Marketing & Promotions
The Restaurant’s Guide to Halloween: Ideas, Promotions & Themes
Lenny DeFranco
5 min read
Sep 23, 2024
Lenny DeFranco
5 min read
Sep 23, 2024
As holidays go, Halloween isn’t typically seen as a marquee event for restaurant promotions. Nightclubs have long known how to bring in crowds, but few restaurants traditionally join in the Halloween spirit.
For smart, creative dining operators, Halloween is a chance to lure in folks ready to make a memory — and to cash in on one of the biggest spending nights of the year. Advantage Outlook's Halloween 2024 Trends report predicts that Halloween spending will once again break records in 2024, surpassing last year’s record of 12.2 billion — despite the current economic uncertainty prompting many to tighten their purse strings.
This Halloween season, people want to go out, discover something new, and most importantly, have fun. With a little creative planning and intentional marketing, your restaurant could host a Halloween promotional event that fills seats and generates revenue before October 31.
Read on for inspiration and tactical advice that’ll help position your Halloween-themed restaurant as the place for spooky pleasure this year.
At its core, Halloween is a celebration of creativity. The spirit of the holiday challenges everyone who puts on a costume — and any business that opens its doors for a Halloween event — to transform into something delightfully spooky.
Line your walls with cobwebs and skeletons. Have your wait staff dress up like Tim Burton characters. Dim the lights and crank up an eerie soundtrack. Whatever route you choose, the key is to center your creative decisions around a theme so that every part of your Halloween bash defines a unique, memorable experience.
A theme doesn’t need to be elaborate or gimmicky; think of it as a microcosm of your restaurant concept—a promise about the kind of experience your guests will enjoy. Here are a few simple ideas for Halloween themes you can use to dress up your restaurant:
The obvious choice is to pay homage to a horror movie or paranormal TV show. Spoof cinema classics or goofy B-movies, host a Hocus Pocus party or turn your restaurant into the Upside Down from Stranger Things. Your options are endless, but anything in the thriller genre is a safe bet for concocting Halloween fun. Speaking of which, why not a Thriller theme? Your staff might look great in red jackets.
Non-Halloween movies, shows, or even novels also work well. Game of Thrones, Harry Potter and Star Wars events are all guaranteed crowd-pleasers. Invite fans to dress up and double down on the theme with movie-inspired trivia or themed cocktails and appetizers.
If you want to lean into the horror aspect of Halloween (and you’re willing to invest in some production value) consider putting on a stage-like spectacle. Invite a local theater company to perform in your restaurant, or hire a makeup artist to turn your staff into a horde of zombies. More ambitiously, you could sell package deals with a nearby haunted house, effectively make your dining experience an extension of theirs by borrowing some of their decorations, artistic design and actors.
A theatrical theme requires coordination and a larger budget. But if you’re interested in hosting a special, ticketed event, this could be a fun attraction for hard-core Halloween fans.
For Halloween partygoers, the goal of the evening is simply to cut loose. Attract these guests with a dance party: turn your restaurant into a club-like environment with a live DJ or band, later hours, and maybe a dinner-and-dancing package.
Dance parties cater to all types of crowds. For example, Miami’s MILA Lounge is hosting a moonlight celestial-themed dance party where adult groups are encouraged to come decked out in their best cosmic and lunar attire.
If your restaurant’s vibe is more family-friendly, take a page from the Crown Hotel in Queensland, which is planning an early evening Halloween dance party for kids complete with dance battles, a DJ and more.
Events like these work especially well for attracting groups, so adjust your floor plan to accommodate big tables. If a bar or nightclub near your restaurant is running a Halloween event, consider partnering with them on a promotion that allows guests to start their night with dinner at your restaurant. This theme is also one well-served by selling tickets in advance.
Help the parents in your neighborhood feed their hungry trick-or-treaters before they run out and load up on sugar all night. Kids’ menus and giveaways are great ways to bring in families looking for quick, easy dinner options. Common promotions include discounted (or free) meals for kids under 12, costume prizes, pumpkin painting events and holiday-themed food items available only for a limited time. Of course, giving away candy is always a solid idea.
One benefit of a family Halloween theme is volume. Compared to stay-all-night promotions like theatrical productions or dance parties, family-friendly events typically allow parents to get in and out more quickly.
If a full-on Halloween promotion doesn’t fit your restaurant, consider incorporating the season more subtly throughout the month of October and beyond. Embrace an elegant fall theme with a few decorations around the dining room and seasonal scents like cinnamon, apple and pumpkin spices. Comfort foods sell well during the fall, so consider adding a hearty soup or pumpkin-infused entrée to your specials board. Best of all, this theme will carry you through Thanksgiving.
Once you’ve nailed down the theme, it’s time to come up with the events and experiences that will get them in the door, as well as effective strategies for promoting them.
Contests always bring out the best in people on Halloween. And what’s the best prize to offer the winner? A gift card for your restaurant to ensure they return for another visit!
Your options for pulling off a costume event are endless but here are a few ideas to get your started:
• Best costume as one pre-determined character (e.g., best Harry Potter)
• Best costume overall
• Best group costume
• Best kid and best adult costume
• Best couple costume
This classic Halloween contest likely works better with a younger crowd. Host the event a week or two before October 31 to incorporate the spooky entries as your restaurant’s décor. To make pumpkin carving even more interactive, let your followers on social media choose the winning jack-o-lantern.
While bobbing for apples remains a beloved fall tradition, it poses some hygienic challenges in a restaurant setting. A cleaner alternative is to hang apples (or donuts) from strings. It’s still a fun party game—and a very Instagrammable novelty.
If your restaurant is handing out candy, coordinate with other local restaurants or businesses on a scavenger hunt. Send trick-or-treaters to specific locations around your area to retrieve candy, specific foods or prizes; whoever presents them first wins. This is a great community-centric Halloween promotion.
Theme and event type aside, it’s important to promote your experiences via customized landing pages that allow you to sell tickets ahead of time. This is where you’ll provide all the essentials, like menus, pricing, address, time and booking instructions. Take a look at Refinery Rooftop’s Cursed Carnival Halloween Party landing page; it leaves nothing for guests to question.
What's more, the brand ties in a relevant offer for guests to stay overnight at the hotel following the event, maximizing their revenue potential for the one-night-only bash.
Let’s recognize that the simplest option for a Halloween-themed drink is to rename something you already serve. You can go punny (wherein a Bellini becomes a Hellini) or you can go campy (the White Russian becomes a Zombie). Witches brew, anyone?
If your Halloween-themed restaurant wants to put a new spin on old classics, here are a few suggestions:
Fun drinks like these incorporate the classic tastes of autumn:
These are novelty cocktails that are almost playing dress-up themselves:
Perfect to offer your Halloween guests on trays during service or in the place of mints when the check comes:
Many Halloween drink recipes include dry ice to add that extra-spooky touch. Be careful: humans should never consume dry ice, and you should never touch it with bare skin. Ensure adequate ventilation wherever you’re serving and storing it.
If you’re serving cocktails that contain dry ice, pre-cut it into very small cubes of about 3/4 inches per side. Dry ice sinks to the bottom of liquid, so you can add it to individual drinks, but only a few ounces or more — never a shot. The safest option is to drop small chunks of dry ice into a large container of liquid, like a punch bowl or a non-potable decoration.
Once you’ve come up with a theme and an event, it’s time to get the word out. Let’s go over three basic ways to do some smart, targeted marketing and fill seats on October 31.
Before you start marketing, customize your reservation widget. Whether you’re selling tickets to a self-contained event or just serving a fun cocktail amidst pumpkin decorations, let your guests know about this Halloween event by building a unique offering within your reservation widget. Guests planning a reservation will see that you're not only open on Halloween but also doing something fun.
We recommend creating a banner ad or photo for your reservation widget to promote the event in the weeks leading up to Halloween. Rain Tree Cafe in Bangkok uses the SevenRooms widget to customize its Halloween buffet landing page, setting the stage for devilish dinners and a ghoulishly good time.
Make sure the first people to know about your Halloween event are those who visit your restaurant on non-Halloween days. Using guest data, segment your customer database by “regulars” or visit and spend history and then send out a personalized email welcoming them back with early access to book a reservation.
Ready to spread the word? Check out the Ultimate Email Marketing Guide for Restaurants
Text messaging offers direct access to diners and high engagement rates. Use text marketing to send personalized messages to your customers about your upcoming Halloween events. Keep your descriptions light, short and sweet. Then, add a themed CTA encouraging them to spend the holiday with you, such as “Spooky Good Deals Here,” “Claim Your Frightfully Good Offer” or “Spend Spooky Season With Us.”
From email to text to social media, invest in a multichannel marketing approach to engage audiences everywhere they exist.
Make it easier for guests to find and buy tickets by including “Book Now” buttons on your social media promotions. Each time you post about your Halloween events on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook, include your direct booking link. Use the custom tracking link to measure the ROI (reservations) earned across each channel.
The opportunities for online exposure are endless. You could partner with a local food influencer to promote your Halloween event on TikTok, like these restaurants did in New York City, or you can create your own promos using popular Halloween hashtags to boost visibility.
For example, #halloweenparty has over 4.5 million uses on Instagram, while #halloweenfood has 422,000 tags. Add a locational element to your list of hashtags, such as #NYCrestaurants, to attract local guests.
An optimized event landing page is not only discoverable on search engines, but actionable to people in your area who are searching for something to do on Halloween.
The SEO best practices for encouraging customer reservations are simple: make sure your landing page includes your city’s name, a variation of “Halloween event” and any thematically-aligned keywords you can think of. Make your title as specific as possible so guests know what to expect at your event. For example: 1st Annual Harry Potter Halloween Costume Contest at George’s Riverdale.
Morris American Bar in Washington uses a detailed landing page to advertise its annual two-week-long Halloween cocktail tasting event. In seconds, guests know who is hosting the event, what type of event it is, and the steps they must take to reserve their barstool.
If you’ve optimized your events page correctly, guests will find your event and book directly on your site — they may even select one of your upgrades.
Let this be the year you master Halloween specials and events. These tips and tricks will help you promote unique experiences to guests that drive revenue. Once you’ve tackled the spooky season, turn your attention to other holiday celebrations, like Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's. Better yet, use guest data to specifically target those promotions and events based on your guest’s preferences and visit history.
SevenRooms’ restaurant CRM and marketing solutions give you the tools you need to better understand your customers and create personalized experiences that keep them coming back. To learn more, book a demo today.
Understanding who your guests are will help you determine the right theme. A restaurant CRM like SevenRooms automatically collects guest demographic and dining preference data to help you better tailor service and marketing. For example, if 60% of your diners are families, that family-friendly movie theme could work well. If your guests like to bring big groups and splurge, throw them a late-night 21-and-over party.
Adding packages and upgrades like these special Halloween cocktails to the reservation process can boost revenue. In fact, reservations with upgrades average 35% more revenue than those without! Think creatively about how you can tier your inventory to maximize interest and revenue. Better yet, allow guests to pre-order your special Halloween cocktail so it’s waiting when they arrive. SevenRooms’ reservation software makes this easy.
