In this guide, we’ve collected Day of the Dead promotion ideas based on real campaigns, including creative contests, public voting, quizzes, and social media giveaways. We’ll also look at interactive mechanics that can be adapted to different campaign objectives. The key is to build the promotion around the meaning and visual identity of Día de Muertos rather than treating it simply as another Halloween theme.
Invite your audience to create a Catrina and vote for their favorites
Creative contests are a natural fit for Día de Muertos because they give participants a way to interpret the celebration through its distinctive visual elements.
Calaverandia, a Día de Muertos attraction in Mexico, invited participants to create their own Catrina for the chance to win tickets. Users completed a form, chose a background, and decorated a skull with stickers before sharing their creation and encouraging friends to vote.
The two designs with the most votes were selected as winners. By combining a Scenes mechanic with public voting, the promotion turned participants into content creators while giving the wider audience another reason to interact with the campaign.
This approach can be adapted with different backgrounds, decorative elements, and branded assets, allowing each participant to create a personalized composition while keeping the overall campaign visually consistent.
Create your own version: Try our Catrina Decoration Contest demo to experience how participants can design a Catrina, submit their creation, and take part in a voting-based promotion.
Engage employees with an internal Day of the Dead photo contest
Day of the Dead promotions can also be used for internal engagement, giving employees a shared activity around the celebration.
Softys Mexico, part of the personal care and hygiene company Softys, organized an online photo contest exclusively for employees. Participants uploaded their entries, and other company employees could view the submissions and vote for their favorites.
This type of campaign combines user-generated content with internal voting, making it useful for companies that want to encourage participation across teams, offices, or locations while keeping the experience within a defined community.
With Easypromos, brands can create a photo contest with a private or restricted voting process, manage submissions in a gallery, and control who is allowed to participate and vote.
Experience our Day of the Dead PhotoFun Contest demo to experience the participant journey from photo submission to gallery voting.
Use a quiz to make Day of the Dead content interactive
A quiz can turn Day of the Dead content into a more active experience, whether you want to test participants’ knowledge, reinforce key messages, or simply add a playful element to the campaign.
Brands and organizations can create questions around traditions, cultural references, campaign content, or their own products and services. With a Knowledge Quiz, participants answer a series of questions and receive a score based on their responses, making the mechanic suitable for both educational and entertainment-focused campaigns.
See the quiz mechanic in action: Try our Halloween Knowledge Quiz demo to experience how questions, scoring, and seasonal creative can be combined in an interactive promotion.
Run a Day of the Dead giveaway on social media
Social media giveaways are a simple way to connect a Day of the Dead campaign with an existing online community. The participation mechanic can stay straightforward while the theme, prize, and creative give the campaign its seasonal identity.
Encourage comments with a Facebook Giveaway
Grand Oasis Cancun, an all-inclusive resort in Cancún, Mexico, ran a Day of the Dead Facebook Giveaway offering a stay in the Mexican Caribbean. Participants were asked to follow several Oasis Hotels & Resorts profiles, like the giveaway post, and tag the person they would take with them.
The winner was selected randomly after the participation period closed, making the campaign easy to enter while connecting the prize with the resort experience.
With an Easypromos Facebook Giveaway, brands can import eligible comments from a giveaway post and randomly select winners and alternates.
Give the comment mechanic a cultural twist on Instagram
La Española México, an olive oil brand, adapted its annual Instagram giveaway around calaveritas literarias, a traditional form of humorous verse associated with Día de Muertos. Participants wrote their own calaverita in the comments and included either “aceite de oliva” or “La Española,” along with the campaign hashtag.
The mechanic gave participants more creative freedom than a standard tag-to-enter giveaway while keeping participation within the Instagram comments.
With Instagram Giveaway, brands can import comments from the giveaway post and randomly select winners and alternates once participation closes.
Add an interactive Day of the Dead game
Branded games can give audiences another way to engage with a Día de Muertos campaign beyond submitting content or entering a giveaway. The mechanic can remain simple while the visuals, icons, and prizes connect the experience to the celebration.
A Minesweeper game, for example, can be customized with Day of the Dead-inspired graphics and branded elements, challenging participants to complete the game while competing for a prize or a place in a final drawing.
Try the mechanic: Explore our Day of the Dead Minesweeper demo to see how a familiar game can be adapted with seasonal creative.
For campaigns focused more directly on rewards, a Reveal & Win mechanic lets participants uncover hidden elements for the chance to discover an instant prize, discount, or other incentive.
See an instant-win example: Try our Day of the Dead Reveal & Win demo and experience how the mechanic combines gameplay with prize distribution.
Ready to launch your Day of the Dead promotion?
From creative contests and voting campaigns to quizzes, social media giveaways, and branded games, Día de Muertos offers plenty of opportunities to create interactive experiences rooted in the celebration’s distinctive visual and cultural identity.
Have a Day of the Dead campaign in mind? Contact us via live chat or request a video call to discuss your objectives. We’ll be happy to review your use case and help you choose the most suitable participation mechanic for your campaign.
