Charlotte-based Just Shrimp is deploying a National Seafood Month marketing campaign around a self-designated food holiday — "Shrimpmas," observed October 25 — timed to drive trial of its frozen value-added shrimp nuggets at nearly 250 Harris Teeter locations across the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic.
The campaign marks the brand's first National Seafood Month activation and is built around an exclusive retail promotion running October 14–27, during which Just Shrimp Nuggets will receive secondary in-store placement and be featured in a buy-one-get-one-free offer representing a $6 savings per transaction.
The Retail Play
For a young shrimp brand competing on a frozen seafood shelf dominated by established processors, secondary display placement — typically reserved for promoted items — carries outsized visibility value. The BOGO structure lowers the barrier to first purchase and encourages pantry-loading, a tactic increasingly used by emerging value-added seafood brands to build household penetration ahead of the holiday appetizer season, when shrimp cocktail and party platters reliably drive category lift.
Just Shrimp Nuggets are sourced from North American coastal waters and processed without artificial flavors, colors, fillers, or preservatives — a clean-label positioning that aligns with growing retail-buyer demand for simpler ingredient decks in the frozen seafood set. The brand emphasizes a domestic and near-shore supply chain, a differentiator that resonates with retailers and consumers focused on traceability and supporting domestic fisheries.
National Seafood Month Context
The broader timing is deliberate. October is National Seafood Month, and the U.S. frozen shrimp category remains the largest single seafood segment at retail by volume — though it faces persistent pricing pressure from imported product, particularly from Ecuador, India, and Indonesia, which together account for the majority of U.S. shrimp import volume. Domestically sourced or North American-harvested shrimp commands a premium positioning in that environment, giving brands like Just Shrimp a narrative hook beyond price.
"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 campaign includes a dedicated microsite at JustShrimpmas.com, influencer content across TikTok and Instagram, and Harris Teeter gift-card giveaways designed to keep the brand visible digitally during a shelf promotion window. The holiday designation itself was formalized through National Today, the calendar-holiday registration platform used by consumer brands to anchor campaigns to specific dates.
For retail seafood buyers and category managers tracking emerging brands in frozen seafood, the campaign illustrates a pattern common to challenger shrimp brands: anchor a promotion to a cultural moment, secure secondary placement at a key regional chain, and layer digital amplification to extend the floor promotion's reach. Whether the approach drives sustained velocity beyond the promotional window will be the metric that determines Harris Teeter's longer-term shelf commitment. Buyers and distributors watching the frozen shrimp retail segment will be tracking post-promotion scan data closely.
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.
