America’s only professional costumers’ organisation The National Costumers Association (NCA) has reported back on its recent webinar which focused on Halloween 2020 and what this year’s celebrations might look like in light of the ongoing Covid-19 restrictions.
The webinar was hosted by NCA executive director Ed Avis, speaking with Scott Morris of Morris Costumes and Franco Pacini of Zagone Studios.
“The key lesson from today’s NCA webinar on Halloween 2020 was that Halloween is going to happen! Despite the COVID fears and general anxieties in the world at the moment, people want to get out and celebrate,” Ed explained. “The webinar sees Scott offering his thoughts on Halloween from several perspectives, while Franco offered details on Zagone Studio’s plan for creating a safe Halloween with retail costume shops as the focus.”
Here are Ed’s key take-aways from the discussion:
- The NCA is developing a campaign to help members work with their local communities to create safe, fun Halloween festivities. Material will be distributed to members with a strong ‘shop local’ emphasis, so that residents understand the value of supporting their local costume shop and other local merchants during the Halloween season.
- Scott noted that orders from large retailers, such as Walmart, have not dropped, so those retailers evidently expect a normal Halloween. On the other hand, some of his customers, such as the large temporary Halloween vendors, are being cautious in their orders.
- Morris Costumes also runs five temporary ‘pop-up’ Halloween stores and revealed that rents have dropped almost 50% for the large retail spaces they need for those locations.
- This year might be a good opportunity to move older licensed inventory, because there are few big movies coming out this summer that would normally create demand for new licensed items.
- Customers will still want to try on masks, so retailers should be ready to address that with temporary face liners that people can wear under the mask.
- Part of Zagone Studios’ plan for a safe, community-based Halloween includes a Costume Fashion Parade and a Home Halloween Decoration contest, allowing families to show off their costumes and decor, with photos and videos posted on social media or a community website.
NCA members can watch the recorded webinar by logging into the Member Center; then clicking the Member Center tab in the green bar; then clicking the Social Media Webinars item in the drop-down menu.
