Ep 540: Using Halloween as Q4 Prep: Pilothouse’s Aves on Creative Seasonal Ads

Podcast: DTC Podcast
Guest: Aves (Creative Team, Pilothouse; Host of Adventurous)
Host: Eric Dick
Date: September 5, 2025

Overview

This episode explores how Halloween has become a strategic opportunity for DTC (direct-to-consumer) brands to not only drive incremental revenue but also practice and refine tactics in anticipation of Q4's main event: Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Eric Dick is joined by Aves from Pilothouse’s creative team, who shares hands-on seasonal ad strategies, the psychology behind fall campaigns, effective uses of nostalgia, and the evolving role of AI in creative processes.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Growing Importance of Halloween in DTC Marketing

• Early and Enthusiastic Consumer Engagement:

  • Halloween shopping and decorating are starting earlier than ever, mirroring traditional holiday season energy.
  • “People are like shopping Halloween products earlier. They're decorating like they would for the holiday season… People care way more and they want to buy stuff.” (Aves, 00:00)

• Capitalize on Seasonal Colors and Themes:

  • Even brands not launching Halloween products can benefit by featuring autumn colors (black, orange, ochre) in their ads or content.
  • “If you're selling yoga pants... feature those in ads really heavily, can kind of do wonders for your click through rate around this time of year. You don't have to be putting skeletons and pumpkins and decorative gourds on all of your products.” (Aves, 00:20 & 05:04)

2. How to Keep Halloween Campaigns Playful and On-Brand

• Family-Friendly Targeting & Nostalgia:

  • Tailor the tone and creative to your target personas—avoid "too scary" or mature content for family brands.
  • Nostalgic cues resonate, especially with Millennials who “respond the best to nostalgia.” (Aves, 03:19)
  • “Halloween is almost more nostalgic for people than... the holiday season. Like, Halloween movies mean a lot to people.” (Aves, 02:46)

• Tapping Into Cultural Tropes:

  • Pumpkin spice and "decorative gourd season" are recurring cultural moments worth referencing, even for brands not changing their product lines.

3. Tactical Promotional Execution for Q4

• Halloween as a Testing Ground:

  • Halloween campaigns serve as valuable practice for Q4, letting brands experiment with offer structures and creative before Black Friday/Cyber Monday.
  • “Using it as prep for holiday drops specifically... if hallo time offer testing, that is actually really scary and I don't want to talk to you.” (Aves, 07:54)

• Timing Matters: Lead-Up vs. The Day

  • Focus on the lead-up to Halloween (limited editions, themed collections) rather than only on Halloween day, since “people are probably out and about either trick or treating or at party.” (Aves, 08:41)
  • “It's almost like the opposite of Black Friday because the lead up is so important. It's like buying things for the holiday is what matters.” (Aves, 08:49)

• Communicating Q4 Offers:

  • Prep for earlier Black Friday/Cyber Monday by guaranteeing “this is the best deal” in your ad copy or landing pages to prevent shopper hesitation.
  • “Making that guarantee that this is going to be the lowest price for 30 days, it does start to matter because... people know now that sales are going to start earlier.” (Aves, 10:06)

4. Quick Creative Wins for Seasonal Ads

• Simple Tweaks Work:

  • Adding falling leaves emojis or autumn tones into existing ads can drive 20–30% lifts—even without changing copy or products.
  • “They were just adding the leaf emoji... and it started performing better in like September, October. No change to the messaging, no change to the product itself. They just threw in those little leaf emojis and it worked.” (Aves, 05:50)
  • “I just threw falling leaves on those ads and they performed 20 to 30% better.” (Eric Dick, 06:14)

• Understand the Consumer Psychology of Fall:

  • As routines reset after summer (back-to-school, spending more time indoors), users become more receptive to shopping and ads.
  • "Performance just increases because people are at home more, less to do, kids are back in school, you're back in that routine of your nighttime scroll." (Aves, 06:45)

5. Creativity, AI, and the Future of Marketing

• Limited AI Use in Concepting:

  • Aves prefers to use AI for clerical tasks rather than for creative ideation, to keep her own creative muscles strong.
  • “For my actual, like, conceptualizing ideas, I still just do that by myself. It's your own brain also.” (Aves, 12:56)
  • “If I don't use that muscle, it's gonna stop working.” (Aves, 13:50)

• AI’s Role: Discernment Over Taste:

  • The skill of the future is “discernment”—knowing when, where, and how to use AI effectively, and when to lean on human creativity.
  • “Taste is so subjective… it's probably discernment because we're thinking about, like, should I be doing this with AI or should I be doing this with a person?” (Aves, 14:49)

• AI in Practice:

  • Use AI as a tactical tool for things like note-taking or basic brand positioning; let humans guide conceptual and deeply subjective tasks.
  • "If you're talking about, like, creating products, it's really necessary to, like, use your human brain. But then if you're talking about, like, positioning or Persona strategy, then taste is not really required." (Aves, 18:41)

6. Fun/Cultural Moments

• Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein:
  • Discussion of Frankenstein being current in pop culture, potentially offering creative campaign hooks this Halloween.
  • “Frankenstein is a great show too, because Guillermo del Toro just received a 14 minute standing ovation with Jacob Elordi playing the titular monster. Frankenstein’s monster.” (Eric Dick, 17:28)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Seasonal Simplicity:
  “No change to the messaging, no change to the product itself. They just threw in those little leaf emojis and it worked.” —Aves (05:50)

• On Halloween Psychology:
  “It is an interesting time of year like psychologically because a lot of people like you're locking in again, right.... So I feel like that also, like, we have seen across accounts at least on the Meta side, like a bit of an uptick already after Labor Day weekend where performance just increases.” —Aves (06:45)

• On Q4 Strategy:
  “Halloween... sits in a really interesting spot in the calendar where it's like, why would I buy this now instead of waiting a month and saving on it[on Black Friday].” —Aves (08:49)

• On AI’s Limits:
  “I feel like... if I don't use that muscle, it's gonna stop working.” —Aves (13:50)

• On Skills of the Future:
  “It's probably discernment because we're thinking about, like, should I be doing this with AI or should I be doing this with a person? And that's more important, in my opinion, than just like, having a high taste level.” —Aves (14:49)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:00–01:26 — Halloween’s increasingly early and significant role in DTC
• 02:06–03:19 — The evolution of Halloween nostalgia and how it shapes campaigns
• 04:11–05:42 — Specific brand strategies: color emphasis, “boo bundles,” leveraging seasonal emojis
• 06:14–07:36 — Fall psychology: routines, indoor time, and ad effectiveness
• 07:54–10:06 — Halloween as Q4 prep, campaign timing, and best-practice Black Friday offer messaging
• 12:41–13:50 — How the creative team currently uses (and resists) AI
• 14:49–16:32 — Taste vs. discernment: future-proofing creative skills amid AI adoption
• 17:28–19:26 — Pop-culture hooks and playful sign-off on idioms and Halloween cheer

Conclusion

This episode delivers actionable advice for brands ramping up for Q4: Use Halloween as a fertile testing ground, leverage nostalgia and seasonal cues, and stay nimble with creative iterations. Aves’ strategically playful, consumer-centric approach—grounded in real world examples—offers both inspiration and concrete tactics for marketers aiming to “practice for the Super Bowl” that is Black Friday/Cyber Monday. The candid discussion about the limits of AI and the enduring need for human discernment makes this a must-listen for ecomm marketers seeking both practical takeaways and future-forward insights.