Dive Brief: 

• Snapchat today (Oct. 26) revealed several brands that are taking advantage of its Halloween-themed augmented reality (AR) lenses, according to details shared with Marketing Dive. 
• Maybelline is using AR lenses to promote seasonal makeup looks, while Farmacy Beauty is running its first Snapchat AR lens to promote a Green Clean cleansing balm. Nickelodeon and Paramount+ crafted an experience around “Monster High 2,” and Universal is using AR to advertise the “Five Nights at Freddy’s” movie.
• The latest collaborations follows recent efforts by parent Snap to reignite its ads business following a fallow period. Reporting its Q3 earnings earlier this week, the company returned to positive revenue growth and saw its daily active users grow 12%. 

Dive Insight:

Snapchat is helping brands get ready for the spooky season, flexing its popular AR technology as a tool for marketers to tap into Halloween hype and reach young audiences. Snapchat currently has over 400 million daily active users — a record high for the platform — while over 250 million users engage with AR on the app each day, according to Snap’s latest earnings statement. 

Included in its advertiser lineup is Maybelline, which is offering consumers multiple AR lenses to serve Halloween makeup inspiration. Consumers using the lenses can envision themselves in a variety of animal-inspired looks, like a cheetah, zebra and butterfly, meant to “marry jungle chic with the NYC streets,” the release said. Another beauty brand, Farmacy Beauty, is using its first Snapchat AR lens to promote its Green Clean Challenge, a yearly effort designed to showcase the power of its Green Clean cleansing balm, in this case to remove stubborn Halloween glam. 

Additionally, Nickelodeon and Paramount+ together have created an AR experience promoting the “Monster High 2” movie following a successful campaign around the first installment last year. The latest lens is paired with a song from the sequel, “My Heart Goes Boom Boom Boom,” and showcases characters Toralei, Clawdeen, Draculaura, Frankie and Deuce. Paramount+ also utilized Snap’s First Lens premium ad placement solution on Oct. 5 to promote the AR experience. 

Also in the movie realm, Universal is promoting “Five Nights at Freddy’s” with an AR lens that populates a randomized line-up of scary characters from the film, which was adapted from a video game. Aside from brand collaborations, Snapchat has also created a series of its own Halloween AR lenses. The platform plans to launch four new costumes for Bitmoji, a user-personalized emoji, along with several virtual Halloween tees for the virtual characters.

The Halloween announcement from Snapchat rides on the heels of parent company Snap’s Q3 earnings release. During the period, the company’s daily active user count grew 12% versus the year-ago period and revenue returned to positive growth, increasing 5% year-over-year. Perhaps signaling a turnaround, Snap attributed the recent revenue gains to the development of machine learning and optimization processes that allow for better ad targeting. Snap has also enacted steep cost cuts amid its business struggles, including layoffs.

Snap at the same time has made efforts to court more brands to its platform. The company in early October launched Creator Collab Campaigns, a suite of ad solutions that are designed to help brands streamline creator relationships. In another move on the Halloween front, Snapchat this month launched an immersive content series, “Phantom House,” that follows several content creators as they attempt to escape a haunted house. The platform has promoted the series as a premium opportunity for brands to run ads, with Maybelline and Disney+ among the first to activate around the experience.