Dive Brief:
- Social media site Pinterest is a haven for content sharing food and beverage photos, recipes and recommendations between consumers and brands alike. The site can also offer manufacturers additional benefits around the holidays, according to Food Business News.
- Pinterest reported a 24% increase in holiday food and drink pins this year, reflecting popular trends like cookie exchanges, trifle desserts, breakfast casseroles and Mexican hot chocolate, Stephanie Kumar, Pinterest's head of category insights, told Food Business News. Christmas-themed snacks soared by 60% year over year on the platform.
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Some of the top trends include food using traditional, nostalgic ingredients with a surprising twist, and foods that are easy to prepare but still eye-catching conversation starters. There are also many prevalence of gluten-free, dairy-free and vegan recipes.
Dive Insight:
Millennials are an active Pinterest demographic, with the site reaching one out of every two in the age group, Kumar said. She credits millennials' interest and their disruptive preferences to the site's ability to track "very unique, nascent trends" in food and beverage, the platform's top category.
Many of these Pinterest foods and beverages are homemade creations meant to entice and inspire other users, but manufacturers and retailers can find inspiration to apply to their own holiday-themed products. Manufacturers and retailers can use Pinterest to identify these ingredient trends as well as common recipe ideas, such as breakfast casseroles. This could inspire the creation of prepared or RTE products consumers can purchase at the store and easily make for their own holiday parties at home.
Aside from product development, manufacturers and retailers also use Pinterest to connect with consumers from a marketing perspective. Brands can share photos of or recipes using their products to generate interest around a particular product, category or trend.