper monsters, the bleeding heart cake and strawberry ghost pops.
So brands should not underestimate Halloween and the terrifyingly terrific amounts of spending that it creates, as it seems retailers, consumers and brands alike are all set to have a very happy Halloween!
Our consumer PR agency specialises in connecting everyday brands with everyday people across four core sectors; Consumer PR, Food & Drink PR, Consumer Technology PR and Sport, Health & Wellbeing PR.
