Brits back the bid online

The bid to bring the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games to London in 2012 is heating up and supporters around the UK are rushing to 'back the bid' online.

With the media saturated with advertisements encouraging Brits to support London's Olympic bid, and billboards plastered with 'Back the Bid' posters, it seems that the campaign is having a significant impact on UK Internet users: Hitwise data for February show that the official campaign website is increasing its traffic and brand recognition for the campaign is high.

Hitwise Search Terms data for February reveal that the Olympics campaign has effectively engrained the slogans 'Back the Bid' and 'London 2012' into the minds of UK residents. The slogans have caught on so effectively that they comprise two of the most common search terms to www.london2012.org, claiming 17% and 3% of all successful searches respectively. This represents a substantial amount of the site's visitors, as search engines delivered one quarter of visitors to www.london2012.org during February.

TOP 10 SEARCH TERMS FOR www.london2012.org
Based on data for four weeks ending 19th February 2005

News In Brief

Interflora seduces Valentine’s Day shoppers

Interflora won the hearts of online shoppers during February to become the UK retail industry's top performer in the online Valentine's Day gift market.

The British branch of the international floral gift service, which offers same-day delivery of a range of bouquets and romantic gifts within the UK, was a consistent favourite with consumers in the days leading up to Valentine's Day on February 14. Ranking within the top three sites in the online gifts sector throughout February, the site also more than doubled its market share in the space of one week: from Sunday February 6 to Saturday February 12, www.interflora.co.uk increased its share of traffic from 4.9% to 12.4%. Overall, the site was also number 1 in the Hitwise Flowers & Gifts category for the week leading up to V-Day, according to Hitwise weekly data for the week ending Saturday 12th February.

In addition, Interflora was particularly popular with last-minute lovers on the 11th and 12th of the month. Though market share for the Flowers & Gifts sector as a whole dropped off significantly from February 10 onwards, traffic for Interflora continued to increase, peaking on February 12 with 12.4% market share.

The following report lists the most popular terms typed into a search engine over the past 4 weeks ending 19/02/2005 that resulted in traffic to websites classified by Hitwise within the 'Sports' industry. For example, the most popular search term was 'ticketmaster' representing 0.98% of all search terms that delivered users to websites classified by Hitwise in the 'Sports' industry.

Fast Mover: Food Standards Agency

www.foodstandards.gov.uk


Position on Thursday February 17: 3,974
Position on Friday February 18: 12
Positions jumped: 3,962

In the wake of media reports that a carcinogenic dye had contaminated foods in the UK, the website of the government's Food Standards Agency experienced a massive boost in traffic this month.

The Food Standards Agency announced on Friday February 18 that 359 products containing the illegal Sudan 1 food dye were being withdrawn from sale around the UK, and a worried public responded by flocking to the FSA's website in droves. Within 24 hours, www.foodstandards.gov.uk was consuming more than 50% of traffic to sites in the online Health & Medical sector - an increase from 0.2% the previous day, representing an incredible 25,000% increase according to Hitwise daily data.

Hitwise Clickstream data further reports that BBC News accounted for more than 17% of traffic going to the FSA website, as UK Internet users clicked through from the latest news reports directly to the FSA's updates and lists of products contaminated by the dye. Other news sources also appeared within the top 20 sites sending traffic to the FSA, including ITV, CNN and Channel 4.

The contamination scare also prompted February's biggest surge in traffic to the online news sector overall: February 18 saw the sector's market share reach almost 3.8% of all UK Internet traffic, an increase of 15% on the previous day. Earlier in the month, traffic to the Hitwise News & Media category also peaked on the day that Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles announced their imminent marriage - market share for the online news sector reached almost 3.4% of all UK Internet traffic that day, a 6% increase on the previous day's market share.

If you are interested in using Hitwise content and statistics in publications and presentations, we encourage you to do so. Please source the content as "Hitwise United Kingdom - www.hitwise.co.uk".

Additionally - if you require assistance with statistics or content, please feel free to contact Jannie Cahill at jannie.cahill@hitwise.com.

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Copyright Hitwise Pty Ltd, February 2005