‘Halloween in Lincoln’ campaign is a Spook-tacular success

Visit Lincoln’s ‘Halloween in Lincoln’ campaign saw a spook-tacular 1,115% rise in views on the destination landing page in the first four weeks.

We partnered with Lincoln BIG and City of Lincoln Council to co-fund and develop a cohesive brand identity for Halloween in Lincoln which was used to promote the city for an extended 4 week October holiday campaign. Each partner contributed towards the budget which paid for out of home advertising to help attract visitors to Lincoln, knowing that a collective approach would generate greater marketing reach and therefore bigger impact for local businesses.

Locals and visitors to Lincoln were able to make the most of a fa-boo-lous array of events, experiences and attractions during Halloween 2024.

The Halloween in Lincoln campaign incorporated our Pumpkin Trail, Lincoln BIG’s The Big Spook, which included Monster Invasion, Strolling Bones, Pumpkin Patch and Meet the Ghostbusters, and award-winning Darkfield’s “intense and immersive journey” with Eulogy. Eulogy is part of our Lincoln Connected project, in partnership with Threshold Studios and City of Lincoln Council, which is funded by the Lincoln Town Deal.

The Eulogy event was a resounding success, attracting nearly 900 attendees. A remarkable 91% of attendees stated that it enhanced their experience of visiting Lincoln, showcasing its appeal as a unique cultural offering.

While 77% of those attending were Lincoln residents, 23% travelled from other cities, including Nottingham, Peterborough, and even internationally from Sweden, highlighting its wide-reaching draw.

During last year’s campaign (2023) there were 2,380 visitors to the landing page in the first four weeks and this rose to a staggering 33,688 in 2024. There were also 51,158 visitors across all of the Visit Lincoln Halloween content in the first four weeks.

The Halloween campaign included advertising through Facebook Network Ads for Halloween in Lincoln, Eulogy and The Big Spook, with a reach of almost 300,000 views.

We also worked with several local bloggers who shared their experiences and a positive sentiment around Halloween in Lincoln.

They included The Richardson Family, Jenny in Neverland, Lincoln and Beyond. We also worked with local media including BBC Radio Lincolnshire who interviewed our CEO Charlotte Goy.

The campaign results are a testament to the hard work and expertise of our Marketing Campaigns & Communications Manager Karla Odlin, PR & Marketing Executive Arianne Davey and the DL team.

Karla and Arianne said: “It was fantastic to work with both City of Lincoln Council and Lincoln BIG to increase awareness of the brilliant line-up of events in Lincoln over the Halloween period.

“The Visit Lincoln branded campaigns encouraged visitors to the city, aiming to promote and raise awareness of the events taking place, as well as increase dwell time here.

“Alongside promoting events, the campaigns encourage visitors to explore visitor attractions, do a bit of shopping and enjoy the sights and sounds of the city during Autumn.

“I’m thrilled that we were able to deliver such a successful Halloween in Lincoln campaign working with local businesses, bloggers and our key partners, to generate marketing communications and additional advertising."

Destination Lincolnshire CEO Charlotte Goy said: “Karla and Arianne’s experience and expertise meant we were able to smash last year’s figures by over 1,000%.

“This generated a fantastic return of investment for people who contributed to the campaign - we reached more people than we expected with a modest budget.

“We must remember that Lincoln is competing all the time with other heritage cities across all of England for visitors, and the work of our campaign team means we can deliver seasonal campaigns that help grow the visitor economy.”

Our partnership with Lincoln BIG and City of Lincoln Council was crucial to the success of the campaign.

Claire McDowall, who is the Events, Tourism and Culture Manager at City of Lincoln Council, said: “The City Council have worked closely with Destination Lincolnshire to promote the Autumn, specially the Halloween offer in the City.

“There was so much for visitors and residents to both enjoy for this specially spooky time in Lincoln. It was wonderful to see the return of the Monster Invasion and Destination Lincolnshire’s campaign work brought it to new visitors audiences.

“It was exciting to see how the recently relaunched Visit Lincoln website was able to focus on this special time and host Darkfield’s ‘Eulogy’ ticket sales – in fact the new immersive Halloween experience was so popular it was a sell out for Lincoln.

“With so many wonderful activities and experiences to promote in the City it’s always a challenge to insure that Lincoln is highlighted as a key destination to visit. Working with Destination Lincolnshire makes sure people are provided with a warm Lincoln welcome through a wide range of marketing channels.”

Lee Roberts, Head of Operations at Lincoln BIG, said: “We found that a lot of people enjoyed collecting the BIG Spook programme and using that as their go to guide for the event.

“Taking feedback from last year we put everything into one handy guide. It was great seeing so many people using the map to find the monsters as they explored the city.

“The levels of engagement and coverage that the Halloween programme gained was amazing to see, having both local news broadcasters cover the Strolling Bones parade only adds to this and will help us build the event for the future.”

He added: “The partnership with Destination Lincolnshire shows both organisations working towards showcasing all that Lincoln has to offer to residents, visitors and those who work in the city.”