Brandwatch Bulletin: Food Over Flowers This Valentine's Day

Brandwatch Bulletin #35: Food Over Flowers This Valentine's Day

What gifts can people expect this weekend?

12 Feb 2021

The most romantic weekend of the year is upon us, but how are things different due to the pandemic? We’ve taken a look at how gift-giving may have been affected.

Let’s get to it.

We’re not feeling the love

Pandemic or not, the big annual events in our calendar remain and this weekend it’s St. Valentine’s Day. Usually a big night for eating at restaurants, heading to the movies, or hitting the town’s bars and pubs, this year’s celebrations are going to feel very subdued.

That’s not to mention that Covid-19 caution has significantly lowered our chances of meeting new people and finding dates (as hard as the dating apps are trying).

While we’re sure couples will be trying their hardest to eke out as much lockdown romance as they can, it’s clear that enthusiasm for Cupid’s big day has waned in 2021.

The internet’s publishers have not been deterred, with nearly the same amount of Valentine’s Day-related articles being published this year as last year (and far more than the years prior to that). But their readers haven’t shown similar interest.

This year, a Valentine’s Day article garnered just 54 engagements (such as Facebook likes and Twitter shares) on average. That’s a drop of 64% year-on-year. It looks like it’s going to be a sorry weekend for all the die-hard romantics out there.

But let’s try to be a bit more positive. Social distancing may have scuppered many date prospects, but gift-giving may not be so hampered. Whether it’s sending perfume in the post or leaving flowers and a cryptic note on someone’s doorstep, there are plenty of Covid-safe options.

We wanted to figure out what kinds of gifts would be big sellers this year. Based on the assumption that people take inspiration from articles they see on social media or find through a Google search, we did some analysis.

First we created a list of gift categories, such as “clothing” and “technology and gadgets,” allowing for the idea that some items would fall under multiple categories.

Then we used BuzzSumo to find the most shared Valentine’s Day gift idea articles of 2021, and gave each category points based on how many times they were cited and the amount of engagements the articles they were cited in received.

We then found the top ranking articles on Google around Valentine’s Day gift ideas, giving the categories points based on how many times they were cited, and the amount of traffic the articles they were cited in got.

After combining all the data, we indexed everything against the overall score the top category got, and here’s what we found.

The ‘food and cooking’ and ‘beauty and grooming’ categories are way out in front, it turns out. The latter, including items like makeup and beard trimmers, should come as no surprise. But what was behind the food and cooking trend?

The food and cooking category contained a lot of more kitchen tools and appliances than food itself. Could this be a sign that the burgeoning chefs and bakers that lockdown inspired are looking for some new equipment?

Interestingly, the most common appliance in this category was the humble rice cooker.

Rice, cooked in a normal pan, is easy to get wrong and incredibly hard to get perfect. This will have been particularly true for our new lockdown-inspired culinary enthusiasts, and the subject was touched on in a Vittles ode to rice cookers back in July:

“Many people may have spent lockdown trying to hone their rice making skills. To do this you need to figure out how much water to add to a pot for the amount of rice that you are cooking, either by weighing the rice and water or by deploying the knuckle method.”

The piece goes on to detail how rice cookers simplify this and ensure a perfect bowl of rice, no matter the type, each time.

This Valentine’s Day could be a significant milestone in rice cookers becoming even more mainstream.

We can confirm that at least one person got what they wanted this year.

Thanks for reading

That’s us for today. Due to the US federal holiday on Monday, we’ll be back next Friday. Get subscribed by heading here.

Stay safe,

Brandwatch React Team

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