Predicting the future is a tough business. No one can really do it with 100% accuracy. If I were a true soothsayer, I wouldn't be writing this article. I'd be living on my own private tropical island with all the money I made betting on sports and stocks, but I digress.
In reality, I am writing this post to examine what I boldly predicted back in the spring of 2021. In this Summer Food and Beverage Days post, I theorized that 3 days associated with either a food or drink item would drive users to search for more information about these “holidays”. Using historic Google Trends data, and thinking that an ease of pandemic restrictions may help boost interest, I thought the search popularity of these days would be the biggest ever (or at least, be bigger than last year.
The three food/beverage days are:
- National Doughnut or Donut Day – occurred on June 4th in 2021
- National Ice Cream Day – occurred on July 18th in 2021
- National Tequila Day – occurred on July 24th in 2021
So how did I do? Is 1 out 3 good?
National Doughnut or Donut Day
I will take full credit for predicting this one. Clearly, the chart shows that search interest in this national day was higher than it was in 2020. Was it an all-time high? No, but I will take the win. I was only predicting a lift over last year.
National Ice Cream Day
I am shocked and saddened that this day wasn't queried as much as last year. Who doesn't like ice cream? What could have been the problem this year? I can't think of anything that would have stopped the populace of this country from celebrating the frozen delight that makes summer a wonderful time to be alive. Ok, maybe one thing. Not enough discounts or free cones being advertised. Not enough brands wanted to own the holiday. That, or maybe the weather.
National Tequila Day
This one just bums me out. This holiday saw a jump in 2020 so I thought we would see another one this year. Nope. I guess there wasn't enough to celebrate this summer. It's a real shame, too. We should have seen a real jump in search interest with more people getting out there and celebrating. I guess not.
What Does It All Mean?
Like I stated, it's hard to predict the future even with strong data to help guide you. People are a fickle bunch and we're still trying to figure out how to interact with each other. The other aspect to ponder is if there is a brand or two who are promoting these food holidays. If there is a big push one year and not the other, search volume can be affected tremendously.
I still think that these national holidays can be owned. We have years worth of data that shows that people want to be part of them. All a brand needs to do is to tap into that potential.
Who knew that International Coffee Day was going to be so big this year?
If you'd like to know how to own these holidays, contact us and we can talk about it more.
