Increase in Visits to Home-Grown Soccer Websites – Spike in ‘world cup’ Searches after Landmark Win
The Socceroos defeat of Uruguay on November 16 and qualification for entry into the FIFA World Cup has sparked renewed interest amongst Australian Internet users on the event to be held in Germany next year. Variations on the search term 'world cup' were at the highest point for the year at week ending November 19, 2005, accounting for 1.9% of all searches to the Sports - Soccer category.
The win marks the first time since 1974 Australia has qualified for the World Cup, and caps the growing popularity of the sport in Australia as demonstrated online: The number of websites in the Sports - Soccer category has grown by 62% over the past year from 311 to 504. There has also been a tremendous growth in visits to local football websites by 65.5% between January and November 2005. This includes the significant number of 'grass roots' websites of regional and local football associations across the country. Examples include Sydney FC (www.sydneyfc.com) and Melbourne Victoria F.C. (www.mvfc.com.au).
Online travel research to Germany is likely to increase in the lead-up to the event, as soccer fans are already specifying 'germany' in their searches. Variations included, 'germany 2006', 'world cup germany' and 'world cup 2006 germany'. Travel vendors however are yet to benefit from these terms.
ESPN Soccernet (www.soccernet.com) held the dominant market share with 20.1% in the Sports - Soccer category for the week ending November 19, 2005. SBS - The World Cup (www.theworldgame.com.au) and Football Federation Australia (www.footballaustralia.com.au) vied for the top local soccer website, with respective visitation shares of 13.7% and 7%.
Sports - Soccer websites continue to draw a pre-dominantly male audience, with a majority of 79.6%. Close to a third of users were concentrated in the 35-44 age-group. Soccer websites sent a significant amount of industry traffic in October 2005 to the Business and Finance (12.5%), Shopping & Classifieds (3.9%) and Computers & Internet - Software (2.4%) categories.
News In Brief
Velocity Rewards Launches
Virgin Blue's loyalty program, Velocity (www.velocityrewards.com.au) quickly generated online interest after its launch on November 15. The website debuted at 6th position in the Shopping & Classifieds - Rewards & Directories and 4th in the Aviation parent category, for the week ending November 19, 2005.
Key offerings of the program include free online membership and the ability to earn points faster through Virgin Blue's partners. The promotion of the Velocity National Credit Card which is to be launched on November 30 has already paid online dividends to the National Bank (www.national.com.au). Hitwise Clickstream data show that 20% of visits from Velocity were directed to the National Bank homepage.
Fast Mover - Toyota Yaris
www.yaris.com.au
Position October 15: 2,911
Position November 5: 320
Positions jumped: 2,591
Toyota Yaris (www.yaris.com.au) is a microsite promoting the Yaris, a car recently released by Toyota. The site, produced in Flash, includes an interactive multimedia presentation of the Yaris' features as well as other interactive elements giving visitors the chance to win MP3 players, concert tickets, and for a limited time, a Yaris.
The site has been a fast moving one and in terms of Australian sites between October 15 and November 5, Toyota Yaris overtook 2,591 other sites to be placed 320 among all sites visited by Australian Internet users; overtook 167 sites to be placed 13 in Automotive; and overtook 27 sites to be placed 2 in Automotive - Manufacturers.
Toyota Yaris in conjunction with Rove Live (www.rove.com.au) ran a competition between November 1 and 11 that gave those who registered the chance to win a Yaris. The Rove Live website (www.rove.com.au) contributed 55.40% of the upstream traffic to www.yaris.com.au in week 1 of the competition and 60.31% in week 2, according to Hitwise weekly data for 05/11/05 and 12/11/05. The two-week promotion saw www.yaris.com.au jump from 17 to 2 in the first week and only ease one position in the second week in Automotive - Manufacturers.
The most popular search terms typed into search engines over the 12 weeks ending November 12 that resulted in traffic to the Toyota Yaris website were 'yaris.com.au' representing 13.74%, 'rove' with 11.45%, and 'yaris' with 10.69%. The term 'rove live' representing 10.69% and 'www.rovelive.com' with 6.11% indicating that Rove was as synonymous with the Yaris as the Yaris itself.
Category Spotlight: Food and Beverage - Restaurants and Catering
This category focuses on restaurants, eating places, restaurant guides, and catering services. The data below is based on All sites » Weekly rankings for the week ending 19/11/2005 » Ranks by 'Visits'.
Hitwise for Business Development
Because Hitwise monitors the performance of over 500,000 websites across over 160 industries every day, only Hitwise can provide sales teams with in-depth analyses of prospective and current customers to help increase sales.
Identify new and potential clients, learn more about their online activities and evaluate the success of your relationship. Some of the business development questions Hitwise can help answer are:
- Who are all the key players in a specific industry?
- How does my prospect generate traffic?
- What are the new websites in the industry?
- Since conducting business with my company, have my clients' online performances improved?
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Copyright Hitwise Pty Ltd, November 2005
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Hitwise Australia Newsletter - November 2005
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