8 Halloween Brand Campaigns Getting Creative on Social in 2026

Halloween gives brands plenty of room to be creative on social, and this year many of them took full advantage. e.l.f. made a comedy film about three witches, Cup Noodles created a 300-year-old vampire influencer, and Lush launched its Halloween range in July.

Those are three of the eight campaigns we’ve picked out below, covering beauty, hair, body care, and food and drink. We explain why each one works and finish with the trends they share and what other brands can learn from them.

The Best Halloween Beauty, Hair and Body Care Campaigns

Here are some of the best beauty, hair and body care campaigns this Halloween season:

e.l.f. Cosmetics: The e.l.f.ing Magical Sisters

e.l.f. Cosmetics launched one of the funniest Halloween campaigns this year. The comedy film follows three modern-day witches who find out the right makeup is all they need to look glamorous. Fans of Charmed and Practical Magic will spot the references, which gives it a nostalgic Y2K feel.

The Soft Glam Cream Blush and Bronzer Sticks are the stars, alongside Priah Ferguson (Stranger Things), Keyla Monterroso Mejia (The Studio) and Bebe Wood (Mean Girls, 2024). The script was developed with former Saturday Night Live head writer Anna Drezen and directed by Hannah Levy, so it has the cast and writing of a proper comedy. The film ran on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram:

Why it works: it’s a story people would happily watch anyway, with familiar faces and tropes they love, and the products are part of the plot the whole way through.

MAC Cosmetics: Haunt Couture

MAC’s Haunt Couture theme trades the usual horror costume for fashion editorials and dramatic, high-glam looks. In the UK, the idea came with a challenge attached: the MAC Masters competition invited people to show off their own Halloween creations on TikTok. Entrants tagged @maccosmeticsuki and used #MACHalloween between 9 and 23 October 2026.

Why it works: by inviting people to show off their own Halloween looks, MAC got hundreds of fans creating content around its products for free. Every entry put the brand in front of new audiences on TikTok, and it all came from people who genuinely love makeup.

Bleach London: Halloween Hair To Dye For!

Bleach London used Halloween to promote its bright, unnatural hair colours. Its Halloween Hair To Dye For! campaign pitches a bold new hair colour as the costume, so you don’t need a full outfit to stand out.

The range includes temporary shades like Big Pink, Tangerine Dream and I Saw Red, which wash out after the party. There are also wigs for bigger transformations, and permanent colours for anyone who wants to keep the look.

Why it works: character references give audiences a ready-made idea to recreate and post. Temporary colours keep the risk low, and permanent ones serve the people who fall in love with the result.

Lush: Summerween

Lush decided Halloween deserved a longer run and launched its 2026 collection in July. Summerween taps into the growing trend of celebrating Halloween months ahead of schedule, with plenty of people getting into the spooky spirit while it’s still summer.

The range brings back favourites like the Ghostie bath bomb and adds new products like the Witch’s Hand Shower Gummy. There are also Halloween-themed soaps, shower jellies and gift sets.

Why it works: launching early meets Halloween fans the moment their excitement starts, long before October. Collectable, giftable products give people a reason to come back for more.

The Best Halloween Food and Drink Campaigns

These four food and drink brands turned everyday products into Halloween favourites:

Cup Noodles: Vampire Noodles

Cup Noodles launched a limited-edition Hot Garlic Chicken flavour in the US on 24 September, and it comes with a party trick: the noodles turn blood-red when hot water is added, thanks to beet-derived colouring. The tagline is “It’s To Die For.”

Then came the face of the campaign. Vladison is a fictional 300-year-old vampire influencer trying to navigate the modern creator economy, centuries behind every trend. Over six weeks, he appeared across TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and Threads with more than 40 pieces of original content, including product reviews, “What’s in My Bag” videos and parodies of influencer trends:

Why it works: the product, the character and the stunt each generate their own content and coverage, and all three tell the same joke. Garlic is famously bad news for vampires, so the flavour itself is the punchline.

Hidden Valley: Spooky Ranch

Hidden Valley Ranch gave its classic dressing a Halloween makeover with Spooky Ranch, a limited-edition Original Ranch that launched in the US on 24 September 2026. The dressing is almost black, coloured with fruit juice and cocoa, and comes in a glow-in-the-dark bottle. It keeps the familiar tangy flavour, has no artificial flavours and is gluten-free. 

Why it works: changing one obvious thing, the colour, makes a familiar product feel new. The glow-in-the-dark bottle gives people more to post about.

Reese’s: Trick-or-Treatiest Street in America

Reese’s turned Halloween itself into a competition and went looking for America’s most impressive trick-or-treating street.

Reese’s analysed neighbourhoods and shortlisted 150 streets, weighing candy and costume buying trends, decorations, walkability, community participation and local reputation. A Halloween Council reviewed the finalists, with members including actors Christina Ricci and Kathy Najimy and creators Rachel Iwanyszyn, Zaire Alford and Macy Blackwell. 

The winner, East Dudley Avenue in Westfield, New Jersey, was announced in October and received a Reese’s-themed block party in partnership with Zillow.

Why it works: the search kept people talking for weeks, and the block party at the end put Reese’s right in the middle of Halloween as the candy everyone expects to see.

Smirnoff Ice: Halloween With Brittany Broski

Smirnoff Ice partnered with comedian, creator and podcast host Brittany Broski to bring her cheeky sense of humour to Halloween. The star product is a wearable Smirnoff Ice bottle costume, sold through the brand’s online shop.

The partnership also includes original social videos with Broski, merchandise, and the brand’s first US-branded Halloween bash, hosted by Broski in Los Angeles on 22 October, with a costume contest and creators and celebrities in attendance. 

The partnership also includes original social videos with Broski, merchandise, and the brand’s first US-branded Halloween bash, hosted by Broski in Los Angeles on 22 October, with a costume contest and creators and celebrities in attendance. 

Why it works: it’s hard to beat a costume that is also a Smirnoff Ice bottle. People wear it to parties, get photographed in it and post it, so the brand gets shared all night.

The Halloween Social Media Trends Behind This Year’s Campaigns

Entertainment People Want to Watch

e.l.f.’s witch sisters, Cup Noodles’ Vladison and Smirnoff Ice’s partnership with Brittany Broski all lead with entertainment. The products are in there, but each one is a funny sketch, a character or a collab that people enjoy watching. That makes them easy to share, and nobody feels like they’re being sold to.

Letting Fans Join In

MAC’s TikTok competition, Bleach London’s character-inspired colours and Reese’s street search all invite people to get involved. Fans post their own looks, recreate their favourite characters and show off their decorations. That gets the brand in front of far more people than its own channels could, and it makes fans feel like part of the campaign.

Products People Want to Photograph

Some products are made to be photographed. Hidden Valley’s Spooky Ranch is almost black and comes in a glow-in-the-dark bottle, and Cup Noodles’ noodles turn blood-red when you add hot water. Both look great on camera, so people post them.

Starting Early

Lush released its Halloween range in July, which gave fans months to buy, gift and post about it. Starting early meant the brand was already part of the conversation by the time everyone else joined in.

What Brands Can Learn This Halloween

The campaigns that did best this year were the ones people actually wanted to be part of. People share things that are fun, like a funny film, a costume they can wear to a party or a competition they’ve entered themselves. 

That’s why fans and creators ended up doing so much of the promotion, and it’s worth remembering for next year: start with an idea people would enjoy even without the brand name on it.

Creators are often the quickest way to get that kind of participation going, and they work best when they are involved from the first brief. If you’re planning your next seasonal campaign, Socially Powerful can help. Take a look at our influencer marketing services or get in touch with our team.