The surprising content winners of lockdown 2020
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This is thanks to the combination of our sister agency iCrossing and its incredible insight and performance data; our in-house editorial agency talent; and our ability to extend your content amplification beyond owned channels through digital marketing, print distribution and through Hearst’s brand network.
At the start of 2020, if you had asked us to predict the types of content people would be searching for in a mild April that saw Easter fall quite early, we would never have guessed ‘workouts with Joe Wickes’ would be top of the list, or that epilators would be selling best on our e-commerce sites as beauticians and spas shut due to a nationwide lockdown.
So, we thought it might be interesting to look at the content that data could never have predicted would be having a ‘moment’ and think about what might happen to it once we all leave lockdown.
AT-HOME FITNESS WORKOUTS
Props to Joe Wickes who even beat Jamie Oliver out of the starting blocks by becoming the face of positivity during the crisis with his daily 9 am workouts. Many other brands have also capitalised on people’s desire for at-home fitness. London-centric names such as 1Rebel, Barry’s Bootcamp, Psycle and Third Space are all conducting Instagram Live workouts, which means anyone has access, even if pre-Coronavirus they couldn’t get to a studio.
But what will this mean for these brands post-lockdown? Will we all be willing to pay for the privilege of a burst of Barry’s in our bedroom, or will these brands continue to deliver free digital workouts in the hope that enough people also return to their high-cost gyms? We’re hoping a mixture of both, but it will undoubtedly impact gym memberships as some people realise they can get all they need at home.
HOME HAIR COLOURANTS
Content around ‘how to colour your hair at home’ has hit new highs. What was once the preserve of those wanting a quick, affordable fix to cover grey, or teenagers experimenting with bleach and pink highlights, has become a necessity for everyone. Even celebrities are getting in on the act, with Zoe Ball and Holly Willoughby both posting their attempts at home dye on Instagram. On RedOnline we’ve seen articles such as The £6 mask that blends out greys until you can get to the hairdresser catapult into the site top 10 for the first time.
For brands that sell these dyes, it feels crazy not to use this incredible opportunity to link themselves to helpful content that will live long beyond lockdown. L’Oréal Paris has devoted its homepage to hair dye with brilliant virtual ‘try on’ functionality and content on how to get the right shade and apply it correctly. However, what’s currently good news for home dye could, post-COVID-19, be bad news for hairdressers as more people realise how a YouTube tutorial and a trip to Boots could save them a fortune.
BANANA BREAD
The real standout food star of the lockdown must surely be banana bread. Something no one ever made before, search for #bananabread on Instagram and you’ll now find more than 1.3million photos. But why? We asked Vicky Chandler, editor of Delish.co.uk. “It’s delicious and there are so many ways to make it,” she says. “Plus, it’s a great way to use leftover brown bananas that would otherwise go to waste. But I think the biggest reason is that it’s hard to mess up, which means it’s great for beginner bakers, which there are a lot of in lockdown right now!”
All this points to the importance of search strength for recipe content. Having a well written, SEO-optimised piece of content on this subject will mean its sudden emergence as a ‘must-try’ could increase your traffic tenfold if you are on page one of Google. On our Asda Good Living website, we’ve seen a huge surge in traffic around store-cupboard recipes as people look for things to cook at home, while our overall site traffic has more than doubled. Other food trends to emerge include recreating your favourite restaurant meals – see our Asda Friday Night Fakeaway Instagram series or check out Gizzi Erskine’s @gizandgreens account, which has amassed more than 30K followers since the lockdown started.
HOW TO LOOK GOOD ON A ZOOM CALL
From make-up seminars (yes, they are a thing!) to set dressing advice, there are a host of articles chronicling how to win at Zoom calling. Although Zoom existed before, we’re not sure anyone really could have anticipated the importance that would be placed on the idea of ‘Zooming’. In fact, ‘let’s Zoom’ could be one of the most-used phrases of lockdown. Now clever brands and influencers spanning beauty to homeware are helping us all to navigate the piles of messy books behind us or dishing out advice on the ideal leisure (but not scruffy) outfit to choose when video calling our colleagues. ‘How to look good on Zoom’ has even made it to the top Google search term if you type in ‘how to look good…’ And, when fashion designer Tom Ford told the NY Times his advice for looking good on camera (hint: it includes putting your computer on a stack of books!), it went viral. Plus, make-up tutorials abound should you feel the need to get prepped for your work Zoom calls or Friday night quizzes.
QUIZ CONTENT
That brings us nicely to content topic number five of things everyone wants a piece of. Bored of Zoom calls which go like this: “What have you done today? Nothing? Yeah me neither…”? People very quickly realised they needed some other content to fill the chat void. Enter stage left the pub quiz. Many pubs themselves have launched virtual quiz nights, while Google searches for the term ‘pub quiz’ have increased tenfold since lockdown began, our friends at iCrossing tell us. Digital Spy editor Laurence Mozafari says the site’s own content on Instagram Stories - such as ‘Guess the Avengers character from their shadow’ - has been some of its top-performing to date. In fact, it’s proved so popular, his team now runs quizzes each week on Stories, with topics such as Harry Potter and Friends.
So, there you have it. We have become a nation of banana bread-making, quizzing, home hair dyers in the past six weeks. Will we put that bread tin away and get back to our £45-a-month gym membership once we can? Honestly, I doubt it. I think the ‘new normal’ might include more at-home pampering, which all points to the need for intelligent, informed content helping people to save money, become more expert and connect with friends in ways other than over a bottle of wine. Though to be honest, on week one after lockdown, I hope we’ll all be searching Google for ‘bars with roof terraces’ or ‘pubs with beer gardens’…
