Streaming big

The future of the cinema experience is in jeopardy because of Covid-19, with many venues around the world announcing closures.

While mentions of cinemas and theatres have decreased 10% in the last eleven months compared to the same period in 2019, mentions of drive-in events are up 10%. That’s an encouraging indication that there is still a desire for the big-screen experience and that consumers are finding a way to make it work.

But ultimately, streaming has bridged the entertainment gap. We found that mentions of streaming increased 85% in the last eleven months compared to the same period in 2019.

Not all conversation is about streaming TV and film – we found 3m mentions of streaming music and 14m mentions of gaming streams from January to November 2020.

Goodbye festivals

Music festivals. You either love them or you hate them.

Using our Consumer Research platform, we found that mentions of music and arts festivals decreased 31% in 2020 compared to the average number across 2017, 2018, and 2019.

Despite festival conversation falling, we found that people were still discussing festival products like camping gear as they looked to get out over summer.

Those keeping the festival conversation alive were discussing ticket refunds (128k mentions), postponements (5m mentions), and what the future of festivals might be (2m mentions). The latter two are positive signs for 2021. People who love festivals are willing to wait for the experience and have actively been discussing how festivals could take place in the future.

No longer party people

Mentions of parties — from anniversaries to birthday and house parties — decreased 16% in the last eleven months compared to the same period in 2019. This is reflective of the massive blow the pandemic has inflicted on party venues like bars and clubs.

This is of huge detriment to the events industry. Back in 2018, the global events industry was valued at $1.1bn and it was expected to grow to $2.3bn by 2026. But the pandemic has wiped out months of revenue because of social distancing measures and stay-home orders.

Last call?

While the events industry suffers, so does hospitality. Restrictions in place around the world have prevented groups of a certain size meeting for a meal or a catch up drink and, in some cases, completely shuttered bars and restaurants.

Online conversations about dining out have fallen 11% month-on-month since the beginning of the outbreak.

That said, mentions have remained higher than pre-pandemic levels, as people discuss how they will continue to support their local restaurants and bars from home, like through take out (6m mentions).

In a recent Brandwatch Bulletin, we had a look at how restaurants were faring by looking at reviews left about them. We found that reviews dropped off at the start of March, and it could take a long time for them to recover.