October's winning retail campaigns fell into three categories: "Most Impactful Campaign," "In-Real-Life Initiative," and "Under-The-Radar Move." Retailers competed with creative marketing, experiential activations, and product launches throughout the month.

The monthly retailer awards highlighted brands that stood out with humor, inclusivity, and cultural relevance. "We spend so much time talking about big campaigns, but sometimes the most memorable ones are the ones that make you laugh and share," our analyst Zak Stambor said on a recent episode of "Reimagining Retail."

Pringles wins "Most Impactful Campaign" with morbid humor

Pringles took the top spot for its "Once You Drop" campaign featuring TikTok creator Dan the Funeral Man. The campaign revealed that Fredric Baur, inventor of the Pringles can, was buried in his own creation. Pringles then offered fans a chance to win an original Pringles urn along with a 200-year supply of chips.

"What I love about this is that it has a real backstory," Stambor said. "I guarantee you will remember that the guy who invented the Pringles can was buried in a Pringles can, and it connects to the brand."

The promotion required entrants to sign a "last will and taste-ament," leaning into Halloween themes. The campaign generated substantial earned media and social sharing.

Other nominees in this category included Bealls' first national brand campaign "For the Haul of It," targeting treasure-hunting shoppers across 650 stores in 23 states, and Fenty Beauty's 12-hour TikTok livestream featuring Rihanna that drew over 1 million viewers and 53 million impressions.

Rivian brings Ghostbusters to showrooms

Rivian won "Best In-Real-Life Initiative" with its Halloween mode collaboration with Sony Pictures, bringing Ghostbusters-themed lights, sounds, and effects to its electric vehicles.

"I didn't know that this was a thing with fancy EVs, but Rivian has added special seasonal effects to its cars," EMARKETER analyst Sky Canaves said. The feature draws potential buyers to showrooms to test-drive vehicles, particularly as demand for EVs increases amid high fuel prices.

The campaign also included a commercial featuring Bill Murray.

"It's smart because if you think about holidays, that's when a lot of car advertising starts coming up," said our analyst Becky Schilling. "To do something before then to get into the white space and get people primed, it's a good idea."

Other finalists included Rhode's Cafe Rhode pop-up in Paris, which distributed metro cards redeemable for skincare samples at Sephora stores, and Target's "Bag Spotting" campaign in Chicago and Boston, where teams stopped shoppers carrying Target bags to offer challenges and gift cards.

Universal Standard doubles down on inclusive sizing

Universal Standard won the "Under-The-Radar" category for maintaining its commitment to inclusive sizing at a time when many fashion brands are retreating from size diversity.

The brand's latest capsule collection with designer Abisola Omole spans sizes 0 to 40, and shoppers in extended sizes drove its sales: almost 90% of units sold were in sizes 14 and above. Demand came fast, too, with nearly 60% of first-week unit sales occurring in the first 48 hours.

"There's so much attention on GLP-1s and weight loss and how that's transforming everything, but the reality is, you know, there's numbers like 11% of US adults are currently on these medications," Stambor said. "That means that 89% of adults are not on these medications, and a whole lot of people are not being served."

Some brands cite cost-cutting as the reason for reducing size ranges, but Universal Standard is serving the shoppers they left behind.

"For some brands I think it's just been a way of cost-cutting and trying to rationalize how much they're producing," Canaves said. "But there's still a market that needs to be served."

Other nominees included 7-Eleven's launch of Selección Seven, a line of Hispanic-inspired private label products targeting the 70-million-person Hispanic market in the US, and Liquid Death's reported expansion into making ads for other brands through its in-house agency Death Machine.

Listen to the full episode.