The Restaurant & Takeaway Innovation Expo

15 & 16 JUNE 2021


How Can Halloween Benefit Your Business?

Halloween can be one of the most lucrative holidays in the entire year; along with one of the scariest! Halloween makes a lot of money - in 2016, spending reached $8.4 billion, and in 2018 in 2018 it grew again to $9 billion. Average spending per American was a massive $86.97 - So people evidently have the money to spend.  But why is seasonal business so important, and how can you maximise your gains during this time of year?

Holiday times are always a great time to make more money. Customers come out in their droves to buy easter eggs, christmas presents and Valentine's day chocolate. Halloween, however, presents a uniquely foody opportunity to restaurants and takeaways. While the other holidays see people buying things for their friends and families, Halloween sees people spending money on getting out of the house to avoid trick or treaters, and others partying their nights away in bars and restaurants. Even then, people may want to stay completely in, and order themselves a takeaway and watch a horror film. But how do you leverage this unique holiday and its spending habits? Here are just a couple of ideas:

Theme your menu

It’s easy to create a simple them for your menu - add some pumpkin flavoured items, or add food colouring to your bread rolls and pasta shapes. Make your menu just that little bit different, and make your customers smile. This is especially good for customers who are active on Instagram - an indirect marketing tactic that can be leveraged to your advantage! If a customer takes a picture of their Halloween plate of food, and shares it to their friends, there’s now a following that not only knows you exist, but that people liked you enough to photograph your food: never underestimate the power of Instagram and social media.

Halloween offers

People love to watch films and eat takeaway - why not make use of this? Join forces with your local DVD shop, and offer money off with every purchase of a horror film, or even charge entry for customers for a horror movie and sit down meal in your restaurant or bar. Offer something that you could only do on Halloween, and make a bit of money off people's love of Halloween and horror films. Alternatively, offer a discount to people that come in costume on the night. People will see others in costume, and come along to join in, and customers will be more likely to spend money if they can get a small discount just for wearing a pair of cat ears.

Be Anti Halloween

There is an increasing number of people who aren’t interested in Halloween at all, and want to avoid it entirely. Why not market to these customers, and be a Halloween-free zone? Make yourself a safe haven for those who feel intimidated by Halloween, and cater to an otherwise untouched group.

Halloween, like any holiday has the potential to be an incredible money maker to make use of. Don’t forget the popularity of Social media in these holiday times, and you can make Halloween work for you.

Get your tickets to the Restaurant & Takeaway Innovation Expo, and see the very best that the industry has to offer. Clear the schedule on the 19th and 20th of November, and We’ll see you at London’s ExCeL!

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