We realized we were missing out on one of the biggest grocery occasions in the country; each Halloween, Americans spend over $3 billion on candy, making it the perfect opportunity to capture a high-intent moment while building awareness and trial across our lagging vertical.

But with so many competitors vying for consumers’ attention, how could we stand out and win during this cultural moment - getting more people to try Uber Eats’ grocery delivery service?

Knowing that candy shopping begins in the weeks leading up to Halloween, we needed a big idea that kept our audience’s attention engaged over an extended period, reached them when and where they made their purchase decision, and delighted them in a captivating way.

Insights and strategy: Halloween and horror serve as entertainment that creates an alternate world; it just takes one off-theme detail to break the illusion. But all too often, brands trying to cash in forget that the devil is in the details and go to market with an incomplete and disappointing brand experience.

Like how each Halloween, retailers fight it out using promo codes such as TRICKORTREAT or SPOOKY10. How could we make these forgettable, commerce-driven promo codes more terrifying, entertaining, and worthy of the holiday?

Our strategy was to make something as boring as an Uber Eats promo code as memorable and relevant to Halloween as possible, breaking through in culture as a brand that truly understands horror - from superfans to casual watchers.

In treating our target more like an audience than consumers, we created the ultimate experience by elevating it from advertising to an authentic piece of horror entertainment - making sure no detail in the experience was left unterrifying. This way, our audience could never ignore a single promo code and we’d put competitors in their graves.

Execution: Introducing Horror Codes. By partnering with 4 Hollywood studios, we got the IP to the 10 greatest horror films of all time. We then took their most famous quotes - from The Sixth Sense’s “I see dead people” to SAW’s “Do you want to play a game?” - and turned the full length quotes into promo codes for candy.

But, there was a catch. Each day to build momentum leading up to Halloween, we put horror fans to the test by dropping the quotes with the majority of letters removed; only once the full puzzle was solved could it be used to unlock a 60% discount for candy.

The puzzles threaded our story into the world by appearing across digital OOH formats like motion posters, transit displays, and LED billboards, to paid and organic social, to online horror communities, and to CRM and push notifications. We even dropped codes in the Uber Mobility app and Uber drivers’ in-car tablets for riders to pass the time with a code to crack.

But it didn’t stop there. While other retailers begged people to remember their promo codes, Uber Eats had fans actively playing along with us by going out to search for codes - and then, discussing them online.

We engaged with them on X (Twitter), TikTok, and Instagram to encourage and celebrate their sleuthing skills right down to the final night. Our audience’s brand experience became as entertaining and cinematic as the horror films themselves.

Results and impact: In less than 8 hours, we got 290,000 promo code applications, and by Halloween night, over 2 million.

Overall, Horror Codes brought in 44% New Users to Ubers Eats’ Grocery & Retail vertical. And not only did we see a +65% lift in users’ grocery + retail basket size over the campaign period, but the campaign yielded a 57% post-Halloween retention rate from participants as well.

While other retailers begged people to remember and use their promo codes, Uber Eats’ immersive brand experience had people discussing and sharing theirs online - garnering over 10,000 organic social engagements.

We engaged with them on X (Twitter), TikTok, and Instagram to encourage and celebrate their sleuthing skills, driving them in-app to complete the final stage of their transactional journey getting over 96.3 million impressions on Uber Ad surfaces.

We turned the most boring marketing trick into an unforgettable Halloween Treat, giving Uber Eats the most successful promo code campaign for Uber Eats Grocery & Retail ever, in the total history of the company.