The great global bake off

After looking at DIY and learning languages in previous bulletins, we’ve found another pastime that people are taking to during the pandemic: baking.

Bakers have popped up all over the internet this month, with 737k people talking about giving it a try. That’s a 70% increase year-on-year.

In the chart below, we can see how baking conversations climbed as people went into lockdown. It’s a much smoother rise than other topics we’ve previously looked at.

This slower climb makes a lot of sense. Whereas learning a new language just needs a free app, baking means ingredients, equipment, and research. With stockpiling and panic buying making flour and yeast hard to get, would-be bakers face an extra hurdle to get started.

That’s not to mention that baking takes practice, too. People might be waiting to perfect their loaves and sponges before sharing on social.

We also looked at what people were baking. Bread, in general, topped the list by far with 450k mentions. But we wanted to look at more specific items to get a feel for the trends.

Cookies are way out in front. Relatively simple to bake and incredibly tasty, we’re not exactly shocked. But there are two interesting entries. Banana bread and sourdough aren’t exactly the staples the rest of the list represents.

The reason they’ve made it in is they’ve become self-isolation fads. Thousands of people have latched onto them both under quarantine.

Sourdough in particular has lent itself to the free time some now have. Making it involves a sourdough starter, which takes five days of attention to create before you even start baking. If you’re working from home, that becomes a much easier task to keep on top of.

Of course, you might be lucky and find a starter on the street.

Hairy trends: Going bald or growing out?

Just imagine the Facebook memories from this quarantine a year from now (that is, if things are back to normal a year from now).

Yes, lockdown has come to this: Mentions of DIY haircuts and hairstyles have increased 55% since January 2019.

Our Consumer Research platform also revealed there were 58k unique authors discussing DIY hair dying in the last 31 days. That’s 5k more people than last year’s peak in June, at the start of festival season.

In terms of color, unique is in! Orange is the hottest color right now, trending with 5.6k mentions on social, followed by pink and blue.

While some people are changing their hair, others are getting rid of it completely. There were 892k social mentions from people who have shaved or are thinking about shaving their heads. 6% of this conversation references Britney Spears, who famously shaved her head in 2007.

We assumed lots of men would leave lockdown looking like they were the main character in Castaway, but it seems beards (and stubble) have fallen out of popularity. There were 61k of people growing their facial hair in March, much less than the high in 2019 (86k unique authors).

In terms of growing hair, it seems we are living in a leg hair renaissance. 7.7k unique authors have proclaimed they are not shaving their legs during this lockdown, an increase of 2431% compared to January 2019.

What’s motivating people? We found 174k people saying they wanted a change, while another 12k were simply bored and looking to kill time. Boredom and a lack of access to barbers and hairdressers could be a dangerous combination.

If you’re in the beauty industry, now’s the time to crack out the hair tutorials. The world desperately needs it.

We can wait for the weekend to begin, or can we?

Sadness levels in conversation relating to the weekend have risen because of isolation and a lack of activities.

But lots of groups are forming, between friends, strangers, and charities, to make the most of being stuck inside.

In a bulletin last week we covered the rise of virtual pub quizzes as a potential lifeline for local bars, and it seems like the concept has taken off. There was a 182% increase in unique authors mentioning virtual pub quizzes with mates or strangers in the last 31 days.

Other virtual activities have also become popular. Online book clubs received a lot of attention – conversation increased by 59% compared to January 2020. Meanwhile, while virtual wine club mentions are up 52%.

We found just under 80k people on social media discussing online workshops or classes, and people are particularly interested in baking and language courses.

Virtual exercise classes aren’t getting nearly the same volume of conversation. There were 38k unique authors in the last 31 days talking about an online class. This indicates people aren’t so keen on using indoor spaces for physical activity or, if they are, it’s not so much of a novelty and they’re not posting about it.

There are still plenty of opportunities for brands to get involved in online classes. You could offer workshops, webinars, or even online networking – the demand and opportunities are there to be taken advantage of.

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Thanks for reading

Be sure to share or forward the bulletin around if you found it useful. Otherwise, have a good weekend and we’ll see you Monday.

Stay safe,

Brandwatch Response Team