Four Leadership Lessons from a $13.5 Billion Holiday 🎃

$13.5 billion.

That’s what Americans are expected to spend on Halloween this year, according to the National Retail Federation – an average of $115.14 per person on costumes, candy, pumpkins, and parties. Nearly three in four Americans plan to celebrate.

A number that big doesn’t happen by accident. Behind the fog machines and the fun-size candy are some genuinely smart business decisions – and four lessons any leader can borrow.

Let’s get right to them.

Four Lessons from the Business of Halloween

Lesson #1: Turn Problems into Opportunities
Have you ever walked into a Spirit Halloween store? Thousands of them appear each fall in abandoned department stores and vacant retail space, then vanish just as fast. It looks like chaos, but it’s actually strategy.

Spirit took a stack of problems – a product with a narrow window of appeal, a short selling season, and unused commercial real estate – and turned every one of them into an advantage. Fortune has reported that by scooping up short-term leases in bankrupt storefronts and going big during a season that’s historically slow for retail, Spirit now drives roughly $2 billion in annual sales.

As founder Joseph Marver told The Seattle Times back in 2000, “I didn’t invent temporary sales, but I feel like I invented temporary Halloween.”

Disney did something similar when it turned an old asphalt parking lot – an eyesore and a logistics headache – into Disney’s California Adventure, Downtown Disney, and the Grand Californian Hotel. The problem became the opportunity. I wrote about it in “Turning Pits into Peaks.”

💡 Takeaway: What problems are you facing right now, and how might you turn those challenges into opportunities?

Lesson #2: Tap into Nostalgia
A couple of years ago, McDonald’s re-released its “Boo Buckets,” the Happy Meal pails that first appeared in 1986, and sparked a wave of nostalgia so strong that people resold the plastic buckets online for as much as $50 each.

Here’s another one: this year’s top children’s costume is Spider-Man, with an estimated 4.6 million kids suiting up as the web-slinger. Last year? Also Spider-Man. A character who first appeared in 1962 is still topping the list more than six decades later.

Nostalgia is one of the most powerful emotions we have. The best brands know it – and the best causes do too.

💡 Takeaway: How can you tap into the power of nostalgia for the people you serve? What kind of world do your donors remember – and want to help build again?

Lesson #3: Turn Seemingly Irrelevant Events into Remarkable Experiences
The calendar is full of days most organizations overlook. But it only takes a little imagination to turn an ordinary date into a remarkable experience.

A few years ago, my daughters had a dentist appointment the week of Halloween. (Who schedules the dentist the week of the candy Super Bowl? I felt for them.) 

Some dental offices might have used the moment to confiscate candy, but not Kitsap Kids Dentistry. They invited kids to come in costume and handed out extra prizes, and, I’m not making this up, my girls got their teeth cleaned by a witch and Stitch. They came home glowing. From the dentist.

That’s what a little imagination can do with a date nobody expected to matter.

💡 Takeaway: What “irrelevant” date on your calendar could become a remarkable experience for your donors or the people you serve?

Lesson #4: Be Willing to Pivot
Here’s my favorite part of the Spirit Halloween story: it didn’t start as a Halloween company at all. It started as a women’s clothing store.

As sales at his apparel shop slumped, Marver watched crowds line up at a costume store across the street. So he put his dresses in storage, filled his space with Halloween merchandise, and had the best October he’d ever had. The next year he did it again in a nearby mall – and sold $100,000 of merchandise in 30 days.

If Marver hadn’t been willing to pivot, there would be no Spirit Halloween.

It’s a reminder of something I come back to often: your mission doesn’t have to change, but your model almost always will. Watch the trends. Look for the bright spots. And be willing to experiment.

💡 Takeaway: Sometimes where you start isn’t where you end up. What trend or bright spot is your organization brave enough to act on?

To recap:

• Turn problems into opportunities by flipping your constraints into advantages.

• Tap into nostalgia, one of the most powerful emotions there is.

• Turn seemingly irrelevant events into remarkable, memorable experiences.

• Be willing to pivot and experiment when you spot a trend worth riding.

I hope this week’s Wave Report gave you something useful to chew on (candy optional). Happy Halloween! 🍬

Until next week… Surf’s Up! 🌊

  – Dave