October Seasonal Segments

October Seasonal Segments

As October arrives, the team at Gourmet Ads has refreshed our Seasonal Segments to ensure advertisers capture attention during the holiday quarter. This month marks a shift into colder days and the beginning of a season defined by gatherings, entertaining, and shopping events. From November through the New Year, audiences are deeply engaged with recipes, retail offers, and celebratory traditions. By leveraging our proprietary Contextual Targeting technology, brands can appear in context when grocery buyers and home cooks are actively making purchase decisions.

Seasonal Shifts: Entering the Holiday Quarter

October signals the real start of the holiday quarter, when high-intent audiences turn their attention to big celebrations, retail milestones, and seasonal shopping.

• Singles’ Day (11/11): A key ecommerce moment where consumers look for indulgent snacks, premium treats, giftable items, and pantry upgrades, often tied to coupons and digital shopping guides.
• Thanksgiving: From turkey prep and stuffing ideas to pie tutorials, wine pairings, and hosting checklists, this holiday is prime territory for food, beverage, and entertaining brands.
• Black Friday: The shopping surge begins, with audiences comparing deals on appliances, cookware, and kitchen gadgets. Contextual activity spikes on circulars, reviews, and best-buy roundups.
• Cyber Monday: Online momentum builds with searches for hampers, countertop appliances, and pantry staples—perfect for brands targeting digital-first shoppers.
• Hanukkah: Rich with tradition, this occasion drives engagement around brisket, latkes, sufganiyot, oils, and kosher-certified staples, with recipe pages and how-tos fueling intent.
• Christmas: The season’s pinnacle food event, centered on roasts, baked goods, cheese and chocolate pairings, festive beverages, and edible gifts. Audiences immerse themselves in recipes, supermarket lists, and gift guides.
• Winter Warmers: Comfort dishes rise in prominence—soups, stews, hot drinks, and slow-cooked meals capture audience attention throughout the colder months.
• New Year’s Eve & January Reset: Year-end celebrations spark demand for party menus and beverages, followed by January’s pivot to wellness with healthier snacks, no/low-alcohol choices, sparkling waters, and pantry refreshes.

Each of these moments creates powerful opportunities for brands to reach consumers at scale during the most commercially active stretch of the year.

November: Singles’ Day, Thanksgiving, Black Friday & Cyber Monday

November kicks off with Singles’ Day, a global shopping holiday where consumers seek out indulgent snacks, premium treats, and giftable pantry upgrades. Traffic surges around coupons, digital circulars, and ecommerce deal pages.

Just weeks later, Thanksgiving becomes the focal point. Audiences immerse themselves in recipes for turkey brines, stuffing variations, pies, and wine pairings, alongside hosting checklists and meal-prep guides. For advertisers across proteins, side dishes, desserts, and beverages, this is one of the strongest adjacency opportunities of the year.

Immediately after the feast, Black Friday takes over. Shoppers pack stores in search of appliances, cookware, and kitchen gadgets, with interest peaking on comparison roundups, review sites, and best-deal articles.

Momentum continues into Cyber Monday, when activity shifts entirely online. Consumers hunt for hampers, countertop gear, and pantry restocks, making this digital-first occasion a prime opportunity to convert browsing into measurable sales.

December: Hanukkah and Christmas

The month of December opens with Hanukkah, a celebration that drives strong engagement across recipes and traditions. Audiences search for guidance on preparing brisket, latkes, sufganiyot, oils, and kosher-certified staples, while also seeking inspiration for holiday gatherings and family meals. This is a particularly powerful opportunity for brands wanting to connect with Jewish households in authentic, intent-rich environments.

Soon after, Christmas dominates the calendar as the ultimate food occasion. Searches surge for roast centerpieces, marathon baking projects, cheese and chocolate assortments, sparkling beverages, grazing boards, and edible gifts. Consumers also turn to supermarket lists, recipe pages, and holiday gift guides, ensuring brands can align with every step of the planning process. With unparalleled reach and frequency, Christmas provides food advertisers with the most impactful moment of the year to connect with audiences preparing their biggest celebrations.

Running Through the Season: Winter Warmers & New Year

Across the colder months, Winter Warmers remain a consistent theme. Audiences lean into comfort cooking with soups, stews, roasts, hot chocolate, and mulled beverages, creating dependable engagement that extends well beyond the peak holiday period. These seasonal searches not only highlight traditional favorites but also inspire consumers to explore new takes on familiar dishes.

Looking ahead, New Year’s Eve sparks demand for festive menus, grazing boards, and celebratory beverages, while the January Reset shifts focus to healthier snacks, low/no-alcohol options, sparkling waters, pantry refreshes, and meal-prep solutions. This dual moment allows advertisers to finish the holiday season strong and seamlessly pivot into wellness-oriented messaging at the start of the new year.

Media Planning for the Holiday Quarter and Beyond

Media planning and buying is always forward-looking, with brands and agencies aiming to stay ahead of key consumer moments. Many of our partners ask us to keep them updated three to four months out, allowing them to align campaigns with the strongest signals of consumer intent. Our monthly Seasonal Segments are designed to do just that—helping advertisers plan, budget, and activate campaigns with confidence. These insights not only highlight immediate opportunities but also provide visibility into trends that build momentum across the season. By staying ahead of consumer intent, advertisers can secure premium placements and maximize campaign impact.

Beyond these seasonal roll-outs, Gourmet Ads offers a comprehensive Advertising Calendar mapping high-intent food occasions throughout the year. From Valentine’s Day and Ramadan to Back-to-School and Thanksgiving, this calendar provides a roadmap for staying relevant year-round and ensuring consistent engagement across multiple markets.

How to Activate Seasonal Segments and Year-Round Segments

All Seasonal Segments—as well as evergreen moments from our comprehensive Advertising Calendar—are live and ready for activation. Brands can tap into them in two primary ways:

• Programmatic Deals: Plug directly into your preferred DSP for fast access and immediate scale, ensuring your campaigns align with seasonal intent in real time.

• Managed Campaigns: Work hand-in-hand with our team to design, build, and optimize campaigns tailored to your brand objectives. This includes advanced targeting, creative recommendations, and the ability to reach specific site locations for maximum contextual relevance.

In addition, we build custom contextual segments at the URL level, giving advertisers precision targeting around their own brand, competitors, or niche themes. These custom segments can be deployed quickly—often the same day or by the next—allowing you to react to market opportunities without delay and maintain agility across the entire season.

Take the Next Step

Seasonal moments and year-round occasions alike create powerful signals of consumer intent. Gourmet Ads ensures your brand appears in the right context, precisely when grocery buyers and household cooks are searching for inspiration, planning meals, and making purchase decisions. By aligning with these intent-rich environments, advertisers can maximize visibility and drive meaningful results.

Contact your Gourmet Ads Account Manager to plan which segments or events to prioritize or Download our Media Kit.