Cooking videos — a delicacy few can resist. Watching one is almost as filling as the dish itself. Almost.
Food videos on social video platforms range from gourmet cuisine to total science experiments. (Pizadella, anyone? Holy heartburn!) Most of the hype is focused on social video rockstars like Tastemade, BuzzFeed’s Tasty, and First Media’s So Yummy.
Each of these creators draws billions upon billions of views a year and routinely partner with top food and beverage brands like Pillsbury, Oscar Mayer, and Captain Morgan.
But one look at Tubular’s food leaderboards reveals an underutilized opportunity for brands: Spanish- and Portuguese-language food videos are hot right now!
Spanish and Portuguese creators’ cooking videos are innovative, their ingredients unique, and they’re engaging millions of viewers monthly. Brands can both learn from and partner with these top publishers and influencers to reach new audiences in both the U.S. and across the globe.
Have we sparked your appetite? Claro! Napkins on your laps, folks. Let’s digest some data trends.
- The content is there! More than 3.4M food videos were uploaded to social video in the past 365 days. Among those uploaded, 10% were in Spanish (349K) and 7% were in Portuguese (238K).
- The views are pouring in. The highest-performing Spanish language publishers include Kiwilimon (ranked #6 cross-platform global food & drink creator in July 2019), Riquísimo (#14), and Bien Tasty (#20).
- The majority of Spanish-language food videos are viewed in Mexico and Central America, but a sizable audience chunk is also in the United States. For example, 62% of Kiwilimon’s viewers hail from Mexico and 16% are based in the U.S.
- The top Portuguese-language creators include Tata Pereira (#15), Tastemade Brasil (#16), and Chefclub Brasil (#21).
Top Trends in Spanish-Language Cooking Videos: Te Amo, Gelatina!
The top-performing videos for Spanish food recipes showcase dishes that are replicable but still full of fiesta flair:
- The dinners are quick & easy (muy fácil).
- The desserts don’t require an oven (sin horno).
- The methods are innovative (like Riquísimo’s porcupine chicken, cooked with toothpicks. Weird, but the result is super bueno!).
- And the recipes integrate regional ingredients (like Kiwilimon’s horchata cheesecake and Bien Tasty’s yuca pancakes).
But the surefire ticket to social video success? The gelatin mold!
Among Kiwilimon’s top 10 most-viewed cooking videos in 2019, four featured gelatin! The most-viewed clip boasted a mosaic gelatin delight which amassed 30M views and 654K engagements (297K of which were shares alone).
https://www.facebook.com/kiwilimon/videos/2208731812713966/?v=2208731812713966
For this top video and many others, Kiwilimon integrated Spanish and English into its on-screen text. It’s simple to do, guarantees a more global reach, and indicates you don’t have to launch a foreign-language vertical to expand your linguistic reach. The proof is in the gelatin.
Recetas Nestlé, the food brand’s Mexico vertical, also hit the jackpot with its mosaic gelatin recipe. But the brand added its own twist: using lactose-free milk. This artful dessert is Nestlé’s most-viewed Spanish-language recipe video ever, with 18.5M Facebook views and 856K engagements.
The Skinny on Spanish Food Video Sponsorships
The most-watched sponsored Spanish recipe video in 2019 was also a sugar-rush sensation. This Tastemade Español video reveals how to make fried ice cream with Bimbo’s crustless bread (5M views and 26.4K engagements).
https://www.facebook.com/TastemadeEs/videos/2456066608013869/?v=2456066608013869
Other big sponsors in the Spanish-language recipe space include Kiwilimon’s partnerships with Carbonell and McCormick Mexico, and Bien Tasty’s team-up with San Rafael Delicatessen, each leading to millions of collective views.
The field seems ripe for more partnerships, specifically for food and beverage companies making a bigger push into multinational markets.
Yo Quiero Engagements!
In general, Spanish-language videos are engagement powerhouses. The vast majority take the form of Facebook shares followed by likes.
Mexico-based Kiwilimon had standout months in both March and April this year, keeping pace with Buzzfeed’s Tasty in that two-month span.
Kiwilimon generated a total of 192.4Mengagements across platforms in 2019 thus far. For benchmarking purposes, So Yummy garnered 91.3M engagements and #1 food publisher Tasty’s English vertical generated 297.4M engagements in the past 90 days.
Top Portuguese-Language Food Trends in Video
The top-performing Portuguese-language recipe videos lean heavily on traditional fare such as:
- Tastemade Brasil’s Moqueca Rápida de Camarão (Brazilian shrimp stew). With 5.6M Facebook views, it’s the publisher’s most-watched video of 2019.
- Tasty Demais’s Quatro brigadeiros fáceis puts a modern twist on the traditional Brazilian truffle. With 6.4M views and 267K engagements on Facebook, it’s the publisher’s most-watched and engaging video of 2019.
- Tata Pereira’s Almoço completo (translation: full lunch) grills up Brazil’s famous linguiça sausages. Tão bom!
But the top sponsored videos are all things modern (brought to you by Oreo, which is betting big on Brasil!).
https://www.facebook.com/tastemadebr/videos/2370951562960861/?v=2370951562960861
Tastemade Brasil and Oreo teamed up this year to produce a series of Portuguese-language cooking videos that integrate the beloved snack into regional favorites.
Tastemade Brasil baked the cookies into pavê, a traditional no-bake Brazilian layer cake (2M views and 115K engagements on Facebook), cooked-up some Brazilian Pipoca with crushed-up Oreo toppings (611K views and 20K engagements on Facebook), and made Brigadeirão de Oreo.
For more foreign language video trends, read Top Videos from Some of the Most Popular Languages
How to Use Data to Optimize Foreign-Language Food Videos
Regional viewing habits vary just as much as one’s palate.
After analyzing data from the top four performing Spanish-language recipe creators, we’ve determined the most-watched videos have the following attributes:
- On Facebook, they run 1-2m and are uploaded on Fridays (followed closely by Mondays).
- On YouTube, they run 2-5m and are uploaded on Wednesday or Thursday.
- On Instagram, they run 30s-1m. Upload day doesn’t appear to make a difference.
Amongst the top four performing Portuguese-language recipe creators, the most-watched videos:
- Run 1-2m and are uploaded on Tuesdays on Facebook.
- Run 5-10m and are uploaded on Mondays on YouTube.
- Run 30s-1m (followed closely by 0s-30s) and weekdays are the optimal day to upload on Instagram.
But Wait, There’s More: En Français, S’il Vous Plaît?
When it comes to overall food videos assessed by views, another language takes the cake: French.
ChefClub’s recipe called “La patate omelette” (aka potatoes stuffed with eggs) became a viral success this year.
https://www.facebook.com/Chefclub.tv/videos/618510105271092/?v=618510105271092
It’s the 15th most-viewed video in 2019 so far in the entire food & drink genre and 6th most-engaged video. The clip has 78.5M views and 2.1M engagements on Facebook.
French-based ChefClub may not hit the top 10 on global food leaderboards but it’s pas mal at generating viral success.
The “La patate omelette” video was repurposed with Spanish captions (Papas rellenas) for Chefclub’s Mexico vertical, earning an additional 30.8M views and 1.6M engagements on Facebook and with Portuguese captions (Batatas explosivas) for its Chefclub Brasil vertical, garnering 21.1M views and 973K engagements on Facebook.
Also topping the most-engaged videos list is Chefclub Mexico’s “Omelette en cansata,” essentially bread with an egg cooked in (56M views and 2.1M engagements on Facebook).
https://www.facebook.com/chefclubtvmexico/videos/384068802324245/?v=384068802324245
Noticing an obvious trend here? Audiences are hungry for omelette recipes! But that’s just part of the puzzle.
It doesn’t matter the language, nor the country. Universally, people have strong opinions about food prep, specifically when it comes to everyday cuisine.
Consider the great pea controversy of 2015 when the internet went bonkers over a New York Times recipe that combined peas and guacamole. Even then-President Obama weighed in on the atrocity.
The takeaway here is to focus editorially on household recipes that people grew up preparing and offer a totally shocking twist on it in your cooking videos.
Any time you can insert your brand into a great food debate, views and engagements soar, no matter the language. The key is figuring out just the right buttons to push.
Hmm. Gelatin Oreo omelettes, anyone?
If you still have a hankering for food content, we’ve got the right report for you: