Lockdown polls on Twitter

Updated: 16 April 2023

When New Zealand went into a Level 4 lockdown late in March 2020, I took to Twitter and created a “World Cup” of pie flavours where people could vote for their favourites and there would be an eventual winner. I had the idea some time earlier when I was in Patrick’s Pies and saw their vast range of pie flavours. (image at the end of this article).

The poll pitted the 31 pie flavours and a sausage roll against each other in a knockout format, the winner of each tie decided by the people of Twitter until a winner was found. Within a few hours of the first round going live, it had gone crazy and the votes (and comments) were pouring in.

The poll ran for a few days and eventually “Steak & Cheese” was declared the winner - after 28,076 votes were cast. With most people locked down, there was a huge appetite for some light relief so of course I was asked what my next poll would be about. It was ice cream flavours - 2 litre tubs only.



This one was even bigger resulting in 2000+ votes on the hotly contested Hokey Pokey v Boysenberry Ripple semi-final and almost 45,000 votes in total. Meanwhile my total of Twitter followers went up very fast from around 600 - I had been on Twitter around a decade by that point - and by the end of lockdown I was over 2,000 followers.

I appeared on TV1 Breakfast for an interview with John Campbell (who was later to feature as the winner of a poll) and also on Radio New Zealand.

I continued the polls until we came out of Level 4 a month later - 9 polls in all culminating in NZ’s favourite takeaway concluding the day before takeaways opened up again to the public. I continued with the polls whenever the country (or part of it) went into lockdown. The poll on worst NZ town slogan featured on The Project on TV3.

Since restrictions were lightened and then lifted, polls have taken place from time to time.

Twitter recently announced that only verified users will be able to vote in polls - verified means paying for Twitter and so I will be running no more Twitter polls in the future if this change is made.

Results of all polls are shown below - total of votes after 32 polls is 1,011,196.

  • 28,076 votes

    Winner: Steak & Cheese 58.85% v Mince & Cheese

    See the full poll

  • 44,998 votes

    Winner: Hokey Pokey 53.7% v Jelly Tip

    See the full poll

  • 35,361 votes

    Winner: Pineapple Lumps 63.7% v Jaffas

    See the full poll

  • 30,913 votes

    Winner: Peanut Slab 57.4% v Crunchie

    Poll Part 1

    Poll Part 2

  • 19,728 votes

    Winner: Salt & Vinegar 59.2% v Ready Salted

    See the poll

  • 42,613 votes

    Winner: Poi E 58.7% v Why Does Love

    See the poll

  • 19.396 votes

    Winner: Toffee Pops 59.1% v Tim Tams

    See the poll

  • 20.849 votes

    Winner: Hunt for the Wilderpeople 61.1% v Once were Warriors

    See the poll

  • 26.707 votes

    Winner: Fish and Chips 70.5% v Indian

    See the poll

  • 26.374 votes

    Winner: Country Calendar 60.5% v Outrageous Fortune

    See the poll

  • 46,219 votes

    Winner: Cream Donut 50.6% v Custard Square

    See the poll

  • 53,475 votes

    Winner: Ed Hillary 63.8% v Dr Ropata

    See the poll

  • 20,938 votes

    Winner: Lisa Carrington 61.5% v Valerie Adams

    See the poll

  • 41,543 votes

    Winner: Yeah nah 51.2% v Sweet as

    See the poll

  • 32139 votes

    Winner: Crunchy Peanut Butter 56% v Weetbix

    See full poll

  • This was a champion of champions poll of previous top 4 contenders in the food polls.

    44,830 votes

    Winner: Steak & Cheese Pie 53.3% v Sausage Roll

    See full poll

  • 42,058 votes

    Winner: Hutt Valley (Right up my Hutt Valley) 75.4% v Tuatepere (NZ’s Sausage Capital)

    See full poll

  • 35,058 votes

    Winner: Peach Teats Sign 53.4% v Red Post, Culverden

    See full poll

  • 41,625 votes

    Winner: Pikelets 57.7% v Afghan Biscuits

    See full poll

  • 32,743 votes

    Winner: Ham & Cheese 50.2% v Bacon & Egg

    See full poll

  • 28,765 votes

    Winner: Apple Crumble 52.4% v Pavlova

    See full poll

  • This was a poll that ran on a single day - Vaxathon Day in NZ.

    23,310 votes

    Winner: John Campbell 50.9% v Hilary Barry

    See full poll

  • 21,161 votes

    Winner: Fairytale of New York 61.1% v Snoopy’s Christmas

    See full poll

  • 14,685 votes

    Winner: Grandma got run over by a reindeer 52.5% v Please, Daddy (Don't Get Drunk on Christmas)

    See full poll

  • 34,376 votes

    Winner: Margherita 56.4% v Pepperoni

    See full poll

  • 32,530 votes

    Winner: Ghost Chips 66.9% v Mate You’re Dreaming

    See full poll

  • 27,583 votes

    Winner: Laksa 57.5% v Chicken Noodle

    See full poll

  • 32,078 votes

    Winner: Panic! At The Briscoes 65.6% v Red Hot Chilly Bins

    See full poll

  • 32,078 votes

    Winner: Whina Cooper 82.8% v Tāme Iti

    See full poll

  • 27,031 votes

    Winner: Die Hard 55.8% v Home Alone

    See full poll

  • 23,183 votes

    Winner: David Bowie 57.7% v Prince

    See full poll

  • 28,274 votes

    Winner: #NZSecretSanta 56.6% v #NZHellHole

    See full poll

Patrick's Pies


Next
Next

Google Analytics 4 Thresholds