Covid-19 has had a great impact on changing consumer behavior within past few months. Shift towards online shopping has accelerated and new items are in demand. People are changing what, when and how they are buying. We compared the interest now to the time before the crises.

We in Dentsu Aegis Network with our experts from digital performance agency iProspect have done some research with the help of Google Trends and here are the findings what impact Covid-19 has on the market trends in Croatia.

From our data finding it is clear this time has made people to take better care of themselves. Different sports equipment’s, diets like ketogenic dieting, home deliveries and obviously safety related items are surging now.

Croatians started to bake more

We can see a big impact of Covid-19 on fruit and vegetables searches as people have been paying more attention to healthy foods in the period. No surprise, there is also a big interest in corona beer as Covid-19 is widely known as corona.

There is a huge 450% jump in interest for yeast which was sold out in the most markets and it wasn`t available for some time as the period of isolation has increased home baking, and particularly sourdough bread baking. Similarly, there is an interest in products which can last for longer time or that are necessity like bread, butter, tuna, oil, sugar etc.

We can see a raise in interest in other basic and necessary food products like eggs, pasta, bananas, yogurt etc. Regarding drinks, there is increased interest in coffee, water, alcoholic drinks, sweet drinks like Coca-Cola and energy drinks as well.

Trampoline is the sport equipment of the corona time

With Corona there came a giant increase in interest for trampolines! Although the searches for trampolines naturally increases in spring, we have the all-time high interest for trampoline now and rise of 1.250 %. Also following the global popularity in the time of the isolation, bicycles have risen in trends a lot, +250% from last spring.

String trimmers and mowers could also be explained because of the spring, but it is also higher demand than usual seasoned peak.

Logically, there is huge demand for face masks, toilet papers and lightbulbs.

As people have been spending so much time at home with their families, there are also family games like Monopoly which has doubled its searches in this time. There is also a higher interest for games like belote cards and also Playstation is rising in popularity.

Work & football interested Croatians

Despite the obvious trending topics like disinfection, delivery, digital television, diet or online shopping, the interesting trending topic is interest in the Microsoft teams, a common platform for video meetings and keeping up with colleagues while working remotely. Companies are in need to stay connected and for many, this was the first encountering with the Teams app.

Also due to corona, different deliveries are trending, as well as all items related to being safe in the time of Covid-19, like masks, hand sanitizers and hand washing.

The most interesting trending topic is interest in one country and that is Belarus. That can be explained by the fact that Belarus was the only country in Europe which didn`t stop the professional football and Belarus also had political line of denying the virus is exists in the country and that might have been interesting to many.

We also looked at more fuller queries Croatians have typed into Google and found interesting subjects. There is major jump in searches for Sport tv because all the professional sport around the globe was stopped and people have desire to watch sport matches, even the replays of sport matches. Also, there is huge increase for drugs for flu and antiseptic healing cream for babies. Again, we can see a huge interest in Microsoft`s products – Office 365.

In these queries we can again see confirmation for trending topics and products as we can see queries like fruit & vegetables delivery, corona beer, how to make bread, fitness equipment, workout at home, games etc.

We also looked at what kind of brands have been trending in this time: they are related to online food shopping, delivery business and telecommunications. All this companies have products or services with high demand especially during the lockdown and restricted mobility. 

5G conspiracies also of interest in Croatia

In the time of coronavirus crises, there has also been widespread global rumors and conspiracy theories around the source of the virus. One popular, and false theory has been around 5G technology and that it could have something to do with the spread of the virus. It is due to Wuhan in China, the origin of Covid-19 in the fall of 2019, is the one of the cities where 5G networks have been activated among other like Beijing. The spread of the rumor has also in Europe caused people to terrorize 5G masts.

In Croatia, the term 5G has risen approximately 600% this spring.

Best Regards,

Domagoj Hren

Pay Per Click Account Manager, Digital Solutions

iProspect, a Dentsu Aegis Network company