YouTube Is Candy’s New Sweet Tooth

Through mid-October, 13 of the 20 most-seen candy ads debuted on TV in 2024 or earlier, with eight of those arriving between 2020 and 2023. 

But while candy brands invest in Halloween-specific ad creatives at this time of year to help fuel sales, they’re not necessarily trying to reinvent the wheel each year. A Dracula- or trick-or-treating themed ad provides a significant shelf life, allowing brands to save on the cost of new creative every fall.

To that end, iSpot data showed that candy brands also scaled back TV ads significantly this October. Through Oct. 20, candy spend is down 37.5%, to $23.8 million.

Some of that comes from brands like Kinder and Starburst not spending at all so far in Oct. 2025, after being a significant part of candy industry totals a year ago. Another piece is the decline in the number of candy brands appearing on linear TV – from 20 last year (through Oct. 20) to just 14 this year.

Where did these candy brands go? Winds up, social video.

Data from Tubular Labs shows that for Hershey-owned pages alone, views are up nearly 5x year-over-year in October (from 76 million to 343 million), despite uploads being down slightly (from 41 to 38).

The difference, in part, was due to a new focus on vertical video formats that align with the sort of content intended audiences are used to watching, as opposed to traditional ads.

Similar things can be said about fellow candy giant Mars, Inc.

Year-over-year, Mars Inc. saw October YouTube views climb by nearly 4x YoY (from 68 million to 240 million), while cutting uploads by 75%. Mars didn’t lean completely into vertical videos, but did utilize some – as well as the popular M&Ms characters – en route to an impressive jump vs. last year.