Autumn is here, and so the inspiration. We have three months with three very exciting holidays. September is for Back to School themed campaigns, October is for Halloween spooky experiences and November is for Black Friday super deals.

Today’s article is dedicated to Halloween and its wonderful opportunities to create engaging brand experiences. Everybody loves a memorable adventure. With a drop of mystery and a pinch of fright, you can achieve a spooky formula that will leave everybody wanting more. From food to professional services, brands have Halloween to express their creativity and `WoW` their audience.

In our research of creative Halloween campaigns from all over the world, we found that 360-degree videos can bring your campaign to the next level of coolness.

The promise of immersive storytelling with a 360-degree video has led brands to experiment with this format.

What makes 360 especially effective is that users influence what they see and can take direct control of the narrative, or point of view. Its key strengths are the depths of immersion and levels of engagement that it gives.

According to a report from BI Intelligence, the 360-degree video presents an opportunity for advertisers and brands to reach massive audiences while allowing viewers to engage with ads as they see fit, even generating longer viewing times than in usual videos.

Brands like Target, Asda and Liseberg grabbed this opportunity and created amazing Halloween experiences for their users. Just have a look:

The House on Hallow Hill - use VR to showcase your Halloween merchandise

For the 2015 Halloween campaign, Target launched a 360-degree video series called “The House on Hallow Hill”, letting kids explore a haunted house.

Users could explore 4 scenarios in 360° video; across mobile, tablet and desktop, while at any stage stopping to shop that scene at the click of a button.

Even though the Target videos were for the most part just one-minute 360-degree clips of Halloween themed rooms, the retailer was specifically targeting Halloween enthusiasts who may have been searching for inspiration and an easy way to shop for decorations. The 360-degree video provided a great solution for shoppers to actually visualize the room decorations from all angles, and at the same time, shop for them on Target.com. The retailer had created shopping lists for each video that the viewer could then easily click to cart and start creating their own haunted house.

After leaving the haunted mansion, the viewer was offered a 10% off promo code.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaAPM-0zK-M

Asda's VR Horror House- useful tool that inspires clients on how to use your brand’s products

Asda’s VR Halloween experience was launched on YouTube.The campaign’s 360-degree video followed the adventures of four trick-or-treating children who wander into a haunted house. When watching from a mobile, tablet or desktop, viewers could adjust their point of view in each scene and look around and even behind them- an important detail for build up the atmosphere and suspense. The campaign put Asda products at the center of the story to inspire parents with ideas for costumes, props, and food for throwing a Halloween party.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=249&v=51CRt7QagMo

The virtual reality check- reality as cool as virtual reality

A funny idea of using the concept of VR was used by Liseberg amusement park In order to invite visitors for a very spooky Halloween Liseberg experience. They invited test subjects for a sneak peek of the year’s fancy new horror attraction- in the form of a scary virtual reality adventure. With a creative approach, they transformed the horror virtual reality in a real horror reality. Scary twist!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=131&v=2mAAkNhWE-8