For the third year in a row, Halloween Town was a big success. Over two days we had 13,000 attendees, which was up 35 percent from the previous two years.

Halloween Town is set up much like a town with each area sponsored by a different corporate partner.  Here’s a summary of how each partner participated and what they did to support the event.

After passing through the gates of Halloween Town (and receiving a copy of the Halloween Town Gazette hot off the presses!), visitors first entered the Haunted Midway, which was hosted by Pepsi.  In addition to providing some valuable pre-promotion for the event, Pepsi brought an entire zone of games, activities and healthy flavored waters for our guests to sample.  No wonder Pepsi’s area was one of the busiest!

Across from Midway was the Farmers Market, which was dominated by the pumpkin patch sponsored by Shaw’s Supermarkets.  In addition to giving us 6,500 pumpkins–large ones for decorations and small ones for the kids to decorate–Shaw’s sold tickets and mobiles in their stores and hung Halloween Town posters and register signs.  Shaw’s has been on board with Halloween Town since the beginning and there is good reason why: attendees consistently rank their pumpkin patch the number one attraction and activity at Halloween Town.

Diagonally across from the Farmers Market was the Haunted Library and Bank, which was sponsored by Citizens Bank.  From the bank, kids could withdraw Spooky Dollars branded with the Citizens logo that then could be used at the iParty Store.

On the other side was the Halloween Town Speedway, which was sponsored by Valvoline Instant Oil Change.  Valvoline has been with Halloween Town since the beginning and I actually have The Jimmy Fund and Jiffy Lube to thank for their involvement.  If I hadn’t attended a brown-bag talk on how the two formed a successful cause marketing partnership, I would have never thought to approach Jiffy Lube’s competitor Valvoline Instant Oil Change!  Valvoline sells mobiles in their service centers, and despite only seeing 50-60 customers day, has raised tens of thousands of dollars every year.

Next to Valvoline was the Halloween Town store and main stage, both sponsored by iParty.  The store was great because iParty stocked it with all sorts of fun products and 100 percent of sales went directly to the Kids Fund.  In addition to selling the Halloween Town mobile in their stores, iParty also ran two other mobile programs earlier this year.  They also tag all their October advertising with Halloween Town promos.  This is all great promotion for the event.

The last zone on the other side of the stage was Hallowood Hills, which was sponsored by Staples.  This area was a lot of fun because everyone was treated like a star!  You’re applauded when you arrive on the red carpet, invited to take a "scream test" and then meet some of your favorite "stars" like Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles and Garfield.  Staples sells the mobile in their New England stores and was second only to iParty in mobile sales.

Over the next couple of weeks we’ll meet with our corporate partners to share the results from the 300+ surveys we collected during the two-day event.  This gives them some valuable insight on demo breakdown for attendees, where they traveled from, how they heard about the event, where they bought their tickets, what activities they liked the most and suggestions for next year.  Overall we thought the event was great this year, but there are always areas for improvements.  We just have to ask our customers.  Halloween Town must bring the devil out in them because they always have lots of good, candid feedback!