Home Depot’s insanely popular 12-foot skeleton—key marketing stats and facts

Home Depot’s 12-Foot Skeleton with LifeEyes just won’t die. After a 2020 in which the popular product sold out by early October and prompted resale sites to more than triple the price, the bag of bones returned to HomeDepot.com in July and promptly sold out again. The item is still available in some stores, according to a Home Depot spokesman, but good luck finding one. While the home improvement chain’s e-commerce site normally shows in-store availability for certain items, the site no longer lists the giant skeleton as an available product anywhere. Below, Ad Age compiled answers to key questions about the hulking decoration. What’s the original price of the skeleton? When it arrived at Home Depot in 2020, the 12-foot skeleton carried a price tag of $300—a substantial amount considering that consumers are expected to spend $102.74 on average this year for Halloween, according to the National Retail Federation. Is the 12-foot skeleton available anywhere else? It is, if you pony up at least $750, where Amazon is currently offering a similar version—with an additional delivery fee. Or people could shell out $1,299 for a giant-sized skeleton on eBay. How much did this skeleton contribute to Home Depot’s sales last year? It’s unclear just how much Big Bones helped the chain, but he definitely played a role. For the third quarter of 2020, which includes the 2020 Halloween season, Home Depot reported a 23% rise in sales to $33.5 billion. Executives said Halloween 2020 was the chain’s strongest ever. Does Home Depot have any similar items for sale this year? A “skeleton” keyword search on HomeDepot.com yields 182 results. The selection of similar products includes a skeleton piranha, a skeleton-driven haunted hearse and a 6-foot tall pumpkin-head skeleton with LifeEyes. Lance Allen, Home Depot’s decorative holiday merchant, recommends other products from the store’s “Grave and Bones” collection, such as a 7-foot Inferno Reaper and an 8-foot Ferry of the Dead. Are supply chain issues affecting inventory? Supply chain issues, including COVID-19-related factory delays, labor shortages and increased shipping costs, are problems nearly every retailer is dealing with right now, Home Depot included. On an August conference call, executives at the home improvement chain acknowledged the dilemma, mentioning “supply chain” 19 times throughout the discussion. Overall, the retailer is investing in new facilities, shipping containers and exclusive agreements. However, its inventory for Halloween this year was ordered “some time ago,” executives said. How are brands getting involved with skeleton mania? Last year, brands including Slim Jim, Sour Patch Kids and Impossible Foods all got in on the skeletal action on social media. While selling out long before many consumers were even thinking about Halloween proves the item is still wildly popular, most brands have yet to engage again this year. However, Budweiser is still finding brand value in jumping on the skeleton bandwagon. The beer brand is promoting a Budweiser Bud Can costume for $45 to “dress up consumers’ Home Depot skeletons,” according to a spokesperson. The company posted about the idea earlier today. You walk into the bar and these two are staring at you. What do you do? pic.twitter.com/5nOyzUUb9w— Budweiser (@budweiserusa) October 1, 2021 Has demand changed the timeline of Home Depot’s marketing? The chain released the Halloween skeleton in July—several months before its prime time—in order to take advantage of high consumer interest. An email was sent to customers promoting the item at that time. On an August conference call with analysts, Home Depot President and Chief Operating Officer Ted Decker said the company will “follow all our normal trends” rather than market early. “We had a sneak peek with opening up Halloween online and just sold out our sort of pre-released Halloween product almost immediately,” he said. “So that's a very strong indication that people are still going to engage in decorating, and we look forward to setting our decorative holiday later in October.” How many bones does a human body have, anyway? Babies start out with 270 bones—over time, they fuse together to eventually become the 206 bones in an adult skeleton.

Home Depot’s insanely popular 12-foot skeleton—key marketing stats and facts

Featured Stories