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Your Recipe for Spooktacular Packaging this Halloween

Packaging is an excellent communicator, adapting to seasonal trends as a device to maximise consumer appeal. With autumn drawing in, Halloween is the next major thematic focus instore and online for brands and retailers.

The average consumer is no stranger to typical Halloween packaging with its vivid colour contrasts of orange and black, often sprinkled with a smattering of spooky silhouettes and topped off with a couple of spiders’ webs. But while this may have been the customary approach, traditions from across the pond are becoming ever more prominent and the UK Halloween market is now growing year on year and worth an estimated £320 million, according to Mintel.

In addition, the rise of e-commerce, where sales rest on the click of a finger, has driven brands to go all out to ensure both online and offline shoppers get exposure to the exciting and diverse range of products and complementary packaging solutions on offer.

So, which emerging packaging trends can we expect to dominate Halloween 2018? Here are 10 packaging trends we predict you’ll see on the 2018 Halloween high street.

1.    Eerie but eccentric use of colour – Halloween packaging is dominated by the 3 three staples: orange, purple and black. However, as Fanta proved last year, brands are finding creative ways to incorporate other less stereotypical Halloween colours. Amongst the oranges and purples, keep an eye out for greens, yellows, reds and even the odd pastel shade.

2.    Loads of limited edition packaging – Expect brands to enhance their core bestsellers with a seasonal Halloween twist. It’s a great way to delight an existing customer base, while attracting new custom. Many brands utilise Halloween as an opportunity to trial new lines, flavours, styles and scents, which they may introduce to their core offer later in the year.

3.    Mass use of minimalism – On a shelf full of loud, graphic designs, a minimalist pack can often shout the loudest to the consumer. A clean minimalist design can provoke a sense of intrigue, leading the consumer to select and study the product in greater detail. Minimalist designs often suggest a more ‘adult’ aesthetic, which is ideal for brands looking to expand their reach in the Halloween market.

4.    Shocking slogans – With minimalism being a pivotal element in packaging this year, many brands are predicted to rely on words or slogans over quirky graphics, to deliver an edge to their product.

5.    Play on iconic logos with Halloween ‘redesign’ – A trend expected to continue from 2017 is brand ‘redesign’. Brands with a strong identity have the ability to play around with their logo devices and brand assets without confusion to the consumer; a good example being the 2017 shift from Smarties to Scaries.

6.    Subtle use of satin and matt – With a wide variety of printing innovations available, brands are able to extend an exciting sensory experience to their customers. Varied satin, matt and rubberised textures give products a premium feel, while forming a more noticeable, visual contrast between the packaging and the logo. Expect packaging solutions to be surprising to the touch.

7.    Spine-tingling social integration – In today’s world of smartphones and lightning fast Internet, social media plays a large part in driving seasonal product sales. Come Halloween consumers can expect to witness a higher frequency of QR codes, interactive elements and more initiatives to get involved with brands across social media platforms extending the brand narrative in to the home.

8.    Endless eco-friendly alternatives – From compostable flexibles to biodegradable cardboards, consumers will witness the emergence of new environmentally friendly packaging solutions this Halloween. Due to increased consumer awareness around packaging waste, ecological alternatives will be more common than ever.

9.    Petrifying personalisation – New digital printing technologies are giving brands the ability to tailor packaging by name, gender, location etc. to connect with a specific type of consumer – think Coca-Cola integrating popular first names with its bottle labels. It’s a trend that’s not likely to go away anytime soon and is likely to be seen across various seasons.

10.    Phantasmal packaging quirks – Packaging quirks are all about engaging with a customer, particularly young children. If a pack can be more of a reason to buy the product than the product itself, then that’s a job well done. M&M’s introduction of glow in the dark packaging last Halloween kickstarted this revolution by captivating young consumers. Online shoppers can even look forward to retailers using specially themed bubble wrap, with bubbles shaped like ghosts or bats, for maximum added value this Halloween.

How will BoxMart join the Halloween fun?

This year, Marston’s pubs tasked BoxMart with developing a realistic interpretation of the Hobgoblin Inn for their Hobgoblin Halloween campaign; the “Unofficial Beer of Halloween”. The tailor-made replica of the Inn stands at a whopping 7ft tall and is held upright by a rigid tailor-made EB flute construction. When equipped with opening windows, doors and reinforced internal shelves, the structure serves as a fully functioning Halloween advent calendar.

Learn more about BoxMart’s Hobgoblin Inn or alternatively, to discover more about how BoxMart can tailor your product packaging for Halloween, give us a call today. We dare you!
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