Data on the social media marketing strategies used by fast-food chains present in four Latin American countries during the COVID-19 lockdowns

Due to the pandemic COVID-19 and its possible contribution to the unhealthy food environment, we sought to design and validate a methodology for monitoring and evaluating the social media marketing strategies of multinational fast-food chains in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Two phases of this objective were developed: first, a random sample of posts was analyzed qualitatively to examine COVID-19 related content. In the second stage, a quantitative content analysis tool was developed based on the existing literature, and the results obtained during the first stage of qualitative analysis. This tool was used to analyze the entire sample of posts extracted from the Facebook pages of five selected fast-food brands present in the four countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Guatemala, and Peru. This tool was validated and statistical analysis was applied to identify which of the variables could be recommended for use in a similar study. Statistical analysis showed that advertising techniques changed in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. We found new advertising techniques after social distancing measures were implemented, which were also the most used by the fast-food chains included in our study. These techniques are references to domesticity, hashtags or connective tags specific to COVID-19, references to safety and sanitation rules and measures, and mentions to change/ adaptation. The fast-food chains in the 4 countries used similar marketing strategies on Facebook.