Party City is launching a new social media promotion that is sure to cause a lot of their competitors to run like Dracula at sunrise. From all appearances, Party City is ready to “own Halloween“. Party City currently operates nearly 800 stores nationwide. The company sells all kinds of party goodies but it’s Halloween where they “make their bones“.
It appears that Party City is ready to creatively disrupt the usual Halloween marketing that becomes commonplace this time of year. With every department store chain, dollar store operator, pharmacy and pop-up store selling everything from an Obama Mask to the requisite Dracula cape, Party City is upping the ante with a massive social media campaign.
30+% of their annual revenue is derived from the Halloween season. So suffice it to say, Halloween is a BFD to Party City. This year they are supporting their All Hallows Eve initiative with a social media campaign of epic proportions. I can’t spill the goods, but as you can see from the buzz already building on Twitter and Facebook, the theme this year is wrapped around the hashtag, #BeACharacter. I also love the tag line they are using:
This Halloween Don’t Just Be A Costume, Be A Character!
You have to admit, that has a catchy ring to it. If you check the buzz on social media, some of which you can see below, you can already see the anticipation building for Party City to launch the #BeACharacter promotion.
href="#" data-color-override="false" data-hover-color-override="false" data-hover-text-color-override="#fff">Button TextLooking at their Twitter feed it appears they have expanded upon just telling you to come up with your own ideas on how to be a character. They are offering to help consumers find that special character costume by offering to be a #CharacterCoach. Brilliant.
Here is the first video of their #BeACharacter series:
Howl into #Halloween! As October approaches, so do the characters. Let us know how we can be your #CharacterCoach! http://t.co/pksAdDTz3v
— Party City (@PartyCity) September 30, 2013
In addition, I see that the ghouls and goblins managing the social media for Party City are burning the midnight oil. It’s 1AM as I write this and they are still responding to people on Twitter at this late hour. Obviously, if you want to own Halloween, you have to be present when the freaks come out! I guess there’s something to say about ubiquity after all.
People love having fun dressing up on Halloween and with this push on the social networks, Party City is uniquely positioning themselves to pretty much be ubiquitous with Halloween this year.
Check out what people are saying on Facebook and Twitter about the #BeACharacter initiative and how they are already getting into the Halloween spirit:
