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HITWISE COMMUNITY UPDATE
Wristband craze hits the online community sector
London, 30th March 2005, The latest fashion phenomenon to hit the streets this year is the craze for charity wristbands, and Hitwise reports that UK Internet users are scouring the Web for wristbands – both authentic and fake – in increasing numbers.
According to Hitwise, global leader in real-time competitive intelligence, the term ‘wristbands’ is now one of the top 10 terms driving traffic to sites within the online community sector, and has more than tripled its share of searches since the beginning of the year. The term ‘wristbands’ received just under 0.02% share of all searches in the last week of January, and now tops 0.06% search term share for the week ending March 26th.
Top 10 search terms for Hitwise Community category, based on data for four weeks ending 26th March 2005
The coveted wristbands were originally produced by cancer charity the Lance Armstrong Foundation in the US late last year, and similar bands have since been offered by numerous other charities, including Oxfam for its Make Poverty History campaign. However, retailers of inauthentic charity wristbands have recently jumped on the bandwagon and are rapidly stealing market share.
Hitwise data reveals that the Lance Armstrong Foundation’s online store (store.laf.org), home of the original yellow ‘Livestrong’ wristbands, has recently seen a decline in performance – tumbling from a peak ranking of # 213 within the Shopping & Classifieds category to a current ranking of # 640. Meanwhile, a British site that specialises in fake Livestrong wristbands, britishwristbands.co.uk, has conversely received a huge boost in traffic. Britishwristbands.co.uk recently rose to #11 in the Hitwise Shopping & Classifieds – Apparel & Accessories category, and continues to perform strongly, peaking at #134 within the Shopping & Classifieds parent category on March 22nd.
Performance of ‘wristbands’, week ending January 1st – week ending March 26th
Performance of www.britishwristbands.co.uk vs store.laf.org, Feb 15th – Mar 27th
Top 10 variations on the term ‘wristbands’, from Hitwise Search Terms Suggestions based on data for four weeks ending March 26th.
About Hitwise:
Hitwise is the world’s leading online competitive intelligence service. Each day, Hitwise monitors how more than 25 million Internet users interact with over 500,000 websites across 160 industry categories.
By monitoring more people, more websites, more often, Hitwise provides marketers with timely and actionable marketing insights on how their online presence compares to competitive websites. Companies use this information to maximize the return on their online investment, in efforts such as search marketing, affiliate programs, online advertising, visitor segmentation, content development and lead generation.
Hitwise collects Internet usage information via a combination of ISP data partnerships and opt-in mega panels, and complies with local and international privacy legislation as audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Founded in 1997, Hitwise is a privately held company, headquartered in New York City and operates in the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore.
More information about Hitwise is available at www.hitwise.co.uk
For media enquiries, please contact:
Jannie Cahill
jannie.cahill@hitwise.com
Tel: 020 7378 3619