AIRHEADS “MAKE A MONSTERPIECE” | HALLOWEEN 2024

Making Candy a Canvas

A custom program drives engagement and retail momentum during the critical
Halloween sales period by leveraging a candy’s key differentiator to transform it
into an engaging, hands-on creative retail experience.

01 — STATE OF THE BRAND’S BUSINESS

RECOVERY MODE IN A FAST-GROWING CATEGORY

The Non-Chocolate Candy category was experiencing double-digit growth. Competitors like Nerds, Skittles, Haribo and Sour Patch were accelerating, fueled by innovation and strong velocity.

Meanwhile, Airheads was recovering from 20 months of supply constraints and brand slowdown. While Xtreme lines rebounded quickly, the core Airheads bar needed renewed relevance—particularly among A18–34 Non-Chocolate Candy Lovers.

The strategic challenge: deliver a program that could help Airheads stand out from competing brands in the category and drive growth, build share, and regain the consideration of younger Non-Chocolate Candy lovers who didn’t currently choose Airheads.

02 — SHOPPER INSIGHT

AIRHEADS HAVE MORE FUN

Halloween is an extremely competitive period in retail candy
aisles. With so many competing products to choose from, it’s hard for brands to stand out. To do that, we had to remind shoppers why Airheads is different.

Play has always been an integral part of Airheads’ DNA. It isn’t just a chewy candy. It’s moldable. Stretchable. Foldable. Playable. When you unwrap an Airheads bar, the instinct isn’t just to eat it— it’s to shape it. Twist it. Rip it. Create something with it.

So, instead of competing on flavor claims alone, we leaned into Airheads’ superpower: turning candy into an interactive
experience.

03 — THE BIG IDEA

MAKE A MONSTERPIECE

For Halloween, we introduced Airheads as the most playable
candy in the Non-Chocolate aisle. We invited shoppers to Pull!
Roll! Stretch! Rip! and turn Airheads into spooky creations. From Mummy Wrappings to candy bats and edible disguises, we reframed Airheads as a creative medium—not just a treat.
  • AIRHEAD MUMMY WRAPPINGS
  • SPOOKY CUT-OUT BATS AND CATS
  • CANDY-DECORATED CALAVERAS
  • PLAYFUL EDIBLE DISGUISES
Retail social feeds featured activity-driven content parents and kids could recreate at home.
To win, we couldn’t just talk flavor.
We had to remind shoppers what makes Airheads different.
So, instead of ‘buy candy for Halloween,’
we said: ‘Make something with it.’
‍

04 — CROSS-PLATFORM SOCIAL ACTIVATION

INFLUENCE
MEETS
PERFORMANCE.

We built an influencer-centric, retailer-flexible content
engine that could scale across Walmart, Kroger, DG,
CVS, WAG, and additional key accounts.

Campaign live 10/1–10/31. 16 creators with TikTok andInstagram cross-posting. Short-form, hands-ondemonstrations of candy transformations.

WATCHED. SHARED. SAVED. RECREATED.

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THE TAKEAWAY

TURNING
CREATIVITY INTO
CONVERSIONS

With the Make a Monsterpiece program, Phoenix was able to show that
growth in a highly competitive category doesn’t always require constant
innovation—sometimes it just requires creative activation.

We didn’t compete on flavor intensity. We competed on interaction by tapping into Airheads’ naturalstretch-and-shape behavior and family craft culture surrounding Halloween.

By building a flexible, socially amplified system across key accounts, we put Airheads’ playful DNA frontand center, reinforced Airheads’ relevance among Non-Chocolate Candy lovers, activated a majorseasonal program, and delivered benchmark-beating engagement and efficiency.

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