Australians, confined to home to combat the spread of the coronavirus, are spending significantly more time studying food and cooking websites.
This fascination peaked on Sunday, March 29, with a 70% increase to a total of 63,555 hours spent on food and cooking websites compared to the start of the month.
And it’s younger audiences driving the interest in creating good food in isolation.
Nielsen’s daily Digital Content Ratings reported a shift in online audience behaviour when the federal government announced stage 1 restrictions on Sunday, March 22, including the closure of clubs, pubs, restaurants and cafes and recommending families to stay at home.
“We are adjusting to our new reality of more time at home cooking and have leaned more heavily than ever on Australia’s content-rich food and cooking websites," says Monique Perry, Nielsen’s managing director of media and sports.
"Media agencies, advertisers and brands have significantly more opportunity to engage with consumers through this category through these difficult times.
"It’s a real opportunity to talk to Australian’s while they are planning and preparing meals for their families and this could support both tactical and long term brand building campaigns.”
Nielsen Digital Content Ratings says the highest growth came frpom those aged 13-24.
On the last weekend in March, the increase in time spent with online food and cooking content compared with the prior month:
- Aged 13-24 +144% on Friday, March, 27
- 25-39 +94% on Saturday, March 28
- 40-54 +64% on Saturday, March 28
- over 55 +66% on Sunday, March 29
Gai Le Roy, CEO of IAB Australia, says it looks like Australians have finally admitted to themselves that they are going to be eating at home a lot.
"When our time at home is increased and with many of us struggling to remember what day it is at times, it is interesting to see the habitual pattern of Sunday being the key meal planning and recipe hunting day being retained," she says.
Nielsen Homescan data for the four weeks ending March 22 shows Australians are buying more key cooking ingredients, such as authentic Asian and Indian grocery items, up 128% and 185% respectively in terms of value sales.
Baking is also high on the homestay agenda with an increase in key ingredients such as sugar, up 64% by volume, and flour, 156% volume growth.
In the past four weeks Australians have stockpiled enough flour to last 65 days, while bread mix has sold more than double the expected volume and has seen dollar growth of 202%.
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