Every October, attractions come alive with haunted houses, scare mazes and late-night experiences designed to thrill. For many operators, it's one of the biggest opportunities to capture imaginations, attract new audiences, and deliver unforgettable moments, and a thoughtful digital strategy can make all the difference.
The best in the business know how to make every scare count. Here are six tried-and-tested ways to elevate your Halloween offering.
For Halloween events, anticipation is half the experience. The weeks leading up to your event are a powerful window to capture attention, spark curiosity and turn casual interest into bookings.
Alton Towers' Scarefest 2024 is a perfect example of how powerful that build-up can be. The park teased new attractions, Compound and Amigos in the Afterlife, through an integrated campaign that combined cinematic storytelling, social content, and on-site teasers to build momentum. The result was a wave of buzz and speculation well before opening night.
To build the same excitement, treat your pre-visit marketing as part of the story. Teaser content, behind-the-scenes moments and countdown campaigns all help create intrigue, while push notifications, early-access offers and seasonal branding turn that anticipation into action. By the time gates open, guests should already feel invested in the story you're about to deliver.
A big part of Halloween magic is the transformation. The way familiar spaces suddenly feel new, exciting and a little eerie. That transformation shouldn't stop at your gates. Extending it across your digital channels ensures guests feel immersed in the experience long before they encounter their first scare.
Seasonal overlays across your website, mobile app and digital map are a powerful way to do this. From updated visuals and Halloween-inspired colour palettes to themed navigation icons and event-specific layers, these details build anticipation and make it easy for guests to plan their visit around the seasonal highlights. They also allow you to showcase temporary attractions — such as scare mazes, haunted trails or late-night ride sessions — without the cost or environmental impact of printed materials.
Tulleys Shocktober Fest does this brilliantly. Their event map is more than a navigation tool. It's part of the storytelling, setting the tone and drawing guests into the Halloween atmosphere before they arrive.
The best Halloween experiences feel alive, with every step revealing something unexpected. With Bluetooth beacons, you can send targeted notifications perfectly timed to where guests are on site.
A cryptic warning near a haunted trail. A nudge towards a limited-edition Halloween potion. A reminder of a premium experience they just missed. These small, reactive moments blur the line between digital and physical, making the visit feel more immersive, while driving discovery, spend and satisfaction.
Halloween looks different for every guest. The key is surfacing relevant experiences that match their appetite for scares. This has never been more important with 90% of consumers now expecting organisations to know their interests and predict their needs.
Digital tools make this simple. A scare scale or fright rating within your app or website can help guests quickly gauge intensity and plan their day around the right level of thrill. Pre-planned routes build on this by helping guests shape their day. A family-friendly itinerary might focus on pumpkin trails and shows, while a thrill-seeker's path could include every major scare maze and late-night ride.
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Once those plans are in place, an AI assistant can continuously adapt them throughout the day, suggesting alternatives when queues build up, highlighting premium upgrades at the right moment and recommending new activities based on individual preferences.
It also enables personalisation at scale, ensuring every guest receives relevant recommendations without extra staff support. For operators, this approach not only ensures guests feel catered for, it also reduces operational strain by smoothing crowd flow, minimising questions for staff and keeping guests moving seamlessly through the event.
Halloween doesn't have to end when guests leave. Post-visit engagement is a powerful way to keep the connection alive, gather insights and set the stage for next year's event.
Follow-up emails or push notifications can thank guests for attending, share highlights they missed, and invite them back. Surveys and feedback tools provide valuable insight into what worked and where to improve, while exclusive offers or early-bird tickets can turn one-time visitors into loyal fans.
Increasing repeat visits by just 5% can boost profits by up to 95%. Retention is the real growth driver. Treat the end of the visit as the start of the next conversation, and you'll turn seasonal guests into year-round advocates.
Halloween is more than just a seasonal event. It's a chance to showcase creativity, deepen guest relationships and drive measurable business impact. By weaving digital strategy into every stage of the journey, from pre-visit buzz to post-visit follow-up, operators can deliver experiences that stand out from the crowd and keep guests coming back year after year.
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