Independence Day’s mid-summer timing makes it the perfect opportunity to break out the barbecue, try out a new recipe, or take a trip somewhere new. As consumers prepare to celebrate the holiday, examining their spending can help brands understand how best to market on social for the holiday.
According to the NRF, consumers’ Fourth of July spending is predominantly on cooking, barbecue, and picnic supplies and foods. Spending on food items for cookouts and picnics for the Fourth of July hit a record high last year, totaling $7.1 billion. They predict that spending will be marginally smaller this year due to the holiday’s mid-week timing, but large spending is still to be expected.
We took a look at what content was successful in everything from brands to publishers, to get those Fourth of July juices flowing.
Fourth of July on Facebook and Instagram
The report covers everything from native content to web mentions of brands, but two of the topics covered are how native content performed on Facebook and Instagram.
Most Facebook native content about the Fourth of July were links and photos. Yet, videos created the most content engagement, even though they only occupied a small fraction of the type of content posted. Following videos, photos took the second largest portion of engagement on Facebook.
The top Fourth of July native Facebook post by Delish was one example of story success for Facebook native content. Combining video storytelling with a topical recipe engaged viewers and generated a leading amount of likes, shares, and views.
On Instagram, meanwhile, the top posts by publishers or brands aligned themselves distinctly with the universal themes of the holiday, from summer celebrations to being grateful. NatGeo’s post explained how to take the best photos of fireworks while GoPro’s post asked “What are you most thankful for?”. These posts connected themselves with the holiday theme in both the photo and the caption, generating a large amount of engagement.
For the full insights you can download the report here.
