Butterfinger is giving its Halloween sponsorship with Heidi Klum more places to live, starting with a dessert pizza in SoHo.
The candy brand returns as Title Sponsor of Klum’s Halloween celebration for a third consecutive year, coinciding with the event’s 25th anniversary.
In previous years, Butterfinger showed up through branded party experiences and the Butterfinger-tini.
The partnership now stretches across an October dessert collaboration, live sampling, and the annual New York City party.
Butterfinger VP of Marketing Yann Bastien believes the two brands already share a natural connection to Halloween’s more playful side.
"Halloween and Butterfinger are a perfect match, bringing together excitement, creativity and just the right amount of mischief," Bastien said.
The "Queen of Halloween" also frames the sponsorship as a way to keep people talking once the costumes come off.
"I love creating moments that people talk about long after Halloween night is over," Klum said.
Butterfinger again gets its name on one of Halloween's most photographed parties.
The difference this year is the three places where fans can actually taste the product.
The season-long setup matches what Ferrero is doing with the rest of its candy portfolio.
The company also has an "Adultoween" campaign running with "Real Housewives of Rhode Island" star Alicia Carmody.
Butterfinger Takes the Sponsorship to SoHo
The most immediate activation is the return of the Butterfinger-tini and immersive Butterfinger sampling at Klum’s Halloween party.
The partnership then moves into food.
From October 1 through 31, Crazy Pizza's SoHo location at 218 Lafayette St. will serve Klum's "Halloween Butterfinger Pizza."
Klum is a partner in the restaurant, and she will also share a Butterfinger-inspired recipe so fans can make a version at home.
The strategy fits how Halloween shopping and celebration have become whole-month occasions.
The National Retail Federation found that 74% of consumers plan to celebrate and 49% plan to begin their Halloween shopping in September or earlier.
Butterfinger capitalizes on this calendar with multiple entry points across the weeks leading up to the big day.
The party sells exclusivity, the pizza sells novelty, and the parade sells volume.
Three different returns on one experiential marketing buy make the sponsorship fee worth stretching across 31 days.
How Butterfinger Maximizes the Sponsorship
There is a practical lesson in Butterfinger’s strategy for brands investing in celebrity marketing.
A sponsorship increases in value when the audience can experience it in different contexts.
Three lessons stand out for marketers:
- Give the partnership something people can consume: The Butterfinger Pizza creates a concrete product experience that can generate its own conversation.
- Build several moments around one seasonal idea: The party, restaurant collaboration, and parade sampling give consumers multiple points of contact to the campaign across October.
- Use the celebrity relationship as a doorway: Klum provides attention and credibility, while Butterfinger supplies experiences that give audiences a reason to engage with the partnership.
The cost of the extra formats is most probably small next to the sponsorship fee itself.
Brands already paying for access to an event are usually underspending on the parts fans can reach.
Our Take: Can a Sponsorship Outlive the Party?
The guest list has always been the point of Klum's party, which is exactly what makes it a weak asset for a candy brand.
Still, we think this sponsorship can outlive the party, but only when the brand sells something people can get without an invitation.
And Butterfinger has three of them this year, including a pizza, a cocktail recipe, and a parade handout.
None of them travel outside New York City.
Ferrero's Adultoween work reaches any adult with a phone, while the Klum tie-up asks you to be in SoHo in October.
We also think the pizza should have been a retail product.
A Butterfinger dessert item sitting on a national menu would do more for the brand than another year of owning the backdrop.
Three years with Klum have already bought Butterfinger the Halloween association it wanted.
And the brand should be spending that equity somewhere people can actually shop.
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