In recent years, Chipotle has posted joke Halloween costume ideas on social media, poking fun at memes around its napkins and forks. This year, the fast food chain is taking the gag to real life by collaborating with Spirit Halloween on a line of “Boorito” costumes that include a Chipotle-branded burrito, water cup and napkin. The move, which plays into the chain’s long-running “Boorito” Halloween marketing activations, is just another example of how brands are trying to capitalize on the ever-popular spooky season.

Halloween has been a retail bright spot in recent years after pandemic lockdowns spurred consumers to invest in increasingly lavish outdoor decorations, but the holiday is reaching new heights with its amplification by Gen Z on social media. An influx of brands, including Bath & Body Works, are getting in on the action this year. Many brands, including Progressive Insurance and CarMax, are collaborating with the horror-comedy “Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice”, while others are simply looking to connect with ghost-loving customers.

Read more: What “Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice” learned from “Barbie”

Many costumes cleverly showcase viral trends from pop culture—it’s clear which brand Target’s “Tumbley” water bottle costume is mimicking, for example.

“There’s no doubt that being able to dress up and have decorations gives better stuff to put on Instagram and TikTok,” said Peter Fader, a professor of marketing at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, noting that social media has helped raise Halloween “to another level.” He added that the holiday has greatly expanded in its variety, which has contributed to its appeal to Gen Z, a group that appreciates clever creativity.

“Back in the day, it was a clown, a ghost or a princess but now there’s much more edginess and a cultural relevance,” he said. “People are more tuned in to cultural trends.”

Also read: Gen Z is overspending at live events

Creeping up on the calendar

Brands have long sought to capitalize on Halloween hype—last year, marketers including M&Ms, General Mills and Burger King haunted social media feeds with spooky offerings and jokes. But the marketing seems to be creeping up earlier. 

Craft retailer Michaels released its “Creepy Twins” ad on social media last month, and the 15-second spot will begin airing on linear TV in mid-September. Created with agency Oberland, the campaign uses twins to illustrate that there is no one-size-fits-all Halloween style as the holiday attracts multiple generations. It also spoofs twin scenes common in horror flicks, including “The Shining.”

“We wanted to create a campaign that would resonate with both Halloween enthusiasts and those needing more inspiration,” wrote Mandy Rassi, Michaels’ chief marketing officer, in an email. 

Also read: Oberland names new chief creative officer

Especially this year, ahead of a presidential election and with an increasingly polarized population, Halloween represents a bipartisan respite, experts say, as its orange and black replace Democratic blue and Republican red.

While the National Retail Federation’s annual predictions for Halloween spending are due out later this month, the organization has reported stellar growth for the season, led by 2023’s record forecast. Last year, the NRF forecasted Halloween spending would top $12 billion, a 20% increase from 2022’s $10 billion forecast. Before the pandemic lockdowns, in 2019, NRF projected $9 billion in Halloween spending. (The group does not measure actual Halloween spending.)

Much of the growth is attributable to adults, said Katherine Cullen, VP of industry and consumer insights at the NRF.

“Halloween is no longer just a kids’ holiday,” she said. “It started with millennials and has continued on with Gen Z for something that young adults are continuing to participate in whether or not they have children.”

Gen Z spending more

Last year, roughly 75% of U.S. adults planned to celebrate Halloween, up from two-thirds roughly a decade ago, the NRF found. Gen Z, in particular, is perhaps the most enthusiastic age cohort when it comes to Halloween, and that’s reflected in its spending. In 2023, 91% of Gen Zers between ages 12 and 22 said they would be celebrating Halloween, according to a survey from youth market research firm YPulse. Roughly 70% of those Gen Z consumers said they planned to spend money on costumes, and more than half (58%) reported they would be purchasing Halloween decorations, said YPulse Chief Content Officer MaryLeigh Bliss. (Gen Z was born between 1997 and 2012.)

Between costumes, candy and spooky decor, 13- to 39-year-old consumers spent an average of $246 on Halloween in 2023, per YPulse data. Bliss anticipates Gen Z and millennials’ average Halloween spending will hover around the same amount this year, as it has for the past several years. 

While Gen Z’s Halloween budgets have largely held steady, their Halloween celebrations—and consequently, their spending—have begun earlier than ever this year, Bliss said. She pointed to TikTok’s “Summerween” trend (named after a summertime Halloween celebration featured in the cartoon “Gravity Falls”), which drove a flurry of videos from creators starting the Halloween season in June with jack-o'-lantern-themed treats, horror film marathons and even costumes.  

The hashtag #Summerween has appeared across more than 46,000 TikTok videos since the start of May, according to TikTok data. And a slew of brands have participated in TikTok’s premature Halloween celebrations, too. Five Below, for instance, reposted a video from a TikTok user who documented her Summerween shopping trip at the discount store in late June. Craft store chain Joann combined Summerween with “Brat Summer” in a video showing off its new line of lime green skeletons. 

Also read: 5 Gen Z trends for brands to watch

Target, meanwhile, never stopped celebrating Halloween on TikTok after its eight-foot-tall “Lewis the Pumpkin Ghoul” went viral on the platform last fall, generating nearly 34 million views on TikTok. The retailer has been sharing a series of animations of Lewis (collectively referred to as “Lewis Lore”) since last Halloween, including him celebrating holidays such as Christmas and Valentine’s Day. 

Target’s TikTok video marking the halfway point to Halloween with an animated montage of Lewis gearing up for the holiday is the retailer’s top-performing social post of 2024 thus far, with nearly 28,000 likes. The “Lewis Lore” series has collectively garnered over 3.5 million views across TikTok and Instagram. Lewis’ virality also drove Target to introduce several new spooky mascots as part of its “Lewis & Friends” collection.

“On TikTok, there’s literally Halloween celebrities—Target’s Lewis, The Home Depot skeleton, the more over-the-top and ridiculous the better, it seems,” Bliss said. “Now, these viral Halloween decoration moments that can happen on an annual basis [are something] people actually are looking forward to, and have become a part of the culture.”

One big driver in the sales surge is outdoor decorations, which can be costly as consumers try to outdo both their past selves and their neighbors. The growing consumer interest prompted The Home Depot to invest in paid media promoting its spooky season wares for the first time this fall. The retailer has a larger Halloween assortment this year that includes an updated 12-foot yard skeleton and dog.

Spirit Halloween is also ramping up its offerings by hosting a record 1,525 locations this fall, an increase of 400 to those already open. The chain known for its temporary shops is also capitalizing on the new “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” sequel with a costume and decor collection created with Warner Bros. Discovery Global Products.