With less than a month to go until Christmas, a combination of topical sport and seasonal shopping have increased engagement with related content across Ozone’s Audience Connection Platform.
Ashes fires Cricket
The return of The Ashes delivered a 3.5x rise in Cricket engagement as England kicked off their opening test against Australia in Perth. The promise of an England fightback was thwarted by a dominant display by the hosts.
In Formula 1, up 2.2x, drama at the 2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix – which was won by Max Verstappen and saw a duel disqualification for McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri – means the race for the 2025 championship will go down to the wire. Expect auto racing fans to lap up coverage of the season’s final two races.
Music mourns Mani
Music fans mourned the passing of Gary ‘Mani’ Mounfield, the former bass player for seminal 1990s bands The Stone Roses and Primal Scream.
Engagement with the Rock and Alternative Music topics within the Music & Audio category increased 47% and 11% respectively, as musicians, critics and fans alike mourned the musician.
Speculation about the identity of UK rapper EsDeeKid – with many believing it to be Hollywood actor Timothée Chalamet – drove a 12% rise in Hip Hop Music page views.
Spotlight in Men’s Health
Men’s health issues have been in the news this month as Movember, the moustache-growing campaign, continues.
In the past week, former UK Prime Minister revealed his own prostate cancer diagnosis and has called on more targeted screening for me.
As a result, engagement with the Prostate Cancer topic in the Medical Health category increased significantly, up 12x on last week. Page views for Men’s Health content, from the Healthy Living category, grew 30%.
Sales & Promotions surge
Black Friday and Cyber Monday momentum continues to build, with Sales & Promotions up 12% and Ecommerce up 28%.
Engagement is shifting toward deal-seeking and gift-buying behaviours with key women’s gifting categories seeing the sharpest lifts. Women’s Jewellery & Watches surged 2x, Women’s Accessories climbed 66%, and Makeup & Accessories rose 95%. These spikes highlight strong demand for beauty, fashion and luxury items as consumers get ahead on Christmas gifting and take advantage of price drops.
Arts dances up
With panto season almost upon us and the best of the festive season’s culture events to look forward to next month, Arts & Culture engagement is climbing. Overall category page views increased by 23% week on week.
Topics including Dance, up by more than a third, and Opera, for those with more refined festive tastes, increased by 3.3x. From the Events & Attractions category, engagement with Festive Events content is on the rise. Page views increased 43% last week as planning for fun things to do during the season of goodwill continues.
At home growth builds
Last week’s cold snap boosted Weather page views 22% and kept UK audiences firmly indoors, driving a notable shift towards home-based, cosy activities. Some started the festive season early choosing to put up christmas trees and decorations which saw DIY engagement spike more than 3x and Interior Decorating up 7%.
In the kitchen, Desserts & Baking (+14%) and Cooking (+16%) rose as audiences leaned into comfort food and warm seasonal recipes. In December 2024, Food & Drink engagement boiled over month on month, rising 22%.
