Best Buy Plays Holiday Trick in Halloween Promotion

(MoneyWatch)  Most retailers are so worried about the end-of-year holidays that they seem to have steamrolled Halloween, but not Best Buy.

Okay, they haven't really steamrolled Halloween, but retailers aren't paying it the respect they once did. Just a couple of years ago, retailers planned major promotions looking to boost sales of costumes, beer, snacks and scary movies as more adults became interested in celebrating the eve. While stores still mount plenty of Halloween displays, major retail promotions already are focused on getting the biggest share possible of the commerce culminating in the December holidays. Heck, Walmart alone seems to be readying a new promotions just about every week. On Sept. 30, it announced its 100 Toys for $10 initiative and just a week after it detailed the introduction of an exclusive Garanimals toy line.

Yet, Best Buys still has faith in Halloween, at least to the extent that it can scare up sales by pointing out the drawbacks related to ghostly old electronics. The retailer has launched a campaign and photo contest under the title Scary Technology that asks consumers to reveal their outdated home technology for a chance to win a complete home theater makeover.

It may be little more than an update on the old ugliest sofa competition, but the low versus high tech angle gives the competition a shinier image. More importantly, it provides consumers with the opportunity, through Oct. 26, to submit "spooky" snapshots of their dated electronics along with a supporting 140-character caption describing the techno-horrors they've suffered, to www.ScaryTechnology.com. There, they are provided with encouragement from an original video starring Zelda Rubenstein, the psychic Tangina from the movie Poltergeist. Winners will be announced on Halloween, naturally, with the grand prizewinner receiving a $3,500 Insignia Home Theater makeover including Geek Squad installation.

While the promotion may sound a little on the insubstantial side, Best Buy actually is slyly making a point. In announcing the promotion, Barry Judge, executive vp and chief marketing officer for Best Buy notes that retailer is underscoring its "commitment to provide end of life options for these devices by offering new ways to recycle and trade in old or obsolete technology."

So, a promotion that mocks old technology also makes the point that environmentally aware Best Buy wants to help consumer choose greener alternatives, use electronics and appliances more energy efficiently and find appropriate disposal solutions, including those money saving trade ins on select, "gently used" items.

Capitalizing on Halloween, the antithetical threshold of the Christmas season, to remind consumers in a fun way that they might want to get rid of old technology should be regarded as clever. At least it affords a break from what already seems like a relentless holiday drumbeat. Besides, getting kidded out of junky old electronics and coaxed into purchasing new technology can, if reasonably accomplished, qualify as a trick and a treat.