Fanta isn’t a new, now, wow soft drink option. It’s old school and unadorned by energy, vitamin, or natural credentials. But, it intends to own Halloween with original entertainment. Last year, Fanta’s Halloween campaign achieved 10 billion impressions and a significant uptick in engagement and sales. It has already begun this year’s assault with WPP OpenX, led by Ogilvy. The Coca-Cola brand has launched its Haunted Universe, an entertainment platform that includes original characters, stories, and live and digital experiences that will extend beyond this year.

The campaign kicked off with a cinematic two-and-a-half-minute trailer, that will go live in 50 global markets and introduces Fanta’s four spooky characters – a jack-o’-lantern-headed scarecrow, a vampire, a cyborg Frankenstein and a werewolf DJ – all battling over a mysterious elixir with “the power to rule the living and the dead”. These will become the foundation for stories and experiences for several years, with other characters introduced as the campaign progresses.

The broader campaign will include collectible packaging, a limited-edition flavour, influencer content and the return of the Haunted Fanta Factory experiential activation.

The WPP Open X-Ogilvy campaign was completed with VML, WPP Media and WPP Production; creative agency, ForPeople, and AI-powered entertainment studio, Grail, that also employs writers, editors, artists and technologists, and helped to develop the characters, world and AI-generated trailer.