Skeletons in the Closet: the terrifying truth about our seasonal Halloween sale, or how we encountered hate during Halloween, but courageous chatbots took up the fight and generated 33 leads in 7 days, 16 of which became paying clients of our company

H   alloween-themed campaigns have always worked exceptionally well in the Baltic states. This year, we decided to leverage Halloween once again for an entertaining sale of our services, but we ran into haters.

Whether there was a spirit of opposition and resentment towards this date lingering online or elsewhere, we have no idea. What is most curious is that we were not offering holiday greetings; we were simply offering quality services at a substantial discount, advantageous bonuses delivered with good humour and, naturally, high spirits. Our view is simple: if you do not need our services, just scroll on by... But far from it! You can even take a look at the 'hater' emoji reactions (in under 24 hours there were 5 of them, and someone even shed a tear once):

AUDIENCE REACTION: BACKLASH AND RAPID RECALIBRATION

Naturally, the haters did not spoil our mood, but they certainly consumed our time. We had to rearrange campaigns, configure alternative audiences, rebuild chatbot funnels, and test different ad formats — and time was scarce (just 7 days). Quite an ordeal! We had no inkling that backlash would arise in our beloved Baltic region over this occasion. Shopping centres are brimming with Halloween decorations, sales are everywhere, and the thought never even crossed our mind that promotional difficulties would emerge in our home market. Nevertheless, despite the negativity, we held our ground, weathered the onslaught of haters, and secured orders from both new and returning clients across Facebook and Instagram.

ADVERTISING CREATIVES AND MULTI-FORMAT CONTENT

Here is the creative visual we deployed for Facebook advertising (we utilised various formats: animated Stories, vertical formats, and standard social media posts):

And this is how the promotional post appeared on Instagram:

Here is the vertical video utilised for Stories across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts:

How frightening is this visual, really?! Perhaps somewhat off-putting? We never quite deciphered it, yet the backlash was undeniable. One can only imagine their reaction had they seen the 'Dracula' package and the 'Witch' bundle inside our chatbots! It is chilling even to contemplate, but you can inspect our chatbots for yourself — they handled their mission brilliantly (unless you are too scared, of course — just joking):

CHATBOT FUNNEL ARCHITECTURE AND CONVERSATIONAL FLOW

These chatbots operated everywhere: in direct messages, comments, Instagram Direct, and Facebook Messenger.

In addition, we configured a general-purpose chatbot for all visitors, which 'captured' two prospective clients: rather than clicking on the ad, they first visited our Facebook page, browsed our posts, and then messaged us on Messenger, entering the bot's workflow. The chatbot that converted them looked like this:

We also structured our sale as a Facebook Event. Here is how it was presented:

THE CASE IN NUMBERS: 7-DAY CAMPAIGN RESULTS

Campaign outcomes: over the 7-day campaign, we reached 3,732 people across various countries worldwide. A modest reach, yet 33 individuals engaged with us through the chatbot, generating 30 active leads, 16 of whom availed themselves of the promotion and settled their invoices. This is clearly reflected in the chatbot analytics across all our sales channels:

In essence, a lead-to-order conversion rate exceeding 50% (16 paid orders from 30 leads) is a remarkably solid outcome for a seasonal Halloween service campaign. What do you think?!

PRACTICAL TAKEAWAYS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

And now for some practical advice: if you plan to run a Halloween promotion next year, do not restrict yourself to the Baltic states alone — audience sentiment towards this occasion can be sensitive here. Launch campaigns to broader international markets right from the outset, as we did, whilst managing Baltic campaigns concurrently and tactfully. Secondly, always maintain a Plan B alongside Plan A — it invariably saves the day, as we have proven both internally and across client engagements. And most importantly: do not repeat our mistake of attempting to cram everything into 7 days. Begin preparation at least 10–14 days in advance, or you may find yourself in the punchline of that familiar joke:

Dialogue of the Week:
— Do you celebrate Halloween?
— No, we live in it.

Wishing everyone prosperous sales and appreciative clients! Never fear negativity: analyse the data, moderate the detractors, and press ahead with confidence. Best of luck!