Before we start with our list of Day of the Dead promotion ideas, let’s take a look at the origins of this special celebration deriving from Mexico. In 2008, UNESCO added the Day of the Dead to the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list. According to many different sources, Day of the Dead originated from different Mexican ethnic groups. The fear and uncertainty of death generated a series of rites and traditions that have lasted until today.
The wide range of celebrations, decorations, and colorful props associated with the Day of the Dead, leaves us with a handful of ingenious ideas for Day of the Dead promotions. Sugar skulls, traditional Catrinas, dressed-up altars, and typical dishes… All these aspects can help you come up with some interesting and engaging ideas.
Let’s take a look at how you can boost engagement with Day of the Dead games and promotions while entertaining your audience and fostering customer loyalty and trust.
Boost engagement with Day of the Dead social media giveaways
Publicizing your product or brand means attempting to reach as many individuals as possible. Luckily, in the era of social media, this is a task much easier to complete than years ago. Day of the Dead is yet another opportunity to launch a social media giveaway to touch base with customers and attract new potential customers. Did you know that social media algorithms favor posts with high engagement? Posts with likes and comments will be seen by more people than a post with little interaction. Algorithms understand that posts with interactions are more relevant and interesting – therefore they’re shown to more users.
Running a Day of the Dead social media giveaway is a fantastic solution for brands looking to get out there! Sweepstakes tend to increase brand visibility on social media platforms and that’s thanks to all the likes, comments, and mentions. And here’s how to get them!
In the first example, you can see how a tattooist boosted his studio’s social media visibility with an Instagram Giveaway. He ran a Day of the Dead sweepstakes in which he raffled a free skull tattoo. Every user who followed the organizing account and mentioned three friends got a chance to win a free tattoo!
Next up is an example of a Facebook Giveaway organized by InfanKids. The brand asked their social media followers to explain their favorite thing about the Day of the Dead, and what they like about InfanKids stores. Open questions generate loads of desired engagement. In this case, there were many interested participants, who voluntarily shared opinions about the brand’s stores.
Collect user-generated content this Day of the Dead
The most colorful and well-known aspect of the Day of the Dead are catrinas – decorated skulls. Organizing an online promotion with catrinas is a good way to attract a lot of attention and make your brand stand out from the crowd mainly focused on scary Halloween promotions.
Here’s an example of a Catrina decoration contest your brand can organize to celebrate the Day of the Dead. Users design their own sugar skulls for a chance to win prizes, which can be raffled among all participants or only those whose designs obtain the most votes. Enabling the voting system is a great tactic to encourage social media sharing and convert more users into leads.
Day of the Dead Cooking Contest
Nowadays, we have a wide variety of apps on our smartphones that allow us to create fun, personalized content to share on social media. Users love to play, experiment, and design their own creations, and it’s time for your business to give them that opportunity. By doing so, you’ll ensure your brand stays top of mind when they’re looking for your products or services.
For example, if you run a Mexican-themed restaurant or celebrate seasonal festivities at your venue, you could launch a contest where users upload photos of their own recipes for the occasion. To make it even more engaging, they can decorate their photos with Day of the Dead–themed frames. And don’t forget, you can also host the contest around dishes from your own menu, generating both visibility for your restaurant and authentic user-generated content.
Want to see how it works? Check out this Day of the Dead Recipe Contest DEMO we created to showcase how users can celebrate the tradition. All participant photos are displayed in a beautiful gallery, and each user receives their personalized photo by email or can download it to share on social media.
Entertain online communities with Day of the Dead games
Do you think your followers would respond positively to Day of the Dead games and promotions? If that’s the case, you can surprise them with a Minesweeper game where users try to reveal mines without setting them off. The best part of this branded game is that you can fully customize it! Take control of the background images, logos, colors, and even the game icons.
If attracting as many participants as possible is your main concern, incentivize participation – discounts, new product launches, gift boxes, and product hampers will definitely do the job. And that’s the case for all Day of the Dead games and promotions! An idea that always works is to reward all participants with discount coupons or vouchers and organize a random giveaway for all registered users once your promotion finalizes.
Boost sales and promote products with a Day of the Dead Reveal & Win game
The next example is fantastic for promoting new products but also for distributing prizes and discounts. Users participate in this promotion by attempting to uncover prizes hidden behind the icons placed on a board. In this Day of the Dead game, participants look for perfume bottles hidden behind catrinas.
Do you need help with your Day of the Dead campaign? Or maybe you have some technical questions that need answering? Chat with us!
