Since the start of the outbreak, we’ve all seen some hugely fattening, but mouth-watering, content going viral from influencers (creators). At the same time, the reemergence of a rotund mid-section (or, at the very least, the thought of growing one) has proved a catalyst for some of us to seek out healthy food content.

Which is the dominant trend and what are the major foodstuffs we’ve sought out?

As part of on-going research with a foundation looking at top creators across digital platforms; D/A analysed millions of related content (posts, engagements, etc) relevant Google search data, there are lessons we can learn.

Even before the recent Pandemic, we have seen a rise in health content and so too, a move away from unhealthy foods. After the usual end of year spike (resolutions), in 2020, we are now seeing a large increase in healthy food posts, even going into the first half of Ramadan.

The stand out trend starting in Q1 of 2019 is an almost exponential increase in fish related content. This increase is, in no small part, thanks to a rise in home cooking, as discussed.

It is also possible to delve deeper into these trends to see how healthy v unhealthy this particular fish related content is or why the start of Ramadan has brought a slight upturn in pizza.

The same methodology can be applied to a deep dive into burgers. Almost constantly since August 2019, burgers have seen a decrease as food content in general has continued to rise online. Interestingly this has also dropped during the Pandemic into the 2nd week of Ramadan.

Marketeers in the Middle East should keep the yearning for healthy options in mind, whilst still making the audience aware of new innovations in comfort food as part of wider strategy.

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.

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