Reese's runs 'trick-or-treatiest street' contest across channels to drive 10,000+ consumer submissions and extend seasonal shelf life

Reese's launched a multichannel contest asking U.S. households to nominate their neighborhood for the title of "trick-or-treatiest street," according to Marketing Dive. The campaign ran across social, email, and in-store signage, collecting more than 10,000 entries and extending brand conversation three weeks past the typical Halloween sell-through window. The winning street received $25,000 in decorations and a neighborhood trick-or-treat event, while entrants submitted photos, videos, and testimonials that Reese's amplified across owned channels.

The mechanics were straightforward. Consumers submitted their street via a branded microsite, shared proof of their neighborhood's Halloween commitment, and invited neighbors to vote. Reese's seeded the contest with in-store POS at major grocery and convenience chains, ran paid social to drive submissions, and retargeted entrants with reminder emails as the voting period closed. The brand captured first-party data—email, zip code, household composition—at entry, building a list of 50,000+ opted-in seasonal shoppers for future October activations.

The underlying mechanism is contest-as-content-engine. Seasonal candy competes in a narrow window: most Halloween product moves in the two weeks before October 31, then clears at deep discount. By launching the contest in early October and running voting through mid-November, Reese's kept its brand top-of-mind during the critical purchase window and created a reason to stay engaged after the holiday passed. User-generated content—photos of decorated streets, testimonials, voting appeals—gave the brand hundreds of organic social posts without paid production. The contest also shifted the conversation from "buy candy" to "celebrate your neighborhood," a higher-involvement frame that increased share intent and repeat purchase among entrants.

A small physical-product brand can run the same play at modest scale. Pick a seasonal moment where your product clusters—grilling season for hot sauces, back-to-school for lunch gear, holiday gifting for candles. Launch a simple contest: "Show us your [use case]." Entry requires a photo or short video, an email, and one social share. Use a free tool like Gleam or Woobox to collect submissions and manage voting. Seed the contest with your existing email list and a $500 paid social budget targeting your core customer demo. Offer a prize that costs you $200-$500 in product or an experience related to your category—a backyard BBQ kit, a curated gift set, a feature in your brand story. Run the contest for three weeks and extend voting another week, capturing emails throughout. Repost the best entries to your feed daily, tagging participants and asking followers to vote. After the contest closes, email all entrants a 15% off code for the next seasonal window and a highlight reel of submissions. You'll bank 500-2,000 new emails, generate 50-200 pieces of user content, and extend your seasonal conversation four weeks beyond the typical purchase spike—all for under $1,000 in spend.

The pattern scales across any category with a concentrated seasonal purchase behavior. Contests turn passive buyers into active participants, generate owned content when production budgets are tight, and build a first-party list you control. The move isn't the prize—it's the extended conversation and the data capture that let you reactivate the same cohort next year.