Fall is almost here and we have heard rumblings about Halloween decorations and pumpkin spice already being in stores! Don’t get left behind; it’s time to start your Halloween contest planning.

Here are a few Halloween contest and prize ideas to help celebrate the new season:

Pumpkin Carving Contest: Fall is the time to head to the farm for pumpkin picking, hay rides and fresh apple cider donuts – yum! You can challenge your customers to take their freshly picked pumpkins and carve them into something unique and fun. Then ask them to upload a photo of their creation to Instagram or Twitter and use a designated hashtag for contest entry. Include categories like scariest, funniest and most creative to award a variety of prizes.

Spooky Dessert Recipe Contest: Halloween isn’t only about candy anymore – ask your consumers to channel their inner baker and come up with a “spooky” Halloween themed dessert. Set up a designated microsite for the Contest, and ask people to provide a photo of their signature Halloween dessert along with the complete recipe to compete for a free kitchen upgrade or some awesome baking appliances. Include a scary celebrity judge (is Scary Spice available?) to garner more media coverage for your contest, and be sure to post results on your web site and social channels.

Candy Flop Twitter Contest: Growing up, you learn pretty quickly which houses give out the best Halloween candy in your neighborhood, and which houses give out treats that will definitely not help you out later when trading candy with your friends. Ask people to describe the worst item they have ever received while trick-or-treating and post it to Twitter with a designated hashtag. Entries will be judged based on the “worst” criteria and may the best of the worst win.

Themed Costume Contest: Up your costume game by challenging your followers on social to come up with a “best of theme” costume. Anyone can go to the costume store and scare up a witch costume, but if you are challenged to come up with a costume for a “1980’s Cartoon Character” or a “Lovable Villains” theme, people have to get creative! Have people enter on social (with a designated hashtag) for bragging rights.

Marden-Kane can make any of these fun ideas come to life! Just contact us and we can conjure up some Official Rules, criteria for judging, and help you track the entries with our MK Social Tracker.

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