Fanta Makes Halloween More Fun
What can a beverage brand do during Halloween? It could change its packaging to orange, use a few horror characters, release a limited-edition flavor, and close the campaign at the end of October. Fanta decided to do the opposite in 2026. Instead of seeing Halloween as a seasonal advertising period that restarts every year, the brand has created its own entertainment world that can be returned to for years and new characters and stories can be added: Fanta's Haunted Universe.
According to The Coca-Cola Company's official statement, Haunted Universe is Fanta's first original Halloween entertainment world. The project is based on four original characters, cinematic storytelling, limited edition packaging, and digital and physical experiences. The universe was developed with entertainment studio GRAiL and was unveiled for the first time with a cinematic trailer. Fanta's aim is not only to attract attention on Halloween 2026; To create a lasting brand platform that people will want to return to every Halloween.
This goal is quite ambitious. Because Fanta actually wants to achieve in its category what Coca-Cola has achieved for years during the Christmas season: turning a brand into a natural part of a particular season or cultural era.
Why Is Fanta Building a Universe Instead of an Ad Campaign?
Fanta has been communicating Halloween for nearly a decade and has been transforming it into a more systematic global platform in recent years. He first collaborated with popular horror characters; He used well-known figures such as Chucky, Freddy Fazbear, M3GAN, Michael Myers and The Grabber in the same Halloween communication. Now it is moving on to the next phase of the strategy: it is trying to become a brand that owns its own characters, rather than being a brand that rents other people's characters.
This difference is very important in terms of marketing.
When a brand campaigns with Chucky, most of people's attention belongs to Chucky. The character already has a story, fan base and cultural value. Fanta may benefit from this attention throughout the licensing agreement, but does not own the character itself.
The situation changes when you create your own character.
The story belongs to you.
The character belongs to you.
The visual language belongs to you.
You can develop the packaging as you wish.
You can make games.
You can shoot a short film.
You can release products.
You can invite other brands or characters into your own world.
And most importantly, if it is successful, you will not have to come up with a campaign idea from scratch every year.
The universe grows.
For this very reason, Haunted Universe should be read as an attempt to create brand intellectual property rather than an advertising campaign.
What Fanta does is not to produce advertisements; To produce a world where future advertisements, products and experiences can take place.
Fanta's Haunted Universe Begins with Four Characters
At the center of the universe are characters who reinterpret classic Halloween mythology with modern popular culture aesthetics. Today, Fanta's official Haunted Universe page describes the detailed personalities and backgrounds of characters such as Haystacks, Drayk and Howlie; Ghost Face was later included in the universe as a guest character.
Haystacks is a pumpkin-headed scarecrow named Jack O'Grady with a dark past. The character's story carries the classic cursed field and rural horror aesthetic.
Drayk is a vampire prince who physically looks 22 years old but is 419 years old. Fanta devises him from the classic cloaked Dracula cliché and designs him as a modern character with a rock star attitude who has established a global music empire.
Howlie is a 23-year-old werewolf DJ. The character, who directs his music according to lunar cycles, combines modern nightlife and classic werewolf mythology.
At first glance, these details may seem excessive for a soda campaign.
Actually, that's the whole point.
Fanta doesn't just determine how the characters look.
He gives them names.
It gives history.
It gives age.
It gives jobs.
It gives personality.
It motivates.
So he is trying to create a story character, not an advertising character.
Because visual design alone is not enough for a character to live for many years. People need to wonder who he is, how he acts, and why he's in that world.
This approach shows that Fanta is increasingly thinking of itself as an entertainment brand.
Then Ghost Face Knocked on the Door
The development that allowed us to truly understand the strategy of the Haunted Universe came right after the universe was introduced.
Fanta announced Ghost Face, identified with the Scream movies, as the first guest horror character to join the Haunted Universe. The collaboration wasn't just left to advertising; A special limited edition Ghost Face Punch flavor was created for Ghost Face, and the character was brought to collectible Fanta boxes.
This is where the model that Fanta can use in the future emerges.
On one side:
Fanta's own characters.
On the other side:
Cinema and popular culture characters that already have millions of fans.
These are brought together in the same universe.
This model is extremely familiar from the entertainment industry.
Marvel is building a universe with its own characters and intersecting stories.
Fortnite creates its own world, but invites different IPs from Star Wars to Marvel.
LEGO expands its product universe through Disney, Harry Potter, Star Wars and many other brands.
What Fanta is doing is a much smaller-scale version of this in the beverage category, but working with similar logic.
First build your own world, then invite other parts of the culture into that world.
Ghost Face is the first real test of this.
And if this approach is successful, it would not be surprising to see other horror characters coming to the Haunted Universe as "guests" in the coming Halloween seasons.
Packaging is No Longer an Advertising Space, It's Part of the Story
One of the strengths of the Haunted Universe is that the campaign does not live only on the screen.
Fanta brings its four unique characters to limited edition packaging and creates five different collectible box designs with the participation of Ghost Face. Ghost Face Punch is one of the first examples of the universe directly transforming into a new product.
This detail is especially important for FMCG brands.
Because one of the biggest media areas of a beverage brand is its own packaging.
Each box on the grocery store shelf is a little billboard.
But when the logic of collection comes into play, packaging ceases to be just a surface that carries a message.
The consumer can start searching for different characters.
He can choose his favorite.
He can share his photo.
He may want to complete the series.
The packaging itself can turn into a small collectible object.
Thus, the product and the story are not separated from each other.
You don't have to just come across a Fanta commercial to see Haunted Universe.
You are opening the market.
The story appears before you on the shelf.
In such campaigns, "screen to shelf" transition is especially valuable. Creative Salon defines the Ghost Face launch in exactly this way: Fanta extends the entertainment world it creates beyond storytelling to product, packaging and shopper experience areas.
Fanta's Real Goal is to Own Halloween
Every year in October, brands compete for the same cultural space.
Pumpkins.
Orange and black colors.
Ghosts.
Horror movies.
Candies.
Costumes.
Witches.
Spider webs.
And limited edition Halloween items.
For this reason, it is no longer enough for a brand to make a "Halloween-themed advertisement" to differentiate itself.
Fanta's strategy is more long-term here.
The brand does not want to participate in Halloween.
It wants to be one of the brands that come to people's minds when Halloween is mentioned.
This is quite a different goal.
Coca-Cola's relationship with Christmas is one of the strongest examples of this. Red trucks, Santa Claus, polar bears, winter advertisements and visual codes that have been repeated for years have turned Coca-Cola's communication during the Christmas period into a cultural brand tradition rather than a single campaign.
Fanta wants to set up a similar area on Halloween. Speaking to Business Insider, brand managers describe the long-term goal as permanently matching Fanta with Halloween culture, similar to Coca-Cola's relationship with the holiday season.
This is not an easy target.
A few years of advertising is not enough for a brand to truly “own” a cultural period.
Need again.
Consistency is required.
Familiar visual codes are required.
It takes traditions that people will come to expect.
And the Haunted Universe may have been designed to produce exactly that.
Every year:
New character.
New guest.
New aroma.
New packaging.
New short film.
New experience.
New game.
But it's the same universe.
This is how brand memory is formed.
Is Fanta Transforming from a Beverage Brand to an Entertainment Brand?
There is an important change here that we are increasingly seeing in marketing, especially in recent years.
Brands no longer want to just advertise.
He wants to have content.
Because the main problem with advertising is that people often do not want to see it.
We would like to watch a TV series.
We would like to watch a movie.
We would like to play a game.
We want to learn the story of a character.
But we don't go online to watch ads.
Brands are also aware of this.
For this reason, the line between advertising and entertainment is becoming increasingly blurred.
Fanta's Haunted Universe approach is a good example of this. The cinematic trailer, which is nearly two and a half minutes long, character backstories, collectible products, digital experiences and a story plan that spans the following years, creates a structure that is quite different from the classic 30-second television commercial. The campaign is planned to be rolled out to 50 global markets, and live/digital experiences and activations such as Haunted Fanta Factory are also expected to support the platform.
The brand is therefore now only:
“Drink Fanta.”
It doesn't say.
Before:
“Come into this world.”
he says.
The product is inside it.
This is one of the most fundamental shifts in modern branded entertainment.
Where is Artificial Intelligence in the Campaign?
Haunted Universe is one of the interesting examples of the current advertising world from another perspective: artificial intelligence is part of the production process.
According to the statements of Fanta and the campaign teams, the project was developed together with the entertainment studio GRAiL. GRAiL works with human teams of writers, editors, artists and technologists while leveraging AI technologies in the production process. Artificial intelligence-supported production processes were also used in the trailer production of the campaign.
Fanta's communication style is particularly striking here.
Brand:
“AI made this campaign.”
It doesn't say.
It does not replace AI with the entire creative process.
While positioning technology as one of the tools used in the process of character and universe development, it particularly emphasizes that human creativity remains at the center.
I think this is one of the healthiest expressions in the use of generative AI by brands today.
Because we see two extreme approaches to AI in the creative sector.
On the one hand, those who reject technology completely.
On the other hand, unrealistic statements such as "we don't need creative people anymore".
Haunted Universe shows the third way:
Creative production managed by people, scaled with technology.
Moreover, it is easy to think about where AI can provide value in such a large fictional universe project.
Character variations.
Concept art.
Environment exploration.
Storyboard.
Previsualization.
World design.
Content variations for different markets.
Story alternatives.
Visual prototyping.
In all of these, AI can speed up production time.
But whether the character is really interesting, whether the brand strategy is set up correctly, and whether the story is strong enough that people want to return is still a creative strategy problem.
Technology can produce the universe.
But it cannot determine on its own why it should exist.
There is a Huge Creative Structure Behind the Campaign
To understand the scale of the Haunted Universe, it is also important to look at the structure behind it.
The campaign is developed by WPP Open X, with Ogilvy taking the creative lead. VML, WPP Media and WPP Production support the project, while ForPeople and GRAiL are also involved in the creative and production side.
The reason for using such a large team is that the campaign does not consist of a single commercial.
On the one hand, there is brand strategy.
There is character design.
There is story development.
There is film production.
There is packaging.
He has retail experience.
There is social media.
They have influencer content.
There is experiential marketing.
There is AI production.
There are licensing agreements.
There is a global media plan.
For this reason, Haunted Universe is actually one of the new versions of the classic integrated campaign concept in 2026.
Formerly integration:
TV + outdoor + social media + banner
It meant.
And now:
IP + entertainment + product + retail + creator + experience + AI + media
It's starting to mean.
Ghost Face Move is Strategically Very Smart
There's one major problem with creating your own characters:
Nobody knows them yet.
Drayk might be interesting.
Howlie may be beautifully designed.
Haystacks may seem powerful.
But Ghost Face has decades of cultural memory.
Fanta is building a very clever bridge here.
Ghost Face brings the user into the universe.
Fanta's characters are waiting inside.
This mechanism is frequently used in the entertainment industry.
When you want to create a new character or franchise, an existing, known IP can bring people's attention to the new world.
In this respect, it is much more strategic for Fanta to define Ghost Face as the first guest character to enter the universe, instead of making him a "campaign face".
Because even language changes the ownership relationship.
Fanta does not enter Ghost Face's world.
Ghost Face enters Fanta's world.
The difference may seem small.
In terms of brand building, it is very big.
Fanta transforms itself from being a license user to the owner of the stage.
If Haunted Universe Succeeds, It Could Become a Valuable Brand Asset for Fanta
The "if successful" part is important here.
Because creating a brand universe is not easy.
Companies can design characters.
Lore can write.
Can shoot short films.
But he can't buy the consumer's liking for the character.
True fandom only forms over time.
People need to start knowing Drayk by name.
He must ask Howlie to return next Halloween.
He needs to collect the packaging.
It must produce breasts.
Fan art should appear.
Characters need to start gaining cultural life beyond the brand's control.
If these happen, Fanta will have something much more valuable than the classic campaign:
own cultural existence.
A commercial is forgotten after a few months.
A successful character can live for decades.
For this reason, we think that the interest of brands in creating intellectual property will increase even more in the coming years.
Because IP doesn't just create awareness.
Produces creative capital that can be used again and again.
Fanta's Biggest Competitor May Not Be Another Soda Brand
There is another interesting aspect of the Haunted Universe.
Fanta isn't just competing for consumer choice with Sprite, Mirinda or other sodas here.
It also competes for people's attention.
And the competitors for attention are much wider.
Netflix.
TikTok.
YouTube.
Fortnite.
Marvel.
Anime.
Games.
Movies.
Influencers.
Musicians.
Fandoms.
As soon as the brand enters the entertainment field, the competitor category also changes.
So it's no coincidence that the Haunted Universe looks cinematic.
The brand knows that it is no longer enough to be remembered only as a "refreshing drink", especially among young consumers.
He wants to have a role in the cultural field.
What Fanta has done with Haunted Universe therefore shows that what your product is becomes as important as what entertainment moment in people's lives you belong to.
Can Fanta Embrace Halloween Like Coca-Cola's Christmas?
This will be the real test of the project in the coming years.
The 2026 campaign may attract attention.
Ghost Face boxes are available for sale.
The trailer can be watched by millions.
But the connection between Coca-Cola and Christmas was not established in a single campaign.
It took decades.
If Fanta really wants to be a Halloween brand, it has to grow the Haunted Universe patiently.
Developing characters instead of changing them every year.
Protecting visual codes.
Creating traditions that people recognize.
Adding new stories.
Choosing the right pop culture collaborations.
Making the product a natural part of the universe at all times.
And most importantly, to make people really look forward to the next year.
This is how brand legacy is created.
Not with good advertising.
With good ideas repeated.
Fanta Doesn't Want to Advertise Halloween Anymore, It Wants to Create a Halloween Tradition
At first glance, Fanta's Haunted Universe may seem like a fun campaign consisting of four horror characters and a cinematic Halloween trailer.
But the strategy behind it is much bigger than that.
Fanta is moving from seasonal collaborations with other people's IPs to producing its own IP.
Creates four unique characters.
He writes stories for them.
He builds his worlds.
It carries to the packaging.
Plans live and digital experiences.
It incorporates artificial intelligence into the production process.
Then he turns a world-renowned horror icon like Ghost Face into the first guest character of his own universe.
There is a very clear goal behind all this:
It's not because Fanta is one of the brands that advertises every October.
It will be one of the brands expected when October comes.
There is a huge difference between these two.
Advertising buys visibility.
Tradition creates memory.
If the Haunted Universe truly continues in the coming years, its characters evolve, and people become invested in this world, Fanta could achieve something extremely valuable:
Placing the physical product of a beverage brand within a story that people want to return to.
And perhaps this is where the strongest aspect of the campaign lies.
Fanta isn't trying to sell us a new soda.
First he opens the door to his own world.
When you enter, there is already a Fanta waiting in the fridge.
Nur Oğuz