Stacy Taffet, Hershey’s director of growth and marketing, has already entered her spooky season.

The father of Reese’s and Jolly Rancher is inventing a new Halloween playbook, breaking the holiday into distinct microseasons that begin months before October 31, Taffet exclusively told CMO Insider.

A Morning Consult survey commissioned by Hershey in July found that 67% of American parents had purchased Halloween candy or snacks during the summer in recent years. Nearly half (49%) of parents surveyed were familiar with the term “Summerween.”

As consumers celebrate Halloween early, CMOs face the challenge of generating excitement without peaking too early.

Taffet said Hershey’s has moved from treating Halloween as “a long, extended season” to a more occasion-focused approach, with different brands and products promoted at different points.

Summer is all about marking the season with the various forms of Halloween and Reese’s marketing that focuses on rituals like pumpkin carving and fall lattes.

“We’ll use more parts of the portfolio that are for individual consumption or small group sharing as a way of saying, ‘Let’s get excited, the season is coming,'” Taffet said.

As fall approaches, Hershey plans to lean into the trunk-or-treat trend, where families gather in parking lots to let children collect candy from car trunks.

As October approaches, activity will ramp up, including a partnership with Amazon to deliver large ready-to-go bowls for trick-or-treating and a bigger push for chocolate-free brands, like its Pirate’s Booty salty snacks.

Halloween is a high-risk time for Hershey. Last year, Hershey’s CEO Kirk Tanner said its Halloween sales performance had been disappointing, citing warmer weather, among other factors. Retailers were also discounting sweets at the time, following price increases driven by higher cocoa prices.

Tanner said on last October’s earnings conference call that there were opportunities to “go to school” on consumer insights to improve heading into Halloween 2026, such as evaluating new package types, pricing and product mixes.

Behind the scenes, Taffet, who joined the company in April 2025, has been reconfiguring his department to deal with times like these.

“The biggest thing I’ve focused on is breaking down functional silos,” so the company can react more quickly to consumer trends, Taffet said.

Within the growth office, the marketing, insights, innovation and research and development teams now work together.

Hershey recently introduced a new marketing mix model, a method that determines the impact of individual marketing channels on sales, enabled by AI.

Taffet said artificial intelligence and automation tools are making it easier for Hershey to flag celebrities and influencers who are already talking about its brands and reach out about potential partnerships. It has also implemented artificial intelligence tools in its retail sales force to strengthen merchandising.

“Our retail team will go to the store manager and, using an augmented reality tool and AI-powered analytics, say, ‘If you put the KitKat display here by the checkout, your sales will increase by X%,'” Taffet said.

Taffet said Hershey is also aware that many people are struggling financially and is introducing new product formats at lower prices.

“If you only have $20 to spend on getting your kids excited about Halloween, it could be a costume, it could be decorations, it could be Reese’s Shapes, and we want to make sure we’re a priority to delight people that season,” he said.