Fanta wants to own Halloween the way that Coca-Cola owns Christmas.
The brand is trying to get there with four original monsters it created.
Fanta also has a licensed horror collaboration still in reserve for this same season.
Although it wasn't on the official press release, creators are showing Ghostface from the "Scream" franchise as this year's licensed horror icon.
The brand's Haunted Universe debuted on August 24 with a cinematic trailer, ahead of the full Halloween campaign launching today across 50 markets.
Fanta developed the four characters with GRAiL, an AI-powered entertainment studio that also employs writers, editors, and artists
"Fanta is dead serious about Halloween," Ibrahim Khan, global VP of marketing at Fanta, said in the announcement.
"Today's trailer is only the first glimpse of what is to come, with more surprises still to be revealed."
Khan also described the universe as Fanta's move "from collaborator to creator," building original characters and stories the brand owns outright.
Fanta spent the past two Halloweens on licensed horror, with limited-edition packaging featuring Chucky, Michael Myers, and Beetlejuice.
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Owning the characters gives Fanta control over how often they appear, what they sell, and how long they stay in circulation.
Each Halloween after this one starts with a cast the brand already paid to build, plus maybe a famous face to pull in fans.
Character Backstories Set Up the Reusable IP
The trailer opens on a familiar horror premise, a hunt for an ancient power that can only be claimed on Halloween night.
It opens with a spooky castle on a hill and transitions to a dungeon filled with chained-up skeletons.
We then meet the magic elixir described as "the source of all power, the power to rule the living and the dead."
From there, four new characters emerge:
- A jack-o-lantern scarecrow rises out of the ground
- A charming vampire driving a vintage American muscle car
- A bionic Frankenstein's monster surfaces from the water
- A werewolf whose supernatural persona is also a DJ
Each character has its own personality, backstory, abilities, and role within the new universe.
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The character roster gives Fanta more material for future campaigns, and the company has promised additional brand stories.
Fanta says GRAiL built the universe through a human-led creative process, using technology to explore concepts and bring the visual world to life.
GRAiL describes itself as a creative studio and technology company running a proprietary AI production pipeline for original IP and advertising.
Co-founder Davide Bianca worked on Coca-Cola's AI-made 2024 "Holidays Are Coming" spot at Secret Level, so this is a repeat hire.
Halloween Spending Broke Records in 2025
Halloween spending in the US reached a record $13.1 billion in 2025, up from $11.6 billion the year before.
Candy alone accounted for $3.9 billion, and per-person spending hit a high of $114.45.
A season growing at this rate justifies the real money spent on characters that Fanta can run every October.
Each repeat use costs less and builds more recognition, which is the commercial argument for owning the IP outright.
Coca-Cola's Christmas association provides a useful benchmark for the ambition.
The company began Christmas advertising in the 1920s and commissioned Haddon Sundblom's Santa illustration in 1931.
The move established an association that was reinforced across decades of holiday advertising.
Coca-Cola spent decades making Santa its own, and Fanta is trying to compress this same work into its Halloween cycles.
Owning a season through holiday marketing takes repetition, and Fanta is starting the clock now.
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Fanta's approach offers key lessons for brands looking to build stronger associations around existing consumer demand.
- Demand can justify deeper brand investment. Brands should identify proven occasions to create stronger associations that support long-term growth.
- Consistency makes brand assets more valuable. Marketers should develop recognizable IP across multiple campaigns to strengthen recall over time.
- Owned ideas need room to grow. Brands should design properties that can extend across multiple campaigns to create more opportunities for engagement.
The opportunity is to build on an association consumers can easily understand, then give it enough consistency to become distinctive to the brand.
Our Take: Can Fanta Actually Own Halloween?
Four original monsters will not make Fanta synonymous with Halloween on their own.
We think that the test will arrive in 2027, when Fanta has to run the same characters again and get people to recognize them.
Fanta also weakens its own creator story by teasing another licensed character collaboration for this same season.
M&M's has run the Spokescandies since 1954, which is why Mars can drop them into any season and get instant recognition.
The four monsters only pay off when they earn their own merchandise, games, and licensing lines.
Fanta will know it worked when the packaging stops having to explain who these characters are.
This approach follows a wider pattern of brands investing in original brand assets.
Crocs’ Niles character and Nuuly’s serialized microdrama show how marketers are developing original IP that can generate consistent attention.
Want to build original characters, entertainment, or branded content with staying power?
Explore these top brand strategy agencies specializing in branding, entertainment marketing, and content marketing.
