In this week’s episode, Katie and Chris look at the use of predictive analytics to forecast trends and learn when to put marketing campaigns into market. They examine some of the data around pumpkin spice season as well as other seasonal trends. Ever wonder when the best time is to put a seasonal campaign into market? Tuen in to find out!

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In this week’s episode, it is August 2022, as we record this episode, and one of the most polarizing search trends is just getting kicked off.

And that search trend is people talking about the pumpkin spice latte and all things pumpkin spice, one of the more amusing data dives that we do every single year.

And today, what we wanted to talk about was, how do you leverage seasonal data like this particularly using predictive analytics, especially if you run the risk of, of potentially being late.

So before we dive in, I wanted to show you quickly what we see in our data using forecasting software using predictive analytics software.

For a basket of terms around pumpkin spice.

Here, we see all of the major terms and this is logarithmically scaled.

So we see pumpkin spice is that the top term there, Pumpkin Spice Latte recipe pumpkin spice cream, if I simplify it into one line, right now, August 7, the week of August 7, the search is just beginning next week, the August 14, your search volume almost doubles and so on, so forth, until you get to August 28.

And September 4, those weeks are when pumpkin spice fever is at its highest.

And it doesn’t drop off until really December, when it goes back to normal.

So Katie, when you see data like this trends that are forecast like this, what should marketers be thinking about? And for those folks who are in say, the food beverage industry? Is it too late? Or have they got some time to scramble?

You know, when I look at this, the first thing that occurs to me is Is it a regional thing? So for example, pumpkin spice being something that’s very popular during the fall months, well, what if you live somewhere where the seasons don’t change as much? So Chris, you and I are based in New England.

And so we have the traditional fall where the you know, people go leaf peeping, and they drink their pumpkin spice lattes, and, you know, where they’re, you know, down vests and their black leggings and their whatnots.

And so, my first question when I look at this is, is it the same for every major region of the area that I’m covering from my marketing.

So if you’re covering Uni