{"id":131661,"date":"2020-08-05T14:48:54","date_gmt":"2020-08-05T13:48:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/?p=131661"},"modified":"2020-08-05T14:50:05","modified_gmt":"2020-08-05T13:50:05","slug":"how-the-health-and-wellbeing-conversation-is-changing-post-lockdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/blog\/how-the-health-and-wellbeing-conversation-is-changing-post-lockdown\/","title":{"rendered":"How the health and wellbeing conversation is changing post-lockdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a guest post from Rick Guttridge, managing director of Smoking Gun<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

After a challenging few months for PR and media professionals in the health and wellbeing sector, opportunity might be on the horizon.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Rick<\/p>\n

Since the late-March lockdown, many brands have been grappling with what they can do to support consumers through the Coronavirus crisis \u2013 and none more so than those in the health and wellbeing space.<\/p>\n

The shifts in consumer behaviour forced by the pandemic are unlike any most of us have seen in our lifetime, and at Smoking Gun we\u2019ve been doing some analysis that\u2019s revealed a lasting change in how people view their health and fitness \u2013 which could mean the biggest opportunity to engage with consumers is ahead of us.<\/p>\n

We analysed 8 million social media posts from January to July this year to understand exactly what people think and feel about lockdown life, how this has impacted attitudes and behaviours towards health and wellbeing, and what the opportunities are for brands as we move into the recovery phase.<\/p>\n

We found that since lockdown, positive conversation around health and fitness goals smashed the traditional January and February peak, rising by more than 60% in March and April. Fitness discussion remained 50% higher in May, June and July too, suggesting a more lasting change than the New Year fads.<\/p>\n

Discussion of health and fitness goals were two-thirds men and one-third women. And as social chatter around alcohol was 13% lower than talk about exercise, it appears the nation was reaching for its running shoes more than it was reaching for the bottle.<\/p>\n

What does this mean for PR professionals?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

While January is the time when most of us capitalise on the thirst for self improvement, our data suggests lockdown has given us the time to realistically reflect and take action on our own wellness \u2013 far outrunning the quick burnout of the \u2018new year, new you\u2019 period.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s evident that lockdown is bringing about a long-term shift in how people set and consider their health and exercise goals. Nobody wants to lose their health gains as lockdown eases, so brands that can support consumers to continue to achieve their goals year-round will win hearts and minds. Comms pros need to be quick to recognise this and shift their campaign planning accordingly.<\/p>\n

What other health and wellbeing trends did the data reveal?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Social media discussion around #wellbeing rose dramatically in the weeks after lockdown and continues to run at historically high levels. In particular, the data showed a dramatic increase in people using fitness apps \u2013 more so than in January \u2013 presenting a huge opportunity for fitness tech brands to tap into a much bigger audience.<\/p>\n

The NHS\u2019 \u2018Couch to 5k\u2019 exercise programme was a big success and this interest continued into July. Social posts about this soared, particularly among women who dominated two-thirds of this particular discussion. There was not a single day during lockdown when volumes did not exceed the highest daily totals recorded in January.<\/p>\n

Positive social media conversation around cycling also peaked, including those planning cycling trips once restrictions relax.<\/p>\n

In terms of our mental wellbeing, the so-called \u2018snowflake\u2019 millennial generation proved their resilience, displaying shrinking levels of \u2018anger\u2019 and \u2018mistrust\u2019 and growing levels of emotions such as \u2018joy\u2019 as the lockdown went on and they adapted to the \u2018new normal\u2019 – even finding silver linings.<\/p>\n

What can we take from this as we move through the next few months?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Lockdown has created a desire for personal improvement that won\u2019t fade quickly. The pandemic has shrunk people\u2019s reference points \u2013 how a brand can impact \u2018me and my world\u2019 will be more of a focus than ever before.<\/p>\n

The context for all of this is time \u2013 the majority of people had more time to look after their health in lockdown, so they did and continue to do so. This creates habit and new behaviours over time. There is an opportunity for brands to support the continuation of this as the \u2018old normal\u2019 returns, and help satisfy the appetite to keep hold of the positives that rose from such a terrible time.<\/p>\n

You can read more about Smoking Gun\u2019s insights on the impact of lockdown life on our health and wellbeing here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a challenging few months for PR and media professionals in the health and wellbeing sector, opportunity might be on the horizon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":423,"featured_media":131714,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7365,7272,3725,3729],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131661"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/423"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131661"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":131710,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131661\/revisions\/131710"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}