As candy brands vie for Halloween supremacy, TV ads help them stay top-of-mind for consumers. iSpot reveals data on candy TV advertising this year, and how industry giants like Hershey and Mars both changed their respective approaches to Halloween – including Hershey’s move to consolidate brands into the same creative units.

• This year, Hershey launched a new ad for Reese’s and KitKat, with encouragement for consumers to “choose both.” iSpot’s Creative Assessment Survey showed that respondents found the ad 13% more likeable than the norm for candy & snack ads in the last 90 days, and it garnered 10% more attention.

• For Mars, the increase was in large part due to a greater emphasis on Twix TV ad impressions year-over-year. Twix impressions increased nearly 7.5x year-over-year, without really borrowing against Mars’ other brands.

• M&Ms had nearly double the ad airings year-over-year, though the spots it used were primarily from previous years.