London-born, Cincinnati-made Doughlicious is doubling its holiday retail play this season with two limited-edition launches: a 12-Day Advent Calendar hitting Target shelves December 1 exclusively, and a new Peppermint White Chocolate Cookie Dough & Gelato Bites SKU rolling out nationwide at Whole Foods Market at a promotional SRP of $4.99 starting early November. The move extends the brand's presence across two of the most-watched frozen novelty accounts in U.S. food retail.
The Retail Footprint
The Target-exclusive advent calendar carries a $11.99 SRP and features 12 individually portioned cookie dough and gelato bites at 100 calories each — nine of which are calendar-only exclusives unavailable through any other channel. That limited-availability positioning is a deliberate scarcity mechanic, making the SKU a potential destination purchase rather than a commodity repeat buy. The Peppermint White Chocolate standalone pack, meanwhile, opens a new door at Whole Foods, where the natural/specialty channel's freezer set increasingly rewards better-for-you novelty with prime planogram placement. Both items are available nationally at their respective banners, giving Doughlicious simultaneous ACV coverage across mass and natural channels during the highest-velocity frozen novelty weeks of the year.
Inside the Calendar
The 12-flavor lineup spans seasonal staples — Gingerbread, Eggnog, Snickerdoodle, Pumpkin Pie Crumble — alongside Doughlicious core items like Cookies & Cream and Chocolate Chip, plus the brand's most talked-about inclusion: a candy-brand collaboration with Rotten. Door No. 7 is a Rotten Cherry Bomb, pairing sour cherry cookie dough with vanilla gelato and a dusting of Rotten Sour Crunchies. Cross-category collabs of this type — a freezer brand co-packing with a candy label — are increasingly common as CPG brands chase earned media and social velocity without incremental trade spend. Rotten Founder and CEO Michael Fisher called the partnership a natural fit, noting the advent calendar gave his brand access to a premium holiday destination at Target. Doughlicious founder Kathryn Bricken framed the calendar as an R&D showcase, a format that lets the brand test limited-run flavors at meaningful scale without committing to a full-year planogram slot.
Category & Competitive Context
The frozen novelty and frozen dessert category has seen sustained competition from better-for-you entrants over the past three years, with brands emphasizing cleaner ingredient decks, portion-controlled formats, and channel exclusivity to defend margin against private-label pressure. Doughlicious differentiates on format — gelato wrapped in oat-flour cookie dough — and on positioning: gluten-free oats, no artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives. At 100 calories per piece and sub-$5 for a standalone pack, the brand sits in an accessible premium tier that travels well through both the Whole Foods natural channel shopper and Target's value-conscious but trend-aware freezer buyer. For retailers, the advent calendar format also drives a higher average basket ring than a single-serve novelty, a meaningful consideration as frozen department managers look to lift dollars-per-transaction in Q4.
For more on seasonal freezer innovation and better-for-you novelty trends, see our coverage of frozen dessert category dynamics and limited-edition holiday SKU strategy.
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.
