Take a moment and picture your favorite Halloween candy — the one you eat out of the bag or bowl before reaching for everything else. (Or maybe you’re one of those disciplined people who parcels your favorite out slowly, piece by piece, or saves it for the end?) Locked in an image of that candy? Good. Okay. So your favorite Halloween candy is …
If you just said “Snickers,” you have a great deal of company. Snickers is the favorite Halloween candy of residents of 23 out of 50 states, making it the top candy-bar pick for nearly half the country, according to new research using search data released by market intelligence and search firm My Telescope.
And if KitKats, Tootsie Rolls or Hershey bars are your favorites, well, you’re not alone there, either. The three candies are battling it out for a distant second, with KitKat and Tootsie Rolls each winning the hearts of six states and Hershey taking five. (Sorry, Butterfinger fans; you’ve thrown your loyalty behind the most searched for candy in only one state: Indiana.)
Baby Ruth, meanwhile, is the least searched-for chocolate by state, according to My Telescope.
And in a head-to-head race for most searches by state, Twix bests Milky Way bars. (Guess people prefer cookie to nougat with their chocolate and caramel.)
The research data is based on a state-by-state breakdown of the top Halloween candies, according to Google search volumes, which are then ranked by Share of Search. (Share of Search measures “the relative interest for a search term in relation to a defined set of search terms” and is used by marketers to provide insight into what brands people prefer and will buy, My Telescope says.)
So which states searched for Snickers the most? That would be (deep breath) Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
Meanwhile, Illinois, Massachusetts, Montana, New Mexico, Ohio and West Virginia were all about the KitKat. Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Maine, North Carolina and South Carolina are loving Tootsie Rolls. And the citizens of Maryland, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and South Dakota have been searching in droves for Hershey’s Chocolate Bars.
Milky Way reigns supreme in Colorado, Connecticut and Idaho. Twix is the top pick in Michigan, Nevada, Virginia and Washington. And Kentucky and Louisiana are holding strong for 3 Musketeers. Oh, and yeah, then there’s Indiana, standing tall and alone for Butterfingers.
Interestingly, Baby Ruth, Reese’s Cups, 100 Grand, Butterfinger, Crunch Bars and Almond Joy were all among the candies that made repeat appearances (in various states) on the least-searched list. Hershey’s bar, Milky Way and Butterfinger were also listed among the least searched in several states.
One person’s favorite is another person’s least favorite — which is what post trick-or-treat trading is all about.