August Recipe Wrap-Up
Welcome back to Chicory’s Monthly Recipe Wrap-Up! We tap into our network of 5,200+ food publishers to understand how consumers are engaging with and viewing recipe content week-by-week - arming CPG brands and agencies with the right insights to tap into audience mindsets, reach inspired consumers, and plan their next contextual commerce media campaign.
Let’s uncover key patterns, trending ingredients, and popular recipes from August, and see how we can become your trusted partner in building a contextual commerce strategy.
Insight #1: Salmon Summer
In August, salmon recipes were the go-to for consumers looking for online seafood recipes. In fact, recipes that featured salmon as the main ingredient accounted for three of the five most viewed seafood recipes in August.
Interestingly enough, as we pointed out in this year’s edition of The State of Online Recipes, The “Best Easy Healthy Baked Salmon” recipe is in the running of the top used recipes in our publisher network in 2024. Other top recipes include “Green Bean Casserole” and “Oven-Roasted Asparagus.”
Other top seafood proteins in the month include shrimp and crab.
Takeaway
For most of the year, baked salmon is and will continue to be the top seafood recipe consumers use. The fact that the recipe itself is “Best Easy Healthy Baked Salmon” provides a number of avenues for brands to contextually target consumers.
Keywords like “Best” indicate quality. This is an effective launching point for highlighting quality ingredients that could be featured alongside this online recipe page. This is similar to “Healthy”, which points to an evergreen demand in recipes and ingredients that help consumers meet their health goals. “Easy” recipes can serve as effective environments to showcase products and ingredients that are simple to prep and time-savers for consumers.
Ultimately, these keywords help tap into the mindset audiences take on when landing on one of these online recipe pages. It’s critical that brands and agencies are aware of the variety of mindsets high-intent audiences have, and to shape their targeting strategies accordingly.
Insight #2: Ice Cream Still Going Strong
We’re at the tail end of summer. Dessert recipes and sweets tend to see changes season-to-season. To no one’s surprise, cold desserts like ice cream are leveraged the most during the hotter summer months vs. the winter.
Let’s see which ice cream variants have been the most popular in August.
Takeaway
Ice cream’s dominance in the summer might seem like options for contextual targeting are limited. However, when we take a closer look, we can see there’s plenty of room to leverage the variety of seasonal flavors the ice cream recipes offer.
The fact that variations like strawberry, orange, and banana all were amongst the highest searched ice cream flavors in August presents a prime opportunity for brands and agencies looking to align with seasonal flavors and in-season produce as we approach the end of summer 2024.
Insight #3: Lunch Trends
In August, sandwiches and salads were the go-to for consumers looking for online lunch recipes. In fact, sandwiches accounted for three of the five most viewed dinner recipes in August.
Takeaway
Lunch, interestingly enough, sees fairly dramatic changes depending on the time of year. While lighter meals like sandwiches and salads see high usage in the summer, colder months see hot dishes like soup leveraged exceedingly more.
Being on top of when specific recipes do well throughout the year is a foundational step for CPG brands and agencies looking to shape their future targeting strategy.
While meals like breakfast might stay more stable throughout the year, other meals will be greatly impacted by the seasons they fall under. This everchanging audience mindset needs to be taken into consideration when shaping any targeting strategy.
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