Analyzing Snack Food Data
In our previous post, we talked about data, food, and the Super Bowl. We found so much data about our eating habits during the Super Bowl that we decided to share more of what we found. This is all for good fun, and since the usefulness of data is limited only by the imagination of the individual user, we decided to just go with it. Whether you are a business professional, or just another consumer, data like this is what attracts consumers, and creates purchasing power.
You know that people eat more food on Super Bowl Sunday than any other day of the year except Thanksgiving, but how much exactly? How about 30 million pounds of just snack food! The average Super Bowl watchers will consume about 1,200 calories just during the game! If you added that up by state, California will eat over 35 billion calories!
Loosen That Belt
Such consistent consumption figures for junk food during the Super Bowl seems a little surprising. While some of us may have assumed lettuce wraps would dominate Californian preferences, and likewise with Pizza in New York, and BBQ in Texas, some data indicates that the chicken wing is king during the Super Bowl.
So how is any of this helpful? I’m sure your local gym is preparing guilt-inducing post-game campaign right now to capitalize on any pre-game indiscretions. Have you been to your local grocery store? I’m sure you’ve had enough samples to count for a dozen Super Bowl parties. Data can drive a business’s decisions on when to market a product, where to market it, and how to target their ideal consumer.
Direct mail will provide you with coupons while email marketing campaigns will bring you the hottest deals to your inbox. What that means in terms of how these interpretations might impact your buying behavior, or your business would have to be taken case by case. Whatever the case you’re now armed with the information, even if this has been nothing more than an amusing thought experiment.
For a little more fun, in case you want to make your own comparisons, here’s an infographic of caloric intake data for Super Bowl Sunday. Maybe do some analysis, and see how many of your friends contribute to the consumption number for your state. If you decide to go all out and party til you drop, don’t feel too bad about missing work the next day, you are not alone. More than 1.5 million people will call in sick, and more than three times that will be late.
