Consistency in Cooking Content: Ramadan 2019 v 2020

'If there's one thing certain is business, it's uncertainty.' Some suffer. Businesses survive. Some thrive. Even then, while most sectors deteriorate, there are others that go from strength-to-strength. The cooking sector fits that bill during the events of COVID-19. In the Middle East, Ramadan is The Super Bowl of advertising. A major source of revenue for most sectors. Going a little deeper, how did Ramadan 2019 and Ramadan 2020 compare for overall cooking; posts, video views, and engagements? More importantly, which was more consistent? Given that positive consistency is what big brands look for when really investing good chunks of their budgets. Sila, Digital Ape’s proprietary tool, has analysed; 33mn+ posts, 16mn+ video views, 4mn+ comments from 8k+ key creators (influencers), which led us to find out that, day-to-day, Ramadan 2020 was actually more consistent! Firstly. Back to Ramadan 2019. There was a 250% increase in content consumption (video views) from May 5th 2019 (start of Ramadan) to the following day, with a return to comparative normality by June 3rd and the end of Ramadan. Variations in views and engagements showed a lack of consistency from creators in posting strategies. Looking at the first week of Ramadan 2020, views remained at around 7-8mn per day (below the 8-9mn a day in 2019). Like 2019, views more than doubled from the third to the fourth week of Ramadan. Takeaways Unlike common beliefs, Ramadan cooking content does not drop off the further that Ramadan progresses. 2020 is an interesting case study as with COVID-19 - overall rates year-to-date are up 150% on a consistent basis, rather than having a spike in Ramadan. Content is consistently popular prior to, and after, Ramadan and this should be viewed outside of a traditional content planning lens that we normally attribute a pre-Ramadan rush - consistency is key. As we predicted, Ramadan cooking trends are more resilient to macro level, socio-economic factors than thought. Also, COVID-19 cooking patterns remained throughout Ramadan - this also has complications for content planning strategies. About the data DA has built a custom data warehouse service called Sila, powered by data science we turn that raw social data into actionable insights. To find out more, please click here and use the contact form to get in touch.