The Campaign

Just Shrimp, the North American-sourced frozen seafood brand, is using National Seafood Month to engineer its own retail moment: a self-declared food holiday called Shrimpmas, observed October 25 and timed exactly two months before Christmas. The campaign is the brand's first major seasonal marketing push since entering the freezer aisle, and it is built around a promotional activation at Harris Teeter rather than broad national advertising.

Retail Mechanics

The centrepiece is a buy-one-get-one-free offer on Just Shrimp Nuggets running October 14 through October 27 across nearly 250 Harris Teeter stores, representing a $6 savings per transaction. The brand will also receive prominent secondary placement — a shelf position typically reserved for priority promotional items — during that window. For an emerging frozen-seafood SKU competing against established private-label and national brands, secondary placement during a BOGO window is a meaningful lever for trial generation at the point of sale.

The in-store mechanics are supported by a digital and influencer layer. Just Shrimp launched a dedicated microsite at JustShrimpmas.com on October 1 and will run creator partnerships on TikTok and Instagram throughout the month. Consumers can also enter to win Harris Teeter gift cards, a mechanic designed to drive social engagement while keeping foot traffic tied to the retail partner.

Why It Matters

Frozen seafood has been one of the more resilient center-store categories in recent years as consumers seek convenient, high-protein meal solutions. Value-added frozen shrimp — breaded or coated formats sold ready-to-cook — occupies a competitive sub-segment, with players ranging from large commodity processors to newer branded entrants emphasizing sourcing provenance. Just Shrimp's positioning around domestic coastal sourcing and clean-label credentials — no artificial flavors, colors, fillers, or preservatives — targets the premium end of that shelf set.

For grocery retailers, the holiday-themed campaign offers a low-cost way to animate the frozen seafood aisle during October, a period that can otherwise lack the promotional energy of the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons. Harris Teeter, a Kroger-owned banner concentrated in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast, has been an early distribution anchor for Just Shrimp.

"This is our first National Seafood Month, and we're proud to celebrate alongside the rest of the seafood category," said Lee Edmondson, founder of Just Shrimp. "We decided to go all-in with a campaign that feels unmistakably Just Shrimp to build brand awareness and support our growing presence at Harris Teeter."

The Shrimpmas designation carries a listing on National Today, the holiday-tracking platform brands use to claim unofficial calendar dates for marketing purposes. Whether the occasion gains consumer traction beyond the promotional window will depend largely on whether the creator campaign generates repeatable social content — a challenge for any brand attempting to manufacture a food holiday from scratch. Comparable efforts in the frozen food and seafood category have shown that retail promotion, not the holiday concept itself, tends to drive measurable volume lifts. Operators and buyers tracking branded seafood shelf performance will find Just Shrimp's Harris Teeter results a useful data point as the brand eyes wider distribution.

Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.