Due to the natural connection between Halloween and apples, this event provided an ideal opportunity for promoting cider. Therefore we developed the ‘Have a Chilling Halloween’ concept, and started to create a promotion that would cut through in promotion-heavy pub environments. We achieved this by giving away something that left consumers doubting their very eyes: a real, bona-fide ghost. We rang around all the haunted houses in England before finally finding one that would sell their ghosts – Chillingham Castle. We then created our chill-to-win mechanic to suit the ghostly nature of the concept and POS to support the promotion.

With a ROI of 1:1, ‘Have a Chilling Halloween’ is the first Strongbow promotion to break even. We exceeded the double digit growth target with 80% of licensees reporting sales uplifts during the October. The promotion sparked the imagination of consumers as 122,000 Strongbow drinkers tried to win their very own ghost.