Happy Halloween! This year, data geeks can rejoice because “geeky chic” is the top costume of Halloween. According to today’s infographic, the hottest costume in the “geek” category is a costume of the late Apple leader Steve Jobs. A distant, but popular follower, are the Angry Birds characters from mobile tech company Rovio (@AngryBirds).
Author: Amanda Brandon
Spotfire Blogging Team
The data collected in this infographic comes from web analytics firm Webtrends (@Webtrends) as well as from a collection of social data garnered between October 1-24, including Twitter, blogs, online news sites and other social media sources, writes Mashable.com’s senior editor Charlie White (@charlie_white).
Zombies Top “Traditional” Halloween Attire and Rake in $5 Billion/Year
The Walking Dead, a popular series now in its second season on AMC, is an inspiration for one of the most popular Halloween costumes of 2011. Thirty-five percent of “classic costumes” will be zombie-inspired this All Hallow’s Eve. The show is based on a highly popular comic book series by Robert Kirkman (@RobertKirkman). And did you know that zombies have a $5 billion dollar economic impact?
Consumers Go “Gaga” for Pop-Inspired Costumes
With her atypical appearance, pop singer Lady Gaga tops the list of pop-culture inspired costumes and rounds out the data analytics of Halloween costumes.
Trivia Tidbit: Did you know that the tradition of Halloween costumes is thought to stem from the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain? According to History.com, this ancient festival involved bonfires and the wearing of costumes “to ward off roaming ghosts.”
The Analytics of Candy Corn and Other Sweet Treats
The most popular sweet treat of the spookiest night of the year just happens to be candy corn. The tiny kernels are the most popular candy by a long shot – taking 77% of the online mentions.
Chocolate is another Halloween staple, according to our analytics. The chocolate stats are a little less divisive than those without cocoa as a main ingredient. Hershey’s milk chocolate is most popular, followed closely by Snickers and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.
The most “unpopular” candy of Halloween and of all time – peanut butter taffy.
Here is some context around candy analytics not mentioned in the infographic from the Huffington Post:
- Americans consume 158 trillion candy corn per year
- Chocolate sales are at their highest on Halloween at a whopping 90 million pounds
- Halloween candy is a $2 billion money maker and 10% of the candy industry’s annual sales happen this week
Next steps: We’d like to know – do you dress up for Halloween and what’s your favorite Halloween treat? Share in the comments below, subscribe or tweet us.
