Snapchat is Bringing Back the Phantom House Series in Partnership with State Farm and Maybelline

Snapchat’s decision to revive its Phantom House series on Halloween indicates that the holiday presents a significant opportunity for the company. Snap cited research that showed that 80% of the platform’s users planned to use the app during Halloween when developing Phantom House last year. As per the data that is cited in the details of the release, Snapchat users in the United States are at least two times more likely than last year to expect to spend more this Halloween.

As per Snap-commissioned research from Kantar MarketNorms that was cited in detail around last year’s Phantom House activation, Halloween campaigns on the platform reported a substantial lift in brand awareness, ad awareness, and action intent. That explains why Maybelline has returned as Phantom House’s second-season sponsor, as have State Farm and Hulu.

“Halloween is a key moment for discovery in the beauty industry, and Maybelline celebrates all opportunities for people to step out of their comfort zone and express themselves,” Jessica Feinstein, Maybelline’s senior vice president of marketing, said in a statement.

Branded content that will be incorporated into an episode of Phantom House will be included in Maybelline’s activation this year. In addition, the brand will make use of custom creator content, an immersive augmented reality (AR) lens, commercials, and Snap Ads.

State Farm will create its own AR Lens and promote it through commercials and Snap Ads. To complement its annual Huluween campaign, which promotes the streamer’s library of Halloween-themed content and its new Hulu Originals film “Carved,” Hulu will use an augmented reality lens, commercials, and Snap Video Ads.

Snap and Atomic Digital Design created four augmented reality (AR) lenses that will be themed to each Phantom House episode to further increase fan engagement. Snapchat users’ faces will be morphed in real-time, and pet tracking and contextualized dynamic 3D animation will be included in the Lenses. The Lenses will transport viewers into the worlds of the episodes, featuring scenes like a freezer filled with zombies and demon dogs.

Through Phantom House’s public profile, Snapchat users can currently access the first episode of the second season. Every Tuesday, new episodes will be released.

Snap’s second-quarter revenue raised 16% year on year to $1.23 million, as per its latest earnings announcement. The site also recorded 432 million daily active users throughout the period, up 36 million from the year-ago period.