For kids, Halloween is all about trick-or-treating and splurging on candy. More sweets and chocolate are consumed at Halloween than any other day, so a lot of little teeth need brushing afterwards. But the idea of Halloween without candy? That’s scary.

P&G, which owns oral care brands Crest and Oral-B, identified Halloween as a missed opportunity to highlight the importance of oral care, without nagging kids.

Its PR and advertising agencies worked together to create a PR campaign around an ad spot, Halloween Treats Gone Wrong, a film of a focus group of children trying ‘healthy’ Halloween treats made from vegetables. The video recorded the hilarious, unrehearsed reactions to the idea and taste of Nori pops, artichoke cups and tofu ghost mallows replacing Halloween candy. The end slate – the only brand mention – reads ‘Nothing is more horrifying than Halloween without candy. Thankfully, there’s Crest + Oral B’.

The PR campaign started when we pre-seeded a YouTube video to influencers and continued on Facebook with posts and photos.

The video had over 7 million views. The campaign generated 600m media impressions, including over 25 TV segments. The ad was AdWeek.com’s #1 ad of the week and the most-read story of the year.

The team created a new, surprising occasion to promote Crest and Oral-B that generated widespread media attention and consumer buzz. Confectionery brands usually reign supreme at Halloween, but this year P&G’s agencies stole the spotlight. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em…

The video, Halloween Treats Gone Wrong, was based on a focus group of children trying ‘healthy’ Halloween treats made from vegetables. The film recorded the hilarious, unrehearsed reactions to the idea and taste of Nori pops, artichoke cups, tofu ghost mallows and veggie gummies replacing Halloween candy.

The video was soft launched on 14 October on the Crest YouTube site and key influencers and bloggers were asked to share the video.

Journalists were sent a mailer including a link to the video and gift-wrapped healthy food such as garlic, yams and artichokes, as well as Crest and Oral-B-branded M&M’s, a toothbrush made into a lollipop and a card with the key message. Coverage hit fever pitch, including in Buzzfeed, The Huffington Post, Gawker, Mashable, Good Morning America and Fox & Friends.

On Halloween, we stormed The Today Show with branded signs, toothbrush lollipops and a toothbrush costume.

Output

• The campaign generated 600 million media impressions, with over 25 TV segments including Good Morning America, The Today Show, FOX News (x2), Nightline, CNBC and BloombergTV

• The video had nearly 4 million views on Crest's YouTube channel, and an astonishing 7.3 million in total

• The campaign garnered more than 27 million Twitter impressions and 11 million Facebook impressions

• Earned impressions and sharing/amplification of placements resulted in 1:8 Paid:Earned impressions and a CPM of $0.20

Consideration

• Halloween Treats Gone Wrong was AdWeek.com’s #1 ad of the week and the most-read story of the year.

Impact

• 3% sales lift including a 4x lift at one retailer that also promoted the campaign in-store

• 1.7 million coupon prints (20% lift from base run for P&G on Coupons.com)

• 7.3 million video views