Halloween Horror Nights 30

JACK IS BACK | Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights is The World’s Premier Halloween Event—where fans enter the sinister worlds from the big and small screen. The event features haunted houses, streets transformed into creature-filled scare zones, live entertainment, and some of Universal Studios Florida’s rides and attractions. 

Our team’s challenge was to create a campaign commemorating the 30th year of the event, also our first year working on a campaign for both Universal Orlando Resort and Universal Studios Hollywood, all against the backdrop of a global pandemic. 

NEVER GO ALONE

One of the most recurring insights was that our guests love experiencing Halloween Horror Nights with their friends. This brought us to the idea of “Never Go Alone,” which became the primary message of the campaign.

We created :30 and :15 broadcast commercials to give our fans a small taste of fear before we slashed into their screens with something truly terrifying. Our two-minute short film revealed what Jack the Clown, our infamous original icon from years past, does to those foolish enough to attend the event alone.

WHAT EVERYONE’S SCREAMING FOR

“It’s a horror-filled playland.” That’s just one of countless quotes we reviewed from our fans during the brainstorming for Halloween Horror Nights 30. In this milestone year, we wanted to give our fans something more they could sink their teeth into, so we created haunted house announcement videos, as well as other content for social, in-park digital boards, mobile, web, print, merch, and outdoor.

The street art murals and posters would happen in conjunction with the top notable streetball tournaments and leagues that take place throughout the summer.

BACK WITH A VENGEANCE

The 2020 event was canceled due to the pandemic, but just like the slasher horror films where you mistakenly think the killer is dead, Halloween Horror Nights came back in 2021, more terrifying than ever. All of the monstrous content that we created for in 2020 was finally unleashed, along with new horrors we came up with in 2021.

KILLER RESULTS

Shareable scares quickly went viral as announcement videos and other content was released, quickly racking up hundreds of thousands of views on social media. Universal’s HHN 30 event also had record-breaking online ticket sales. In spite of the challenges of the pandemic, Popcorn created a scary good campaign with even better results that resulted in numerous award recognitions in the industry.:

• 2022 Gold Addy Award for HHN Photography (National)

• 2022 Gold Addy Award for HHN Photography (District 4; all of Florida and Caribbean)

• 2022 Gold Addy & “Best of Video” Award for HHN “Trapped” Long-Form Video (Orlando)

• 2022 Silver Addy for HHN, including Cross Platform – Integrated Campaign & Elements of Advertising – Photography (Orlando)

• 2022 Silver Telly Award Winner (Online Commercials: General Travel & Tourism) for HHN ”Trapped” Long-Form Video

• 2022 Brand Film Awards Winner (Travel & Leisure Category) for HHN ”Trapped” Long-Form Video

Chris Surrey, Executive Creative Director
Todd Wineland, ACD/Art Director
Robert Armao, ACD/Art Director
Rob Bloom, ACD/Copywriter of Content & Engagement
Howard Mermel, Copywriting Manager
Kristin Kiernicki, Sr. Art Director
Morgana Wingate, Sr. Art Director
Louise Cooper, Sr. Copywriter
Derek Deal, Asst. Director & Motion Graphics
Aven Pitts, Director/Cinematographer of Trapped BTS & HHN 30 Announcement Videos
Dorian Cantor, Video Editor

Patrick Cummings, Film Director
Joshua Reis, Cinematographer
Lionel Coleman, Executive Producer
Matt Shih, Creative Director
Norma Sardy, Line Producer
Joshua Hoffine, Set Designer & Photographer
Pixeldust Studios, CGI & Special Effects