Influencer Spotlight: Binging With Babish
In honor of Thanksgiving and all the delicious food that comes with it, we’re doing a quick profile on food influencer Andrew Rea, the chef and filmmaker behind “Binging With Babish,” using insights from influencer marketing platform CreatorIQ.
As Rea describes it on his website, “Binging with Babish is a cooking show dedicated to discovering what the delectable (and occasionally horrible) foods from fiction actually taste like.” From sandwiches inspired by Twin Peaks and 30 Rock to meat-loaded meals from Parks and Rec, Rea’s approach to food and helping people whip up new dishes is definitely unique — and utterly delightful.
As do many influencers, Rea partners with brands for some of his videos. Earlier this month, he worked with Blue Moon to cook up a unique Thanksgiving feast that was live-streamed on Nov. 19. Another important part of the holidays are special cocktails; in this post, sponsored by Makers Mark, Rea shows off a few of his new concoctions. And for the chronic procrastinators out there, on Thanksgiving Eve he posted a “Last-Minute Thanksgiving” on YouTube, promising a full meal with only four hours of work. As of this writing, it's had more than 203K views and it's only been live for a few hours.
Key Stats and Audience Demographics
Although Rea has over 8.2 million subscribers on YouTube, according to CreatorIQ, his highest engagement rate comes from Instagram (6.56% with 930.4K followers, which CreatorIQ classifies as “excellent”); on YouTube, it’s 4.88% (“good”). This is notable because most of Rea’s actual cooking videos live either on YouTube or his website, but he promotes them heavily on Instagram.
Although it could be easy to assume that a food-focused influencer would appeal more to women, over 62% of Rea’s audience is male. The largest age group is 25-34 years old, and 60% of his followers come from the U.S.
Unsurprisingly, restaurants, food & grocery is the top interest category for Rea’s audience, followed by television & film, camera & photography and friends, family & relationships. Clearly his audience knows what he’s all about and is here for it.
But there’s a different story on the brand side. The only food-related brand to make the top ten list was Starbucks, at No. 3. Walt Disney and Apple took first and second places, respectively, and gaming-related brands such as Pokemon and Activision Blizzard are also top of mind for Rea’s followers.
As a huge fan of both food and TV/movies, I was thrilled to discover Binging with Babish, and just in time to try his recipes out over the holiday weekend. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!