Fall is here! There are many changes that come with fall season: school is back in session, leaves change from green to yellow, orange and brown, the temperature begins to drop and days get shorter. All of these changes signify the year is nearing its end. But there is one aspect of fall that is a favorite change for many…FOOD!  Fall brings some of the year’s favorite food and snacks.

Flavors have become a major trend in the food industry. Each season has its own set of flavors that people wait for all year. Autumn could be the time of year that brings us the most popular flavored items as it is the season that has the holiday that is most associated with food: Thanksgiving. Similarly to how the weather and scenery shifts, food product packaging starts to shift in color as well.

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Let’s be real. Most of us know Pinterest as a fun app to dream, plan, and be inspired. You can quickly find ideas for your weekend, wedding style, learn how to DIY replacing a headlight, plan the family dinner, and research the best stroller for your growing toddler all in one place. Pinterest is a powerful tool – for more than just ideas.

Pinterest is a growing social platform with over 150 million active users globally. Recognizing the power of this social platform’s presence, Pinterest introduced “Promoted Pins” in 2014. Promoted Pins are paid pins that provide businesses the opportunity to target more people specific to relevant interests. Over the past few years, they’ve expanded their ad capabilities by giving businesses the ability to promote with various goals in mind: engagement, awareness and traffic. Today, you can create “one-tap pins” that take you directly to the site you want right from your feed. “Video pins” provide a new element of interactivity. “App pins” link directly to the app store, making it easy download apps users would find useful on their interests.

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Are you ready for some football? How about being ready to promote your seasonal program? If you’re a brand that fits with football fans, that’s what this season is about – all the way up through the Super Bowl. The real question is, how do you stand out in this saturated market?

Find your Fans

One way is to find your fans. Considering women now make up 45 percent of the NFL fan base, ignoring them is a clear miss for some brands. Beverage companies like Coors and Anheuser-Busch’s Michelob Ultra started expanding their strategies to include platforms frequented by female audiences. Now, their ads appear on more traditionally male-dominated outlets like ESPN along with spots on Bravo, Food Network, and HGTV. Their message is the same, but their tactics have expanded, increasing their female customer base by 10 percent since 2014.

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Snacks on snacks. That’s how people are getting down these days. But it’s not always the classic not-so-good-for-you snacks they’re reaching for. Healthy snacks are on the rise, particularly with millennials and baby boomers who are increasingly aware of what goes into their food or, to be more specific, what doesn’t.

Mealtime

Forty six percent of Americans snack 3+ times per day. That’s a whole lot of snacking! Millennials are round-the-clock snackers and single person households tend to plan snacks to go with the bulk of their meals. Some consumers are even downsizing portions and mix-matching snacks in place of meals, putting snacks on many shoppers’ radars.

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Back to school time is upon us and with that comes seasonal promotions. From new lunch ideas to breakfast favorites, fall is all about saving time and money, and getting back in the swing of the school-time schedule. With that in mind, brands look for ways to connect with kiddos and their parents to make the season more manageable.

Catalyst has had a lot of success with seasonal promos particularly ones that are food and beverage based. One program partnered Wunderbar bologna with the popular children’s books “Captain Awesome” and “Dear-Know-It-All.” Kids were interested in the books while mom and dad wanted the lunch savings in the form of a coupon offer with purchase. This was a flexible program, so retailers could run it anytime during the fall and, across the 1,100 stores that did, there was an increase in lunchmeat sales anywhere from 3 to 28%!

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