Halloween Horror Nights 30

Halloween Horror Nights is a world premiere event featuring haunted houses, scare zones, and live entertainment.

PaintBox Labs was commissioned to work with Popcorn, Universal Orlando Resort’s in-house creative marketing group, to co-produce and film the 2020 national TV campaign entitled ‘Never Go Alone’ for their annual mega HHN event commemorating the 30th anniversary.  It was also our first year working on this award-winning event for both Universal Orlando Resort and Universal Studios Hollywood, all against the backdrop of a global pandemic.

NEVER GO ALONE

In this milestone year, PaintBox Labs and Popcorn wanted to give HHN30 fans something more they could sink their teeth into. We introduced the idea to Universal of bringing on an award-winning horror photographer so we could capture highly conceptual and beautifully Art Directed photos around the “Trapped” talent and elaborate set design that we built specifically for the TV production. This allowed PaintBox Labs to produce the :30 and :15 broadcast commercials, plus create other content for social, mobile, web, print, and outdoor.

CALL IT A COMEBACK

Despite all of this, 2020 HHN also succumbed to the pandemic. The effort was not wasted, however, Universal utilized the assets in 2021 with added elements. For instance, PaintBox Labs filmed a two-minute short film called “Trapped” that revealed what Jack the Clown, Universal’s infamous original icon from years past, does to those foolish enough to attend the event alone.

RECORD-BREAKING RESULTS

The PaintBox Labs and Popcorn-produced marketing campaign created a scary good content program with even better results that helped the theme parks net record-breaking ticket sales and garnered numerous award recognitions in the industry.

• 2022 Gold Addy Award for HHN Photography (National)
• 2022 Gold Addy Award for HHN Photography (District 4; all of Florida and Caribbean)
• 2022 Gold Addy & “Best of Video” Award for HHN “Trapped” Long-Form Video (Orlando)
• 2022 Silver Addy for HHN, including Cross Platform – Integrated Campaign & Elements of Advertising – Photography (Orlando)
• 2022 Silver Telly Award Winner (Online Commercials: General Travel & Tourism) for HHN ”Trapped” Long-Form Video
• 2022 Brand Film Awards Winner (Travel & Leisure Category) for HHN ”Trapped” Long-Form Video