Halloween is no longer just a seasonal celebration. For brands, it can become a powerful cultural platform for building relevance, generating engagement, and creating long-term brand assets.
In this episode of Adspeak by ADWEEK, Rebecca Stewart sits down with Ibrahim Khan, global vice president of marketing at Fanta, to explore how Fanta turned Halloween into a global brand moment and generated more than 7 billion impressions through fan-generated content without paid media spend.
The conversation explores how Fanta identified an opportunity to build ownership around Halloween, harnessed TikTok and community creativity, and partnered with Universal Pictures and Blumhouse to create collectible horror-themed cans.
Ibrahim also explains how product design can become a storytelling platform, how to balance brand authenticity with licensed IP, and why giving audiences creative freedom can drive deeper engagement.
He shares the long-term thinking behind turning a successful seasonal campaign into a recurring global franchise that builds anticipation and cultural relevance year after year.
What you’ll learn:
- How to identify a “white space” holiday moment competitors have left unclaimed and build ownership around it
- Why letting fans create content can generate more impressions than any paid campaign
- The “constructive tension” principle for balancing a licensor’s IP integrity with your own brand’s authenticity
- How to select characters or creative assets that flex across generations and 50+ global markets without losing relevance
- Why product design itself (not just advertising) can become the most scalable storytelling platform a brand has
- The long-game playbook for turning a single viral moment into a recurring, expectation-building annual tradition
About the guest:
Ibrahim Khan leads global strategy and marketing for Fanta, bringing more than a decade of experience at Coca-Cola across diverse markets. Previously, he served as senior marketing director for sparkling flavors in greater China and Mongolia, overseeing Fanta, Sprite, and Schweppes. His career also includes leading marketing for Sprite in its largest global market, managing sparkling portfolios across ASEAN, and driving brand strategy for Coca-Cola and Fanta across Thailand, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Ibrahim specializes in global brand management, digital transformation, and creating consumer experiences that resonate across cultures.
