TRICK-OR-TREAT LIKE AN ADULT.
If you’re over 21, then you’re too old to trick-or-treat? We said boo to that & partnered with a seasonal beer to bring the Halloween spirit to adults all over the US.
*THIS IS A SPECULATIVE CAMPAIGN
DEVELOPMENT
Parties, pumpkins, & potions: Tricky Jack in a nutshell. For this campaign, we entertained our collective nostalgia for trick-or-treating, the original Halloween party, & wondered what the adult version of that would be. You’d still have the houses that hand out floss & pretzels, but those full-sized candy bars? That’s Tricky Jack, the perfect mix of bitter & sweet.
21+ Trick-Or-Treating was born, & it included physical pop-ups & a web-exclusive experience.
The former used billboards, emails, & phone-based geofencing for promotion. Participants would arrive at any one of our 26 pop-up locations, some in street fairs or pumpkin patches, others in standalone storefronts. Pass some Halloween decor & knock on a propped-up doorframe to meet an elderly couple who judges your Halloween spirit. Be good, & you’ll get free beer. Be bad (or forget to wear a costume), & you’ll get a different “treat” - raisins, toothbrushes, & a lot of disappointment.
Rough sketch of the Tricky Jack campaign's visual design.
The latter, the digital experience, uses a laptop’s webcam & microphone to simulate the same thing. Winners get a Tricky Jack discount code in a customized email, with conditional copy based on their CRM status as either a returning or first-time buyer.
With the participants’ consent, we used their recordings & raw reactions in our social strategy, sprinkling video advertisements among our organic posts to drum-up interest in the website.
MESSAGING
TRICK-OR-TREAT LIKE AN ADULT: 21+ partygoers want to relive the joys of trick-or-treating. This campaign highlights candygivers, good & bad, through playful copy, visuals, & experiences that equate scoring full-sized chocolate bars to drinking Tricky Jack Pumpkin Ale.
ASSETS
Tricky Jack is a Halloween brand, but they’re spooky, not scary. More “Witch’s Night Out”, less “Texas Chainsaw Massacre”.
BadTyp evokes that sense of trick or treating with a homemade Halloween costume: playful, unpredictable, & a little off-kilter. Antique Olive, the body typeface, carries this energy with enhanced readability, forgoing the variable letters for a little more consistency (like wearing a pre-made costume from one of those big box stores).
Pumpkin ale bottles, jack-o-lanterns, & sheet ghosts demonstrate the whimsical nature of Tricky Jack, forgoing the “look, we’re adult” look so common with beer brands. The virtual trick-or-treating experience, in contrast, used sharp corners to heighten the tension between the user & the elderly couple.
We might have been tried as witches if we didn’t include orange & green in a Halloween campaign. These colors were inspired by neon mid-century masks & spooky memorabilia, with bright borders & a heavy focus on curvilinear lines that carried into our asset design.
CHANNELS
OUTDOOR (BILLBOARD)
DIRECT (EMAIL, TEXT)
GEOFENCING TEXT MESSAGE:
Grown-ups don’t get to trick-or-treat. We changed that.
Stop by Tricky Jack Pumpkin Ale’s 21+ Pop-Up, open Saturday, October 26th to Wednesday, October 30th (5:00pm-10:00pm) at [ADDRESS].
EMAIL TRANSCRIPT:
EMAIL HEADER: We built a Tricky Jack shop in your city. Probably.
EMAIL BODY TEXT: Adults don’t get to trick-or-treat. Tricky Jack changed that.
Introducing 21+ Trick-Or-Treating, with Tricky Jack pop-ups opening all over the United States. While most of these experiences can be found in your city’s Halloween festivals, some are standalone stores (& significantly cooler).
Here’s where you can find us in your state:
[MAP OF REGION]
If you can’t make it this year, we’ve made a webcam version of the same thing. Visit www.21plustrickortreating.com to get your virtual trick-or-treat on.
A Tip From Tricky Jack: Come dressed in a costume - thank me later.
WEBSITE
WEBCAM/MICROPHONE TRICK-OR-TREAT EXPERIENCE TRANSCRIPT (GOOD ENDING)
(Ring the doorbell.)
OLD WOMAN
Coming!
(Say “trick or treat”.)
OLD WOMAN
Well, hello there! Now, aren’t you a little old to be trick-or-treating?
(Convince them.)
OLD MAN
Fair enough! I mean, we’re all kids at heart, right? Especially on Halloween. Anyway, what are you dressed up as?
(Tell them your costume.)
OLD WOMAN
Well, I’ve never heard of that before, but you look fantastic!
OLD MAN
Just fantastic!
OLD WOMAN
I’m saving the candy for the kids - have a Tricky Jack instead! Think of it as…
OLD MAN:
… the adult version of a full-sized candy bar
OLD WOMAN
Couldn’t have said it better! Here you go: Happy Halloween!”
EVENT (POP-UP)
"21+ TRICK-OR-TREATING" POP-UP DESCRIPTION:
EXTERIOR: A rope divides the exterior into two areas - one "in", one "out", each with a respective door. A bouncer checks guests’ IDs at the "in" section to make sure they’re over 21. If they are, then their hand is stamped, & they’re permitted to enter. If their hand has already been stamped, then they are not permitted to re-enter. A large sign will warn guests of consenting to filming by entering the premises.
INTERIOR: Halloween trees & decor funnel guests into a long line. The decor is spooky, not scary, & looks like a front yard - trees & all. In the middle of the store, two large, wide banners flank a propped-up door, depicting brick walls with a window & creating the front of a cozy Halloween home. At the end of the single-file line, another bouncer keeps traffic flowing & ensures the guests are in range of the cameras & microphones.
Once guests knock on the "front door", an elderly couple opens the door, shares a Halloween greeting, & passes judgement on their costumes. Good outfits (or good excuses) win a free bottle of Tricky Jack on the spot. Bad costumes win a “goodie bag” of floss, raisins, & pretzels with a card that reads: “Try harder next time (Tricky Jack Pumpkin Ale)”
(NOTE: A scaled-down version of this pop-up can be easily installed at adults-only sections of Halloween festivals. Here, IDs have already been checked, so the process can be expedited.)
SOCIALS (VIDEOS)
RESULTS
The following results only include data from the one-month run of the campaign.
434,257 people collectively visited the 26 pop-up locations. Out of those that responded to a pre- or post-event interview, 19% shared word of mouth as how they heard about the event, with 25% sharing geofencing.
TikTok followers increased by 264,523. Instagram followers increased by 124,205. Social-driven website traffic increased by 34%, with the purchase event conversion rate of that social-driven cohort 23% higher than the pre-campaign social-driven cohort.
924,346 people completed the online 21+ Trick-or-Treating experience. 74% of customers consented to have their webcam & microphone recording shared in marketing materials.
When provided a discounted Tricky Jack 6-pack after completing the online 21+ Trick-or-Treating experience, 56% of people completed a purchase using the coupon code within a week. 12% completed a purchase using the coupon code within a day.
Total revenue increased by 49%.
