The Great British Bake Off & Social Media #GBBO
It’s back! A television series that’s as British as afternoon tea will return to our screens this evening. The bake off is back and already Twitter is flooded with tweets #GBBO. But what is the connection between The Great British Bake Off & Social Media?
Initially, a series broadcast by the BBC, The Bake Off is a competitive baking contest, now hosted by Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith. Over 10 weeks we see a number of amateur bakers enter the now famous, bake off tent, to cook up challenging creations in order to survive a weekly elimination.
(In case you had forgotten, last year’s GBBO was won by Rahul)
After 7 years the show was purchased by Channel 4 for £75 million and everyone wondered if the series would ever be the same! The show’s finale in 2018 had a peak viewing audience of around 8 million. A few million short of the BBC’s finale ratings, which reached around 14 million in 2016. But, despite this series being TV-based, it has also found great success on social media, in particular Twitter.
The Bake Off Hashtag
You may have noticed, when watching a programme on television, or even whilst watching the news, a hashtag often pops up at the bottom of the screen. The 10 pm weather reporters on Channel 4 often encourages viewers to follow them on Twitter after every report. It’s a way of cross-connecting media. You can comment on your favourite shows as they are broadcast live on TV.
Now, to some readers, this may sound completely ludicrous. Why sit reading the opinions of others whilst watching your favourite show? And yes, you would be right. But in many ways it’s similar to discussing the events of the show to your friends at the office. Potentially thousands of people commenting on the major plot switch, the devastation of a key character being killed off or commenting on how the show has gone downhill.
This is no different for the Bake Off. If you use the hashtag, #GBBO, on the run-up to the event or during the event, you will see 1,000s of updates from Twitter users.
For many users Twitter is the first place they check for news reports, so if you want the latest news regarding your favourite show, try Twitter.
As well as seeing real-time updates and developments, it’s a hive of entertainment!
Who could forget the baked Alaska scandal of 2015? As well as hundreds of tweets, memes, gifs and hilarious captions started emerging. Fueled by real-time engagement.
And of course, being a terribly British show. No saucy remark goes unnoticed! In fact, Mary Berry’s famed ‘no soggy bottoms’ remark is somewhat legendary!
But by far, the most scandalous GBBO event took place in 2017. The first year Channel 4 broadcast the show, everything had to be perfect. It was all going so well until Prue had a chardonnay or two and accidentally revealed the show’s winner hours before it was aired!
How can my business jump on the #GBBO bandwagon?
We always encourage businesses to be social online. Getting involved in conversations and interacting with your audience on a conversation level is always well received. A business that does this particularly well is Innocent. The drinks company is well known for its witty remarks to real-world events.
Of course, businesses within the food industry can really make the most of the UK wide phenomenon. But you don’t have to make these interactions sales orientated. Engage with your audience, ask questions, use the hashtag or even host your own office bake-off competition and document your creations on Twitter.
Creating your own hashtag
If you don’t think the GBBO hashtag is your style, why not opt for your own? It can be campaign based or used to promote a new product and document its launch. Or it can be challenge-based like the Ice Bucket Challenge, Mannequin Challenge or more recently, the Bottle Cap Challenge. They’re not necessarily business orientated but you get the idea!
There’s nothing saying you can’t create your own hashtags to work alongside real-world events such as the World Cup or Olympics. It’s a way of creating another talking point, another point of conversation and a way to engage with your customers on a more colloquial level.
If you’re a bake-off fan or just intrigued by how the hashtag works, tune in to tonight’s show and monitor the updates on Twitter! The Lucky 6 Marketing team will be facing weekly bake off challenges so as a minimum you can interact with us!
Do you have a #GreatHashtagIdea that you would like to discuss? Tweet us and let us know!
