Most of the year, people are habituated to skip right past ads. They’ve seen a thousand of them, and yours is just the next one. Halloween is the rare time of year when that habit changes.
For a few weeks in October, people want the spooky stuff. They’re putting up decorations, planning costumes, and looking for a reason to smile. That’s good news for any business with a billboard. And you don’t need a big budget to use it. A dollar store and a local plumber both pulled it off for next to nothing, so here’s how they did it.
First, the 99 Cent Only Stores. Their board is bright orange. In the middle is a spider made out of the cheap party stuff they sell, next to the words “99 Cent Your Trick or Treat.” The store’s logo sits in the corner, like any ad, so you know right away whose spider it is.
The clever part is what the spider is made from. Anyone who has shopped there knows that stuff on sight, so the point makes itself. Everything you need for Halloween is on their shelves, and it’s cheap. There’s no long sales pitch. Just a spider made of their products and a few words you can read while driving past. For a store famous for low prices, a fancy, expensive-looking ad would have felt wrong. This one felt right.
Now a local one, and it might be my favorite.
Photo credit: 2020 creative group
Griffin Plumbing ran a board that goes all in on the holiday. A couple stands there looking terrified, covered head to toe in green slime, next to the words “Plumbing Nightmare?” in dripping orange letters. Below that it says “Call Griffin Plumbing,” with their logo.
It works because the joke is also the sales pitch. A flooded bathroom is its own kind of nightmare, so the Halloween angle fits. The scared couple makes you laugh, the pun makes the point, and the board tells you they fix the scary stuff without having to say it out loud. A plumber came up with that, not a big company with a huge budget.
So, what do these two have in common? Neither spent much. Neither tried to be scary just for the sake of it. They took what they already had, a shelf of cheap goods for one and a messy everyday problem for the other, and had a little fun with it. The holiday did the rest.
You can do the same thing. The season hands you the theme, so you’re not staring at a blank page. Here are a few easy ways to start.
- Make your board out of your own products, like the 99 Cent Stores did. A hardware store stacks pumpkins and tools into a scarecrow.
- Add a small Halloween touch to your logo or sign. A witch hat, a cobweb in the corner, a pumpkin in place of a letter.
- Write one line that plays on the holiday. A dentist runs “Keep the fangs for the costume.” A car lot runs “Scary-good deals all month.”
- Add a small Halloween offer. A free treat with any purchase through October 31. People remember the fun and the freebie.
A good Halloween board comes down to one simple idea and the willingness to have a little fun with your name for a few weeks. That’s all it takes.
One word of caution. Playful is good. Gross or mean is not. A board that gets too bloody or takes a nasty shot tends to bring in complaints instead of customers. Keep it light and friendly and you’ll get the smiles without the trouble.
That’s the kind of thinking our team is here for. We can help you come up with a simple seasonal idea and make it look sharp on a board where the right people will see it, all without spending a fortune.
If you want to make the most of Halloween this year, or any season down the road, give us a call at 404-671-9490.