It takes a dark spirit to bring Halloween back from the dead. Jägermeister’s integrated REACH FOR THE DARKNESS campaign celebrated the day the way it’s meant to be, by bringing back the fear and having our audience do the same.

We launched the campaign with an influencer. Many brands work with influencers, but we made ours disappear. Comedians like Lil Dicky have turned Halloween into a joke, so we decided to play the ultimate joke on his fans by kidnapping him. Not only did we set the tone for the rest of October, but we became the first brand ever to activate an influencer campaign on Facebook Live.

To get our fans reaching for the darkness, we had them reach for their phones for a Shazam scavenger hunt and zombie Snapchat filter, and we didn’t stop at social. From basements to bars, we brought the darkness to every corner.

Days leading up to Halloween, Lil Dicky’s Facebook Live broadcast took a shockingly dark turn. What began as a casual conversation about the weather turned into a thriller when a stranger began following him. Those watching were horrified as his live feed suddenly went dark. For the next 24 hours his fans began to spread the word, but luckily before the LAPD got involved, he revealed the REACH FOR THE DARKNESS campaign.

We also partnered with Shazam to create a mobile scavenger hunt. Every Jägermeister stag logo turned into a digital key that unlocked prizes, and the darkness didn’t stop there. All it took was one right swipe to bring a zombified Snapchat filter to life. And there were zombie hands–lots of zombie hands–in stores, at bars, and on the streets. Across major cities, pits of darkness and 3D decals sprang up near popular bars and clubs.

Jägermeister didn’t just embrace the darkness, it had America reaching for it. Earning 33 million impressions, Jägermeister exceeded benchmarks across the board. We tripled Shazam's average with an entry rate of 3.3% as well as surpassed the 3-minute benchmark with average engagement of over 7 minutes. In less than 48 hours Jägermeister was able to reach a new audience of 242K viewers from our prank as well as thousands of comments. We brought back the darkness to Halloween and made history in the process as the first brand to launch an influencer campaign on Facebook LIVE.