Experian hitwise online_media_round-up_march_2011

UK Online Media Round-up
Social shopping, the Budget and marketing power of Facebook
March 2011

Online

Table of Contents

1. Industry Overview............................................................................................................ 3
1.1 UK Internet visits to key media categories .................................................................... 3
1.2 Fast moving search terms (February vs January). ....................................................... 3

2. Fast Movers ..................................................................................................................... 4
2.1 Rihanna’s controversial S&M video .............................................................................. 4
2.2 Comic Relief and ChildLine boost ................................................................................ 4
2.3 2011 Census late online spike ........................................................................................ 4
2.4 Rebecca Black loves Fridays ......................................................................................... 4

3. Top Stories ...................................................................................................................... 5
3.1 Social media bigger than Entertainment online ........................................................... 5
3.2 Which retailers are leveraging the marketing power of Facebook? ............................. 6
3.3 Will social shopping spell the end of discount voucher sites? ................................... 8
3.4 Morissons can learn online lessons from Kiddicare .................................................. 11
3.5 How the Budget could affect new business start ups ................................................ 12

4. Appendix ....................................................................................................................... 15
4.1 Carpe Diem: Seizing the moment in Social Media ..................................................... 15
4.2 UK Top 10 Awards 2010 ............................................................................................... 15
4.3 The Multichannel Agenda: 6 Marketing Insights for 2011 .......................................... 15
4.4 Recent Experian Hitwise Webinars ............................................................................. 15
4.5 About Experian Hitwise ............................................................................................... 16
4.6 Terms Used in this Report .......................................................................................... 17

 Hitwise UK Limited 2011 Online Media Round-up | Issue 28 | Page 2

1. Industry Overview
1.1 UK Internet visits to key media categories

• Online video saw the biggest monthly growth between January and February, increasing its market
share of visits by 8.7%. Social Networking & Forums was the second biggest grower of the month
but also showed the largest increase in visits year-on-year, growing by 20%.
• The News and Media category as a whole declined between January and February, losing 5.6%
market share of visits. Blogs and Personal websites saw the second biggest decline of 5%, followed
by the Print category which decreased by 4.4%.
• The biggest decline year-on-year was in the Community Directories and Guides category which
saw a 14.7% decrease in market share of visits since February 2010.
• Current Affairs dominated the fast moving search terms between January and February with the
earthquake in New Zealand and the rebellion in Libya accounting for a lot of the search traffic. The
anniversary of inventor Thomas Edison also caused searches to spike across News and Media,
Print, Social Networks and Online Video thanks to a Google doodle commemorating his 164th
birthday.
• In the world of entertainment, BBC Three’s online-only spin off of Being Human, Becoming Human
has been a big hit with bloggers, whilst the announcement of a new Disney film telling the story of
the Loch Ness Monster, The Ballad of Nessie, attracted the attention of the News and Media and
Print audiences.

1.2 Fast moving search terms (February vs January).


2. Fast Movers

2.1 Rihanna’s controversial S&M video 2.2 Comic Relief and ChildLine
boost

Singer Rihanna courted controversy in the first week of
February with her new music video S&M. The video was There were a number of big charity efforts in February
banned in 11 countries because of it’s provocotive and and March. However the fastest movers in the charity
explicit sexual content which naturally made it a massive sector were ChildLine, increasing visits by 900% in
hit online. February and Comic Relief, which increased traffic by
360% in March.

2.3 2011 Census late online spike 2.4 Rebecca Black loves Fridays

March 2011 marked the first Census that could be 13 year old singer Rebecca Black became an overnight
completed online. On Sunday 27 March the 2011 Census sensation on YouTube with her irritatingly catchy debut
website was the 32nd most visited website in the UK song Friday. Searches for ‘rebecca black’ jumped an
thanks to a 280% daily spike in traffic. astonishing 17,000% and the singer became the 68th
most popular search term in the UK on 19 March 2011.


3. Top Stories
3.1 Social media bigger than Entertainment online
Social networks continue to grow in dominance and for the first time ever, social media has become
the single biggest activity online in the UK, overtaking the Entertainment category. During January 2011
social networks accounted for 12.4% of all UK Internet visits. Across the 9,000 social networks that
Hitwise monitor, there were over 2.4 billion visits from UK Internet users during the month - more than
in any other month on record.

In our latest social media report, “Carpe diem – Seizing the moment in Social Media” you can see
how quickly social networks are growing online. In 2010 alone visits to the Experian Hitwise Social
Networks and Forums category increased by 17%. Not only are people visiting social sites more
regularly, the time they spend on these websites is increasing, with the average session time spent on a
social network in January 2011 being 22 minutes.

The range and diversity of social networks is also on the up. Facebook may be the dominant social
network in the UK, accounting for 56% of traffic to the industry during January, but social media users
are rarely tied exclusively to just one social network. Indeed, the interaction between different social
sites is significant, as users dart between multiple networks in order to chat to their various groups of
friends and associates.

Obviously social networks compete amongst themselves for users, but many of those users have a
presence on multiple networks. One in every eight people leaving a social network visits another one
immediately after, something that is encouraged by the connections that exist between the networks.


Facebook, for example, is a key source of traffic for many smaller social networks; while almost a fifth
of people leaving Twitter go on to visit another social network.

Social networks have become a key source of traffic from many websites, particularly those distributing
content and chasing ‘eyeballs’. But transactional websites – those selling goods or services such as
travel or insurance online – still rely primarily on search for their traffic and therefore sales. Successful
transactional websites will be those that learn to harness the power of social networks, driving traffic
through to their own websites.

3.2 Which retailers are leveraging the marketing power of
Facebook?
You don’t have to look far online to find praise for Facebook. The UK’s most popular social network
has been heralded as an indispensible tool for online advertising and social engagement for some time
now. But which brands are making the most of Facebook’s enormous marketing potential?

Using Hitwise data we have a number of different ways of answering this question. A first port of call is
usually to look at the downstream traffic from a particular website (in this case Facebook), to see who
is benefiting from that traffic.

The results above have been filtered to return just websites within the Hitwise Shopping and
Classifieds category. This shows the top 10 online retailers receiving traffic from Facebook. There is an
interesting mix in this list between big online “one-stop-shops” which sell thousands of different
products (eBay, Amazon, Argos and Play.com all fall into this category) and fashion brands including
ASOS, Topshop, Next and New Look.

However, the downstream traffic alone is not enough to see who is making the most of Facebook’s
marketing power. The reason being that 12% of all visits immediately after visiting Facebook go straight
to Google, which would indicate that people have seen something on Facebook which they like, and
they want to research that product or brand further through search. Using Search Sequence we can


see what people were searching for online immediately after they visited Facebook to capture the data
not just from Google, but from Bing and Yahoo! Search as well.

In total there were over 2.5 million search terms searched for immediately after Facebook in the four
weeks ending 19 February 2011. The top 10 reveal searches for YouTube, Twitter and email providers,
but digging a little deeper into the data it is possible to see the top retail brands that were searched for
immediately after Facebook.

In the table below an Index score has been created which measures searches for a brand after
Facebook compared to searches for a brand in All Categories. An Index score of 100 would be an
average, but any score over 100 indicates that a brand is getting a much higher proportion of its
searches after a visit to Facebook than it does in normal search.

The overwhelming trend here is that fashion brands are dominating searches after Facebook. Niche
fashion brands in particular like Jack Wills and Republic have the highest Index score, followed by
multi-channel retailers like Topman, River Island, Miss Selfridge and New Look. Interestingly, there
were only 12 major retail brands that had an Index score of 100 or more, which shows there is still a


huge opportunity for retailers to make an impact on Facebook. The 10 listed above however are the
companies which are currently making the most out of promoting their brands on Facebook.

3.3 Will social shopping spell the end of discount voucher sites?

Have online discount vouchers had their day? A couple of years ago a lot of industries relied on
discount vouchers in order to get them through the recession. The “credit crunch lunch” kept
consumers walking through the doors of high street restaurant chains with the promises of Buy One
Get One Free meals, but in 2011 searches for vouchers online have dipped, replaced by a new trend of
social shopping.

Looking at variations of all search terms which contain the word ‘voucher’ you can see that historically
there are peaks in the run up to Christmas. Recent trends show that searches for vouchers are starting
to dip however. Comparing December 2010 to December 2009 there was a 7% decrease in search
volume for all terms relating to vouchers.

Taking the most recent data into account, search variations for vouchers in the 4 rolling weeks ending
12 March 2011 were 3% down on the same period in 2010. This change in search trends could be
explained by the fact that consumers are more aware of brands within this sector, such as
HotUKDeals, the UK’s most visited discount voucher site.

In this case it’s possible that UK Internet users have stopped searching for generic terms such as
‘vouchers’ and instead have started searching for brands like ‘hotukdeals’. Internet users are also
visiting retail websites directly for vouchers, with Dominos, Pizza Hut and Pizza Express the top three
recipients of traffic from voucher searches.

Overall, however, visits to dedicated voucher sites are down on previous years. Between December
2009 and December 2010 visits to voucher sites declined by 20%.


The new emerging trend in the retail sector is for social shopping. In particular a look at the growth of
Groupon UK is the real indicator that social shopping is taking off.


Since September 2010 visits to the Groupon UK website have increased by 540%. For the week ending
12 March 2011 Groupon UK was the 14th biggest website in the Hitwise Shopping and Classifieds
category, beating HotUKDeals for the first time and finishing ahead of big brand names such as
Debenhams, B&Q and ASDA. Groupon UK is now the biggest website in the Rewards and Directory
category, which represents remarkable growth for a website which has only been competing in the UK
marketplace for one year.

Discount vouchers are by no means dead; in February 2011 voucher sites accounted for 27% of all visits
to Rewards and Directories sites. However as the graph below shows, Social Shopping is definitely in
the ascendancy, overtaking cashback sites and rapidly catching on vouchers. Price comparison sites
still account for over 50% of the market, but they have been squeezed by other players including the
social sites.

Social shopping is definitely a growing trend for retail in 2011. Whilst it may not be the death of voucher
sites just yet, it is certainly a strong competitor in the market.


3.4 Morissons can learn online lessons from Kiddicare
Supermarket chain Morrisons announced in February that it had bought baby products group
Kiddicare for £70 million. The acquisition is an exciting development for Morrisons who can leverage
Kiddicare’s digital platform to increase online sales and market presence.

In the Hitwise rankings report for January 2011 Morrisons was the sixth most popular online grocery
website in the UK, accounting for 5.49% of all UK Internet visits to the Grocery and Alcohol category.
Given that Morrisons is the fourth biggest supermarket in the UK, the online part of the business is not
punching its weight.

Kiddicare on the other hand was the second biggest retailer of baby products in the UK in January
2011. Kiddicare accounts for 1 in 5 visits to baby retailer websites in the UK every month and is the top
recipient for all Internet searches for ‘prams’ in the UK.

Although mothercare has twice as much market share of visits as Kiddicare in the baby products retail
industry, in the last three years Kiddicare has grown online visits by 25%, whereas mothercare has had
relatively static growth of just 2%.


Kiddicare provides an excellent model for Morrisons to follow in order to ramp up online sales. Looking
at the Mosaic breakdown of the Kiddicare website, the company also over-index for key family
demographics New Homemakers and Careers and Kids, two demographic groups that Morrisons want
to attract but are currently under-indexing for online.

3.5 How the Budget could affect new business start ups

Chancellor George Osborne’s first March Budget outlined the government’s spending plans for the
next financial year. A lot of the focus of the Budget was around fuel duty and interest rates, but Prime
Minister David Cameron also promised that the Budget will: “tear down the barriers to enterprise,”
providing help for business start ups and young entrepreneurs.

Online interest in starting a new business has grown quite considerably over the last three years, with
searches for all terms relating to business start ups increasing by 63% since March 2008. Searches
dropped off a little in the opening weeks of March 2011, but that was to be expected in the run up to the
Budget. It is also worth noting that the January peak for business start up searches in 2011 was the
highest it has ever been, and 6% more than the January peak in 2010.

When people are searching online for information about starting up a new business the searches
generally fall into two categories. The first type of search is for practical information and advice about
how to set up a new business, whereas the second type of query concerns how to get funding or grants
for a new business.


Looking at the most popular terms relating to business start ups over the last 12 weeks, four of the top
10 search terms concern grants. In total 15.5% of all searches in this area contain the word ‘grant’,
which shows how reliant many new entrepreneurs are on funding assistance from the government.

The downstream traffic from searches for starting a new business reveals some interesting insights.
Firstly, there are three main authorities online for information on how to start a new business: Business
Link, Startups.co.uk and Smallbusiness.co.uk which together account for over 25% of all search clicks
for searches for starting a new business.

Secondly, when people are looking for a grant to start their new venture, HM Revenue and Customs is
the top recipient of traffic. The ninth biggest recipient of traffic from new business search terms in the
last 12 weeks was Get British Businesses Online (www.gbbo.co.uk), a free service which helps new
start ups create a business website and the only website in the top 10 recipients to receive a significant
proportion of its traffic from paid links.


So what kind of people are the budding millionaire business tycoons of the future? Mosaic data reveals
the type of UK Internet users that visit the business start up websites like Business Link and
Startups.co.uk.

The results from the Mosaic analysis show that the spread of visits to business start up websites is
fairly uniform across all groups, with very few groups deviating significantly from the average Index
score of 100. One group that did stand out as punching above its weight was Rural Solitude. This
Mosaic group accounted for 5.71% of all visits to business start up information sites, a much higher
proportion than expected given the size of this group online.

Rural Solitude represents people of variable affluence who tend to live in the country, in coastal towns
or on the outskirts of cities like Bath, Exeter and Shrewsbury. What’s interesting about this is that the
people most interested in starting new businesses are not in big urban areas but are small businesses
focusing on tourism and retail.


4. Appendix
Further Reading:
To receive a copy of these or any other Experian Hitwise research reports, please contact your Client
Development Manager or email support.uk@hitwise.com.

4.1 Carpe Diem: Seizing the moment in Social Media
This paper was created to complement our earlier social media paper Getting to Grips with Social
Media. Whilst Getting to Grips was intended as a basic introduction to the constantly evolving topic
of social media, this paper takes the next step with analysis of growing trends in the industry and
examples of how brands have benefited from an effective social media strategy. This paper looks to
illustrate how companies can use social media to seize on major world events as an opportunity to
become an online authority, and in doing so increase their brand reputation.
http://www.hitwise.com/uk/registration-pages/seizing-the-moment-in-social-media

4.2 UK Top 10 Awards 2010
The Experian Hitwise UK Top 10 Awards celebrates the most successful UK websites in more than 160
key selected industries, based on the market share of visits a website has received throughout 2010.
The Awards also include the most searched-for brands online.
View the full list of winners:
http://www.hitwise.com/uk/2010-annual-awards
Register to receive future notification should your website place in the top 10:
http://www.hitwise.com/uk/resources/top-10-awards/

4.3 The Multichannel Agenda: 6 Marketing Insights for 2011
The goal of marketers has always been to find new ways to reach and engage more effectively with their
customers. But with the rapid advent of digital technologies, finding a truly balanced multi-channel
approach can be a confusing and daunting prospect.

With this in mind, Experian Marketing Services have produced this new whitepaper which looks at the
year ahead for marketers, addressing new trends and giving you food for thought to develop new
marketing and advertising strategies.
http://www.experian.co.uk/tfmwhitepaper

4.4 Recent Experian Hitwise Webinars
Travel update and the impact of Social Media
View this recorded session to understand how unexpected events, unseasonal weather, and the
continued growth of social media, have all shaped the online travel landscape in recent weeks.
http://www.hitwise.com/uk/registration-pages/webinar-travel-update-feb-2011

Explore the archive: http://www.hitwise.com/uk/webinars


For more in-depth analysis, subscribe to the Experian Hitwise UK blog at:
http://weblogs.hitwise.com/robin-goad/

Keep up to date with real time data by following Experian Hitwise on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/Hitwise_UK

For further information, please contact your Experian Hitwise Account Manager or email:
support.uk@hitwise.com

4.5 About Experian Hitwise

Experian Hitwise is the leading online competitive intelligence service. Experian Hitwise gives marketers
a competitive advantage by providing daily insights on how 25 million Internet users around the world
interact with more than 1 million Web sites. This external view helps companies grow and protect their
businesses by identifying threats and opportunities as they develop. Experian Hitwise has more than
1,500 clients across numerous sectors, including financial services, media, travel and retail.

Experian Hitwise (FTS:EXPN), www.experianplc.com, operates in the United States, the United
Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, France, Canada and Brazil. More information
about Experian Hitwise is available at www.hitwise.com/uk

About Experian

Experian is the leading global information services company, providing data and analytical tools to
clients in more than 90 countries. The company helps businesses to manage credit risk, prevent
fraud, target marketing offers and automate decision making. Experian also helps individuals to
check their credit report and credit score, and protect against identity theft.

Experian plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (EXPN) and is a constituent of the FTSE 100
index. Total revenue for the year ended 31 March 2010 was $3.9 billion. Experian employs
approximately 15,000 people in 40 countries and has its corporate headquarters in Dublin, Ireland,
with operational headquarters in Nottingham, UK; Costa Mesa, California; and São Paulo, Brazil.

For more information, visit http://www.experianplc.com.


4.6 Terms Used in this Report
Hitwise provides clients with various metrics for analyzing competitive activity. The definitions of
metrics used by Hitwise are:

User Visit: A series of one or more page requests by a visitor without 30 consecutive minutes of
inactivity.

Market Share: The percentage of all visits or page requests to a particular online market sector that is
received by the individual website.

Clickstream: Provides an indication of the upstream and downstream traffic to and from a website.
Upstream sites are those sites visited immediately prior to visiting the current site. Downstream sites
are those visited immediately after leaving the current site.

Fast Moving Search Terms: Search terms which are sending traffic to a category that experienced the
largest relative increase in market share of searches between two periods of time.

Mosaic UK: Mosaic UK is a socio-cultural classification of the UK population that has been developed
by Experian to describe and group the population on the basis of the proven principle that individuals
with similar interests, lifestyles, profiles and behaviour cluster closely together. Mosaic UK™ classifies
all UK households and neighbourhoods into 11 Mosaic Groups and 61 Mosaic Types. The classification
specifies both a Mosaic Group and Type for each of the 1.7 million postcodes in the UK. The type
assigned is the one that most closely describes the characteristics of those households and the
individuals living there.

Disclaimer
Some of the data presented in this report is based on custom data sets built for the purpose of this
report and not available in the syndicated Hitwise service. This research report may contain names,
information, data, links to third party website addresses, and other materials belonging to third parties;
including textual references to such items. Any and all such uses are for illustrative purposes only and
do not necessarily indicate an endorsement of the opinions, products or services provided by those
third parties. Hitwise does not claim any proprietary right in, or to, any such items as may qualify as
copyrights, trademarks or other proprietary marks of third parties.

Hitwise is not responsible for the content of third party websites, or the manner in which information
may be collected on that website and used by the third party. Hitwise disclaims any responsibility
towards the visitor of a third party website or any third party for any direct, indirect or incidental reliance,
consequential or punitive damages, including without limitation lost profits, expenses or revenue;
regardless of whether Hitwise knew, or ought to have known, of the possibility of any loss or damage
arising from the use of, or visit to, a third party’s website.

Use of this research report is at your own and sole risk. Hitwise disclaims any and all warranties or
representations in respect of the accuracy or usefulness of information, or any observations that may be
derived from such information, obtained from Hitwise.


Experian hitwise online_media_round-up_march_2011

Empfohlen

Empfohlen

Weitere ähnliche Inhalte

Was ist angesagt?

Was ist angesagt? (19)

Andere mochten auch

Andere mochten auch (8)

Ähnlich wie Experian hitwise online_media_round-up_march_2011

Ähnlich wie Experian hitwise online_media_round-up_march_2011 (20)

Experian hitwise online_media_round-up_march_2011