How Jubilee Fever Spread Across The World: An Investigation

At the beginning of June, The Queen celebrated her Platinum Jubilee, marking 70 years on the throne. 

While we all saw Jubilee mania taking over here in the UK, we were curious to see which other parts of the world were celebrating Her Majesty’s milestone. This led us to spend the Jubilee weekend doing in-depth research into Google trend data for the word “Jubilee”, and we quickly saw that the USA, Canada and Australia were among the global hotspots for interest. 

But there were so many searches in each of those countries that we decided to break it down further… which parts of the USA, Canada and Australia were most Jubilee-obsessed? 

Let’s find out (with some cool interactive infographics along the way!):

The USA saw a total 1.9 million Google searches for the word “Jubilee” in the month prior to the celebration!

According to our research, the top 5 Jubilee-obsessed states were:

• Virginia
• Washington, D.C.
• Alabama
• Vermont
• Connecticut

North Dakota came in last, but we did find out that the Jubilee happened to clash with free fishing weekend. Perhaps the people of the Flickertail State really had just gone fishing?

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Canada, who, as part of the Commonwealth, are a constitutional monarchy and also call Elizabeth II their Queen, racked up an impressive 227,000 searches for the word “Jubilee” in the run-up to the milestone.

We found that the top 3 areas of Canada for Jubilee interest were: 

• Newfoundland and Labrador
• Nova Scotia
• New Brunswick

Yukon Province, Nunavut and the Northwest Territories tied for last with zero searches.

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Australia, much like Canada, is a constitutional monarchy within the Commonwealth, meaning that HM The Queen is also Queen of Australia. The land down under soared above most of the world when it came to Jubilee interest, seeing over 200,000 searches.

Over the Jubilee weekend, the top 3 areas of Australia for Jubilee interest were:

• Tasmania
• Western Australia
• Australian Capital Territory

It seems Australia as a whole was joining in the Jubilee celebrations, as the Northern Territory came in last, but still had almost half of the number of searches seen in Tasmania! 

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At first glance, this data appears to show that people around the world were understandably interested in a bit of good news in the middle of a global slump. 

The Jubilee was, to our knowledge, the biggest global event and therefore the biggest in-person celebration since the pandemic began. 

And with coronavirus, conflicts and a cost of living crisis looming over us, it makes sense that people were interested in a weekend of festivity, pomp and ceremony.

It could also be argued that this shows the global relevance of the monarchy, and more broadly, the UK, is greater than we realise!

However, taking into consideration which nations came out on top, there is a very different message: one about implicit egotism, the theory that people have an unconscious bias for things they associate with themselves. 

It is likely no coincidence that all three of these countries are English-speaking countries with historic links and similar demographics to the UK. 

Even on a more specific level, Virginia, the number one US state for Jubilee interest, got its name from Queen Elizabeth I, known as the Virgin Queen – a strong link to British royalty appears to have translated directly into Jubilee fever!

For us, as a marketing consultancy, this realisation drove home a point that can be all too easily looked over in marketing, PR and communications. The importance of relevance to your target audience. 

In marketing, whether we are creating social media content, pitching to the media or running a digital campaign, it is vitally important that we remember the human tendency towards implicit egotism. This allows us to make sure that every detail of our work is tailored to the person it’s intended to appeal to, ensuring a personal and effective strategy for every project.

And, of course, the key takeaway from this investigation: not even The Queen can get in the way of free fishing in North Dakota.