Tesco Flowers Big Winner This Valentine’s Day

Hot on the heels of Christmas and the January sales, Valentine's Day is the next biggest event for UK retailers and Hitwise can reveal that Tesco was the big winner this year.

Visits to Flowers and Gifts sites increased by 28% for the week ending February 11, 2006 compared with the previous week, with Tesco Flowers (www.tesco.com/flowers) taking the number 1 position among Flowers and Gifts websites based on UK visits - up from position 11 one month ago (week ending January 14, 2006).

Hitwise's analysis further reveals that Flowers and Gifts sites were competing on more than just price this year. In the four weeks ending February 11, 71% of UK visits for searches on 'tesco flowers' sent visits to Tesco Flowers (www.tesco.com/flowers), 10% of visits went to 247shop (www.247shop.co.uk) and 3% went to both Interflora (www.interflora.co.uk) and Bunches (www.bunches.co.uk). The share of visits from searches for 'tesco flowers' going to competitor websites is far higher than average. According to the Hitwise White Paper on Search Engine Brand Management, approximately 85% of visits from searches for a brand term send visi ts to the brand-owners' website.

Valentine's Day related searches, however, were not strictly commercial with 'valentine poems' being the 4th most popular variation on the term 'valentines' for the week ending February 11, 2006.

Hitwise Search Intelligence data reveal the search terms containing the word "valentines" for the four weeks ending February 11, 2006 as shown in the table below. The results are ordered based on the volume of searches.

Marketers appreciate the immediacy and measurability of Internet usage and these benefits extend to brand tracking. Traditionally brand owners have spent significant resources measuring unaided consumer brand awareness and brand association, and results of brand tracking research are often published only months after a campaign or peak season.

With the latest Hitwise White Paper on Search Engine Brand Management, we wanted to review some Hitwise tools that brand owners can use to track consumer awareness and brand association online through search.

Hitwise Industry Search Terms provides a list of all search terms entered into search engines by consumers over a four or twelve-week rolling period that sent visits to websites in a selected industry category. The report can be used to compare your brand's top-of-mind awareness to that of competitors among the top terms sending visits to a category in any four-week period over the past 15 months.

Hitwise Search Term Charting allows marketers to chart the weekly share of Internet searches on up to ten search terms over a period of 15 months. The charts provide a measure of unaided brand awareness, whether searches are increasing or decreasing, whether searches increase at predictable times of year, and whether specific promotions have been successful.

Hitwise Search Term Suggestion reports provide a list of all of the terms that consumers combine with your brand when performing Internet searches. Brand marketers spend significant time and resources building desirable associations and reversing negative associations. In the past it could take months and many thousands of pounds to gain an understanding of what customers thought of a brand. Hitwise Search Term Suggestion reports provide a timely and complete list of the terms consumers associate with a brand. Historical reports provide insight into how brand associations have changed over time and how advertising campaigns influence brand associations.

For more suggestions on how to use Hitwise to track your brand online, request a copy of the White Paper here.

Fast Mover - Arctic Monkeys

www.arcticmonkeys.com


Position week ending January 7: 2,976
Position week ending February 4: 470
Positions jumped: 2,506

During the week that Arctic Monkeys achieved the fastest-selling debut album of all time, the Arctic Monkeys' website was the most visited Bands and Artists website as well as being the most searched-for band in the UK.

The Sheffield band saw searches noticeably increase in the weeks leading up to the release of their debut single "I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor", which went on to take the #1 spot in the singles chart the week of October 29, 2005. Since then, Hitwise data reveal that searches on the band have gone into overdrive, increasing by 66% ahead of the release of their debut album in the week ending January 28, 2006 "Whatever People Say I am, That's What I'm Not".

When the band was virtually unknown, visits to their website, www.arcticmonkeys.com, came from chat rooms and blogs - most noticeably from MySpace.com. However, search engines became a more important source of visits in June 2005 as the band's name recognition grew.

The Arctic Monkeys are currently not just the most searched-for band on the Internet but are also the most popular band online, accounting for 7.32% of visits to the Bands and Artists category for the week ending February 4 - up from 3.25% market share of visits just a week earlier.

News In Brief

Searches for Google Earth up 20-fold

In the week ending 21st January, the share of UK Internet searches for 'google earth' were 23 times higher than searches for 'paris hilton' - consistently one of the most searched-for celebrities on the Internet - and have increased more than 20-fold since October.

Hitwise reports that 'google earth' now ranks as the fifth most searched-for term in the UK - higher than searches for Google and even outstripping searches for other mainstay brands which have consistently appeared at the top of the Hitwise search term rankings (including 'ryanair' and 'tesco').

The surprising demographic group which seems to be most interested in Google Earth are those classed as 'silver surfers'. For the week ending January 14, nearly one quarter (24.34%) of visits to Google Earth are in 55+ age group, with the website attracting 65% more visits from the 55+ age group than average for the Internet.

Google Desktop Growth

Since launching the beta version of Google Desktop, visits to Google Desktop (desktop.google.com) reached a high of 0.13% of all UK Internet visits in the week ending February 11, indicating that the controversy over privacy concerns is not dissuading UK Internet users from finding out more about Google's latest offering.

On February 8, visits reached their highest peak within the Hitwise Software category, capturing 2.78% of all UK Internet visits. The site ranked 6th among Software websites based on UK visits for week ending February 11, indicating that the controversy might be boosting interest in the updated toolbar (Hitwise captures visits to websites, so reports on visits to the Google Desktop Search website, rather than to the downloaded software).

Interest in Google Desktop Search has been increasing rapidly over the past year. The market share of visits to Google Desktop have increased 55 times year-on-year, comparing week ending February 4, 2006 and February 5, 2005.

Category Spotlight: Search Engines

Search engines of Internet content. Sites in this category usually act as gateways with links to the broader worldwide web, not just the content of the site. The data below is based on All sites » Weekly rankings for the week ending 18/02/2006 » Ranks by 'Visits'.

Local Competitiveness Index 76.6% of traffic to this category was directed at domestic sites.

Traffic Distribution The chart above illustrates the distribution of this category's traffic for the week among sites in various rank ranges.

Top 10 Upstream Categories 1. Computers and Internet 59.3% 2. Computers and Internet - Search Engines 24.3% 3. Shopping and Classifieds 8.9% 4. Entertainment 7.4% 5. Computers and Internet - Email Services 6.4% 6. Business and Finance 5.2% 7. Computers and Internet - Software 4.7% 8. Shopping and Classifieds - Auctions 3.9% 9. News and Media 3.9% 10. Computers and Internet - Net Communities and Chat 3.5%

Top 10 Downstream Categories 1. Computers and Internet 19.5% 2. Shopping and Classifieds 13.1% 3. Entertainment 10.5% 4. Travel 9.5% 5. Business and Finance 9.4% 6. Computers and Internet - Search Engines 8.4% 7. Lifestyle 6.5% 8. Education 4.8% 9. News and Media 4.2% 10. Computers and Internet - Graphics and Clip Art 3.8%

Media queries at Hitwise

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.

About this Newsletter

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Copyright Hitwise Pty Ltd, February 2006