The data geeks at Smoking Gun have been very busy this month… 

To help health & wellbeing brands during the pandemic, we have analysed 1.5m people’s social media posts (about 8m posts in total!) from January to June, to understand exactly what they think and feel about lockdown life, how this has impacted their attitudes and behaviours towards their health and wellbeing, and what the opportunities are for brands as we move into the recovery phase. 

Here are 7 key take outs from our research – 

1. People have adapted to the new normal – initial emotions of anger/ mistrust/ anxiety have subsided – emotions such as ‘joy’ have increased over time, signifying we have settled to our new regimes and even found the silver lining. 
2. The pandemic has shrunk people’s reference points – how a brand can impact ‘me and my world’ will be more of a focus than ever before. 
3. Lockdown has created a desire for personal improvement (health/ fitness/ nutrition) but the fact that vegan/ vegetarian posts have remained flat suggests ethics may not have changed as much as we think. 
4. Traditional ‘weekend treats’ (pizza/ booze etc.) behaviour has remained.
5. Despite changes to routines including more time to exercise but perhaps being more sedentary working from home, weight and weight loss saw lower levels of discussion – suggesting a change in priorities and perhaps being kinder to ourselves 
6. We’ve had more time to reflect and take action in relation to our own wellness  –  much longer than the usual quick burn out of the ‘new year, new you’ period – lockdown has led to an increase in people using fitness apps and tech and talking about fitness online (more than any other health or wellbeing category).  This represents a huge opportunity for fitness brands to tap into a much bigger audience.
7. There was a significant rise in people reporting sleep problems due to changed routines, health worries and job/ money concerns.

For a deeper dive into our research for your category, get in touch.