Social Rocket
Reese’s turns Halloween 2026 into a data-driven creator campaign: the Hershey brand has selected 150 streets in the USA as particularly strong trick-or-treat destinations and lets its own “Halloween Council” of well-known faces and creators determine the winner. The decision is told as a two-part social series, and the winner receives a block party hosted by Reese’s and Zillow on 21 October 2026.
15.000 respondents, 150 streets, one social finale
According to Marketing Dive, Reese’s surveyed 15.000 people in the USA for the preselection and additionally evaluated factors such as decoration, neighbourhood participation and walkability. This produced a list of 150 candidates.
The actual selection then becomes content. The first Reese’s Halloween Council includes actresses Christina Ricci and Kathy Najimy as well as creators Rachel Iwanyszyn, Zaire Alford and Macy Blackwell. The group rates the candidates in a two-part social series and ultimately crowns “America’s Trick-or-Treatiest Street”.
This keeps the data analysis from staying in the background. It provides the material for a campaign that links research, creator content and real community activation.
Reese’s extends the campaign beyond social
The winner receives a Halloween block party in collaboration with Zillow. In parallel, Reese’s extends the activation with additional creative from its existing brand platform “Everything Happens for a Reese’s”.
For marketers, precisely this interlocking is interesting. The campaign starts with data, is narratively charged through well-known personalities and creators, and ends in a physical experience. Social media is thus not just the distribution channel but the link between selection process, storytelling and event.
A similar pattern is shown by Target’s “Inside Out” campaign, which combines broadcast, creator formats and local social activation. Cadbury also builds its US campaign as a social series rather than running a single spot.
What social teams can take away
Reese’s uses several mechanics at once: a clear seasonal theme, a data-based selection, recognisable faces and a concrete outcome the series builds towards. This gives the campaign more dramatic structure than classic product-focused Halloween posts.
For creator marketing, it is also notable that prominent names and classic social creators are used together. The brand thus does not place the role on a single influencer but builds an ensemble that can reach different target groups. A comparable multi-channel approach is pursued by Credit Karma with its social and influencer campaign for Gen Z.
The activation is tailored to the US market. For German brands, the specific Halloween mechanic is therefore less interesting than the principle: seasonal campaigns gain depth when data, creator storytelling and a real event feed into each other.