world cup research: search and social media during the world cup
DESCRIPTION
"The World Cup is a global event that is watched by hundreds of millions of people, across many different countries, cultures and backgrounds. According to FIFA’s figures the last World Cup final in 2006 was watched by 2.2 billion viewers and this year 1.5 billion people watched the World Cup opener. In total, 30 billion people watched the 2010 World Cup on television. Given the scope of this event, we thought it would be interesting to see the main topics and trends that emerge from user searches for World Cup related websites. We have analysed these to see how some sponsors were able to optimise ROI in their social media campaigns."TRANSCRIPT
CONNECTING BRANDS: UNDERSTANDING THE SEARCH AND SOCIALMEDIA IMPACT OF THE WORLD CUP
UK SEARCH & SOCIAL MEDIA DURING THE WORLD CUP 2010
An iCrossing white paper by Dominic Parker
© COPYRIGHT 2010 ICROSSING LTD - HEARST GROUP -
2UK SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA DURING THE WORLD CUP 2010
CONTENTINTRODUCTION AND METHODOLOGY USED
BACKGROUND AND TRENDS
THE NATURE OF QUERIES
IMPACT OF MOBILE SEARCHES
SEARCH INSIGHTS REGARDING CONSUMER PRODUCTS
PREFERRED BRANDS
ABOUT I-CROSSING
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© COPYRIGHT 2010 ICROSSING LTD - HEARST GROUP -
UK SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA DURING THE WORLD CUP 2010
INTRODUCTION AND METHODOLOGY USED
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INTRODUCTIONThe Research and Insight team here at iCrossing do various types of analysis across search and social media. Using various data sources and internal tools, we look for correlations and strategic insights that can be found within the huge amount of information which is currently available.
The World Cup is a global event that is watched by hundreds of millions of people, across many different countries, cultures and backgrounds. According to FIFA’s figures the last World Cup final in 2006 was watched by 2.2 billion viewers and this year 1.5 billion people watched the World Cup opener. In total, 30 billion people watched the 2010 World Cup on television.
Given the scope of this event, we thought it would be interesting to see the main topics and trends that emerge from user searches for World Cup related websites. We have analysed these to see how some sponsors were able to optimise ROI in their social media campaigns.
We looked at over 600 World Cup qualified and related queries, as well as retail queries such as searches for TVs and sportswear. As a result, we have built up a picture of the most popular players, teams, and done some interesting analysis of some of the top selling retail products during this event. With this analysis, we can get a rough idea of what categories were growing in popularity in the lead up to the World Cup.
This information shows some of the opportunities that were there for natural and paid search, and highlights the importance of being visible in this space by creating content, creating new paid search campaigns, or engaging with consumers across social networking platforms.
The World Cup is a relatively short-lived event; however, this analysis proves how insights can help to optimise your digital campaigns by looking at trends and popular queries around major sporting events in advance.
AN ESTIMATED 1.5 BILLION PEOPLE WATCHED THE WORLD CUP OPENER
UK SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA DURING THE WORLD CUP 2010
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UK SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA DURING THE WORLD CUP 2010
METHODOLOGY USEDWe used keyword tools that enabled us to gather search volume estimations of specific keywords. After a categorisation process, these terms were grouped and we aggregated the search volume data. The most popular themes and categories emerged from this analysis.
We used Google Insights to look at search trends for certain categories and to see if the World Cup influenced search behaviour.
Regarding visibility and looking at who is visible for the terms, we used some of our iCrossing proprietary tools such as PIRE. We used search volumes and ranking data and with this, we estimated the top sites that are receiving the most traffic for these different categories.
We have only looked at UK searches although we have used some global figures for comparison in some of the charts.
For the Social Media analysis we used information available that we tracked using our in-house monitoring platforms.
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UK SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA DURING THE WORLD CUP 2010
BACKGROUND AND TRENDS DURING THE WORLD CUP 2010
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© COPYRIGHT 2010 ICROSSING LTD - HEARST GROUP -
UK SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA DURING THE WORLD CUP 2010
Source: IBTimes
FEW FACTS ABOUT THE WORLD CUP 2010WORLD CUP FACTS
$305 million is the amount top sponsors such as Hyundai, Sony and Coca-Cola reportedly paid to be ‘FIFA Partners’ - including worldwide rights to two World Cups over seven years ($40 million per year).
$649 million by Television rights in 2009, $550 million in 2008, further revenue from marketing rights contributed $277 million and $253 million respectively. FIFA Partners alone have contributed $148.5 million each year since the World Cup inJapan/South Korea.
$194 million - the turnover of FIFA in 2009, up from $184 million the previous year and $49 million in 2007, which is due to the cyclical nature of the World Cup.
$1,061 million - FIFA’s revenue in 2009 - topping the one billion mark due to the successful staging of the tournament in Africa for the first time in its history.
Six - the number of FIFA Partners that are in place until the next World Cup in Brazil 2014. Hyundai,Sony, Adidas, Coca-Cola, Emirates and VISA have worldwide rights to two World Cups. Additional Sponsors are signed up for each individual competition with McDonalds signed for South Africa 2010. Total contributions from additional sponsors from 2007-2010 is $204 million.
$103 million - the amount that beercan-maker Rexam is investing in Brazil this year - raising output in South America by 11%.
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Online clOthingsales, spurredby spOrtswearand OutdOOractivity wereup 32%. alcOhOl sales andelectricalsales grew year On year23% and 13% respectively
RETAIL SALESWarm weather and a World Cup pushed up online sales 22%compared with last year according to Interactive Media Retail Group’s (IMRG) latest e-retail sales index. Online shoppers spent an amount equivalent to £73 per person in the country as total spending was £4.5 billion in May.
Alcohol and electrical sales spurred the rise, led by warmer weather for picnics and television promotions ahead of the World Cup.
Online clothing sales, spurred by sportswear and outdoor activity were up 32%, and alcohol sales and electrical sales grew 23% and 13%respectively, compared with last year.
Merchandising is one of the categories analysed as for any sports event normally brings massive revenue despite the fact that up to 5% of World Cup merchandise is expected to be fake. But this didn’t bother nearly a quarter of customers, who admit they would still buy counterfeit items.
Dodgy products are “rife” and are set to cost UK retailers £92million in lost sales during the tournament, a study for shopping comparison website Kelkoo found.
Another category analysed is Televisions as a surge in demand for these electronics ahead of the World Cup has helped retail sales bounce back last month, according to IMRG figures.
The World Cup tournament drove growth in televisions, with non-food non-store sales in particular growing by 21.9%, the best performance since December. Data from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) showed that UK retail sales lifted by 0.8% on a comparable basis in May.
UK SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA DURING THE WORLD CUP 2010
9UK SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA DURING THE WORLD CUP 2010
© COPYRIGHT 2010 ICROSSING LTD - HEARST GROUP -
THE NATURE OF QUERIES DURING THE WORLD CUP 2010
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© COPYRIGHT 2010 ICROSSING LTD - HEARST GROUP -
UK SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA DURING THE WORLD CUP 2010
playersgeneratemOre interestthan teamswith almOst2.5 milliOnsearches fOr individuals asOppOsed tOOnly 0.5 milliOnsearches fOrteams
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WHAT ARE THE MAIN TYPES OF QUERY AROUND THE WORLD CUP 2010?It is interesting to understand first of all the nature of the queries around the World Cup 2010. We first looked at key terms that were qualified with the phrase ‘worldcup’, examined their search volumes and grouped them together into the categories seen below. There were almost 6 million World Cup qualified searches leading up the World Cup in May.
Shown below is a breakdown of these searches organised into categories, with the size of the football representing the size of the search opportunity.
WORLD CUP SEARCHES BY CATEGORY DURING MAY 2010
‘Players’ was the category that generated the largest interest. Searches for players who participated in the World Cup are by far the largest category with nearly 2.5 million searches. This demonstrates the popularity of individuals and celebrities as opposed to teams or other categories.
It is followed by ‘merchandise’ queries which include terms such as country flags, world cup wall charts, posters, clothing and so on. There were nearly 1.7 million of these kinds of searches. The rest of the categories such as ‘Informational’ queries include terms where the user was seeking information about the actual tournament such as ‘world cup fixtures’,‘world cup groups’, ‘world cup games’ and so on. There were over 550,000 of these kinds of searches.
Another group of ‘generic terms’, such as ‘world cup’, ‘2010 world cup’ were searched for more than 544,000 times.
Searches around the ‘teams’ in the World Cup totalled just over half a million - meaning that they were of less interest than these generic terms.
Other smaller categories include: ‘content’ searches with queries such as ‘world cup video’,‘world cup photos’ and user content related searches; searches around World Cup ‘Tickets’ which come to just over 20,000 searches; and ‘travel’ related World Cup queries which include ‘world cup hotels’, ‘world cup flights’ and related terms. There were just under 4,000 of these types of searches.
In conclusion, people are mainly looking for popular players and for merchandise items associated to the World Cup when they are searching online. All these insights provide useful information to marketing teams. Imagine you are planning to launch a range T-shirts. This information and further analysis could really help you to understand themes or people’s interest to help the design of your T-shirts.
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© COPYRIGHT 2010 ICROSSING LTD - HEARST GROUP -
UK SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA DURING THE WORLD CUP 2010
tOp search keywOrd cOrrespOnds tO ‘wOrld cup’ accOunting fOr 78% Of tOtal wOrld cup related searches
WHAT WERE THE MOST SEARCHED FOR GENERIC TERMS AROUND THE WORLD CUP DURING MAY?It is interesting to understand how generic terms and linguistics are used while searching.
Shown below are the most searched for generic queries around the World Cup. They represent the head of search for the World Cup, and the top 10 terms accounted for 542,000 searches in May alone, where more that 78% of them are two keywords.
This type of analysis can help you to inform your paid and natural search campaign strategies.
TOP GENERIC QUERIES DURING MAY
The most searched for generic term, ‘world cup’, had 450,000 searches. The term ‘2010 world cup’ is second with 50,000 searches. This data can be analysed by region or for different geographical locations, which provides lots of useful insights.
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© COPYRIGHT 2010 ICROSSING LTD - HEARST GROUP -
UK SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA DURING THE WORLD CUP 2010
WHO WERE THE MOST SEARCHED FOR PLAYERS,AND WHO DOMINATES THIS SPACE?TOP SEARCHED PLAYERS
We looked at all the searches for all players within all the World Cup squads, to get an idea of the most popular players.
Searches for players actually participating in the World Cup command the largest numbers of all the categories. Shown below are the top 10 searches for players across all teams.
Fernando Torres, Lionel Messi and Wayne Rooney all have the most people searching for them overall in the UK, each with an estimated 209,000 searches. By grouping the players into their respective countries, we can see which participating country has the most searched for players.
Unsurprisingly, England is top, with its players having a total of 960,000 searches. Spain and Argentina are closely matched, with 300,000 and 280,000 respectively. This information can help online marketers to design a campaign by providing insight into the themes of real people’s interest in advance of the event beginning.
fernandO tOrres, liOnelmessi and waynerOOney lead allthe searchesfOr fOOtball players
torres messi rooney gerrard ronaldo lampard drogba ronaldinho terry cole
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England Spain Argentina Portugal Brazil France Ivory Coast Holland Serbia Italy
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© COPYRIGHT 2010 ICROSSING LTD - HEARST GROUP -
UK SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA DURING THE WORLD CUP 2010
Another interesting insight is provided by analysis of YouTube global searches for participating players in the World Cup. The data below shows the top 10 searches for players in YouTube globally:
Although this shows global searches rather than UK searches, it contrasts dramatically to Google’s search data. When looking for videos on YouTube, most people are looking for Ronaldinho and Ronaldo. Again, this insight can help to align online and off-line campaigns and provide understanding for the strategic planning of advertising campaigns.
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rOnaldinhOand rOnaldOtaking thetOp spOts inyOutube Onlysearches
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© COPYRIGHT 2010 ICROSSING LTD - HEARST GROUP -
UK SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA DURING THE WORLD CUP 2010
WHICH SITES BENEFIT FROM SEARCHES FOR PLAYERS?
The chart below shows the top 15 sites which receive natural search traffic for people who are searching for players.
Wikipedia receives the largest number of visits from natural searches, as it ranks first for many of the player search results; half a million people clicked through in May.
The NBC owned football enthusiast site goal.com comes a distant second with 65,000 clicks, and Yahoo’s Eurosport section is closely behind with 60,000 clicks. These insights can help to understand the distribution of effort across different search engines, or whether it is worth bidding for a particular term on a different search engine. They can also help with media planning, providing an understanding of where to place content or buy media.
Major news sites own a large share of natural search traffic, with the Guardian, Telegraph, Daily Mail and BBC getting a total of 117,000 clicks. Again, this analysis can be really useful for media planning or media placement and optimisation. It also can help with content strategy.
majOr news sites Own a large share Of vOice fOr players, althOugh wikipedia is the mOst visible sOurce Of infOrmatiOn
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© COPYRIGHT 2010 ICROSSING LTD - HEARST GROUP -
UK SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA DURING THE WORLD CUP 2010
WHAT IS THE MOST SEARCHED FOR WORLD CUP MERCHANDISE, AND WHO HAS VISIBILITY FOR THESE TERMS?
TRENDS
‘Merchandise’ is an interesting category for retailers, where seasonality has an important impact. We looked here at search volumes trends across all merchandise terms and the data shows a 250% increase in searches across ‘merchandise’ terms from between April and May:
TOP SEARCHED MERCHANDISE
There were a total of 1.7 million searches around World Cup merchandise and ‘Flags’ was without any doubt the most popular item. It’s followed by other smaller category items such as ‘Football T-Shirts’ and ‘Wall Charts’.
Shown below are the top 15 merchandise categories:
Country flags command a massive 92% of all the searches in the terms looked at, with over 1.5 million searches in May. World Cup wall charts have an impressive 39,000 searches, and World Cup footballs are also popular with just over 20,000 searches.
250% increase in searches acrOss ‘merchandise’ terms frOm april
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flags are the mOst pOpular merchandising item accOunting fOr 92% Of all merchandise searches
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© COPYRIGHT 2010 ICROSSING LTD - HEARST GROUP -
UK SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA DURING THE WORLD CUP 2010
TOP SITES FOR MERCHANDISE TERMS
Shown below are the top 15 sites with estimated natural search traffic clicks from Merchandise terms:
Wikipedia again receives the majority of clicks, again due to the fact it ranks number one for many of the country flag terms.
The other sites in the top 15 are also their mainly because of the ranking for flag-related searches, due to the sheer volume of flag searches. However, there aren’t many commercial sites visible in natural search within this space.
Removing all the flag terms from the top sites, we can see clicks for World cup Merchandise excluding flags:
The top site receiving traffic is Mirror Football, primarily a news site but which provides World Cup wall charts, a large volume category. It is followed by Soccerballworld which is a site all about footballs, and receives a lot of traffic from terms such as ‘world cup footballs’.
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wikipedia ranked number One fOr many Of the cOuntry flag terms
the tOp site receiving traffic is mirrOr fOOtball
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© COPYRIGHT 2010 ICROSSING LTD - HEARST GROUP -
UK SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA DURING THE WORLD CUP 2010
WHAT WERE THE INFORMATIONAL QUERIES AROUND THE WORLD CUP? WHO RECEIVED TRAFFIC FOR THESE QUERIES?
TRENDS
Another interesting theme to analyse is the information that people look for or research.
What were internet users looking for during the World Cup? ‘Informational’ World Cup queries totalled around 553,000 searches in May alone. Below shows trends in search volume from January to May:
Traffic from these informational queries more than trebled month on month from April to May.
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wOrld cup Queries tOtalled arOund 553,000 searches in may alOne
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UK SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA DURING THE WORLD CUP 2010
WHAT INFORMATION WERE PEOPLE SEARCHING FOR IN MAY?There are different types of informational query around the World Cup, which can be loosely bunched together into categories. Shown below is the split between the differenttypes of informational queries:
The majority of searches are around users seeking fixtures and dates for the games, with a total of 280,000 searches.
Searches for information about the teams, squads, tables and groups also have a significant amount of search, with 155,000 searches. There are around 72,000 searches from users seeking the odds and on betting related terms. Facts and history include terms such as ‘world cup history’, ‘world cup statistics’ and so on, and amounts to around 46,000 searches. Conducting the same analysis over a period of time can also help to identify new valuable trends or topics that can provide good opportunities being ahead of other competitors.
TOP SITES FOR INFORMATIONAL QUERIES
Shown below are the top 15 sites with estimated natural search traffic clicks from informational queries:
Fifa.com takes the lion’s share of traffic, with nearly 94,000 visits from natural search in May. The BBC and Telegraph, both major news sites received 42,000 and 16,000 clicks respectively.
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the type Of wOrld cup infOrmatiOn searched is fOr fOOtball schedules and fixtures
fifa.cOm takes the liOn’s share Of traffic, with nearly 94,000 visits in may
(51%) fixtures/schedule(28%) teams/groups(13%) Odds/betting(8%) facts/history
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UK SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA DURING THE WORLD CUP 2010
WHAT WERE THE MOST SEARCHED FOR FOOTBALL TEAMS IN MAY?During May there was a lot of buzz around the best country teams. The progress of team to the finals or semi-finals will have had a direct impact on different search terms.
The chart below shows the top 15 searched country football teams by search volumes:
Perhaps unsurprisingly England and South Africa were the most searched for football teams, with 223,000 and 43,000 searches respectively.
Two South American countries Brazil and Argentina were 3rd and 4th, with 30,000 and 25,000 searches.
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,13
0
12
,55
0
11
,14
1
8,7
10
8,1
46
7,8
73
7,3
58
7,3
00
6,1
10
22
3,4
00
Eng
land
43
,30
0S
outh
Afr
ica
29
,77
0B
razi
l
24
,78
0A
rgen
tina
21
,29
0S
pain
20
,52
0Fr
ance
16
,13
0It
aly
12
,55
0M
exic
o
11
,14
1G
erm
any
8,7
10
Hol
land
8,1
46
Alg
eria
7,8
73
Ivor
y C
oast
7,3
58
Cam
eroo
n
7,3
00
Aus
tral
ia
6,1
10
Nig
eria
Eng
land
Sou
th A
fric
a
Bra
zil
Arg
enti
na
Spa
in
Fran
ce
Ital
y
Mex
ico
Ger
man
y
Hol
land
Alg
eria
Ivor
y C
oast
Cam
eroo
n
Aus
tral
ia
Nig
eria
22
3,4
00
43
,30
0
29
,77
0
24
,78
0
21
,29
0
20
,52
0
16
,13
0
12
,55
0
11
,14
1
8,7
10
8,1
46
7,8
73
7,3
58
7,3
00
6,1
10
Eng
land
Sou
th A
fric
a
Bra
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Arg
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na
Spa
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Fran
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Ital
y
Mex
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Alg
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Ivor
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Cam
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n
Aus
tral
ia
Nig
eria
england and sOuth africa are the mOst searched fOr fOOtball teams, with 223,000 and 43,000 searches respectively
20
© COPYRIGHT 2010 ICROSSING LTD - HEARST GROUP -
UK SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA DURING THE WORLD CUP 2010
WHAT ARE THE MOST SEARCHED WORLD CUP CONTENT QUERIES?There were nearly 29,000 searches in May for content relating to the World Cup.
The chart below shows the various types of content that people were searching for:
There were over 13,000 searches for the World Cup Music/Song.
There was significant numbers of people searching for the World Cup logo as well, with over 12,000 searches.
TOP SITES FOR CONTENT QUERIES
Shown below are the top 15 sites with estimated natural search traffic clicks from content queries:
The official FIFA site received just over 2,800 visits from people searching for content, with the unofficial site WorldCupSong.com close behind receiving just over 2,500 visits. These mostly came from people looking for the World Cup Music/Song.
peOple’s tOp cOntent interest is arOund music and sOngs
0
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
3,000
www.fifa.c
om
en.w
ikiped
ia.org
www.logo
desig
nlove
.com
worldc
upso
ng.or
g
www.youtu
be.co
m
www.worl
dcup
pictur
es.ne
t
www.nme.c
om
www.teleg
raph.c
o.uk
www.itv.co
m
www.worl
dcup
blog.o
rg
www.worl
dcup
song
s.co.u
k
www.eplta
lk.co
m
www.metr
o.co.u
k
news.b
bc.co
.uk
www.worl
dcup
song
.com
the Official fifa site receives just Over 2,800 visits frOm the cOntent Queries
(13, 100) music/song(12,100) logo(3,600) news(2,400) picture(720) photos(480) video
21
© COPYRIGHT 2010 ICROSSING LTD - HEARST GROUP -
UK SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA DURING THE WORLD CUP 2010
WHAT WERE THE TOP SEARCHED FOR TICKETRELATED WORLD CUP TERMS IN MAY?Surprisingly ‘tickets’ was not a large category.
Shown below are the top search terms related to World Cup tickets:
The term ‘world cup tickets’ had most of the searches by far with a total volume of 18,000.
Searches for World Cup final tickets had just over 2,000 searches.
0 2,000 4,000 6,000 8,000
10,000 12,000 14,000 16,000 18,000 20,000
world c
up tic
kets
world c
up fin
al tic
kets
world c
up tic
ket
ticke
ts for
worl
d cup
world c
up tic
kets
for sa
le
footba
ll worl
d cup
ticke
ts
chea
p worl
d cup
ticke
ts
socc
er worl
d cup
ticke
ts
ticke
ts for
the w
orld c
up
the term ‘wOrld cup tickets’ has mOst Of the searches by far with a tOtal vOlume Of 18,000
ADMITONE
World Cup 2010
03
27
35
03
27
35
22
© COPYRIGHT 2010 ICROSSING LTD - HEARST GROUP -
UK SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA DURING THE WORLD CUP 2010
IMPACT OF MOBILE SEARCHESDURINGTHE WORLD CUP 2010
23
© COPYRIGHT 2010 ICROSSING LTD - HEARST GROUP -
UK SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA DURING THE WORLD CUP 2010
IMPACT OF MOBILE SEARCHESMobile searches are starting to be important. iPhones are currently the top device in the UK – accounting for 38% of all mobile search requests according to AdMob May 2010 data.
UK mobile users send an average of 1,5 million picture and video messages every day according to the Mobile Data Association.
There were 49,000 searches from mobile phones in May, as opposed to almost 5.2 million desktop searches. A clear example of how, though mobiles are increasingly popular these days, they are still some distance from reaching the same volumes of traditional desktop searches.
Comparing mobile and desktop by World Cup category query, it’s apparent that the top categories (players) rank first for both mobile and desktop. Nonetheless, searches have been larger in amount using desktop devices than the ones for mobile.
mObile searches fOr wOrld cup Only represented 1% Of tOtal searches
(5,196,132) desktop search(48,982) mobile search
24
© COPYRIGHT 2010 ICROSSING LTD - HEARST GROUP -
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Mob
ile Sea
rch
Deskto
p Sea
rch
UK SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA DURING THE WORLD CUP 2010
The second interesting insight is that the ‘merchandise’ category which is usually linked to more commercial transactions, is of less importance for mobile. This suggests that m-commerce is still growing and mobile users are not ready yet for commercial transactions via their mobile devices and phones.
Finally, analysing each mobile category of searches, ’players’ received a total of 35,074 searches, whereas information and merchandise related queries only achieved 5,746 and 5,732 searches respectively.
0
5,000
10,000
15,000
20,000
25,000
30,000
35,000
40,000
Players
Inform
ation
Mercha
ndise
Generi
c
Conten
t
Ticke
ts
players information merchandise generic content tickets
desktop search
mobile search
25
© COPYRIGHT 2010 ICROSSING LTD - HEARST GROUP -
UK SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA DURING THE WORLD CUP 2010
SEARCH INSIGHTS REGARDING CONSUMER PRODUCTS DURING THE WORLD CUP 2010
26
© COPYRIGHT 2010 ICROSSING LTD - HEARST GROUP -
UK SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA DURING THE WORLD CUP 2010
CONSUMER PRODUCTSAccording to the Interactive Media Retail Group’s (IMRG) latest e-retail sales index, sales of electricals and alcohol grew by 13% and 23% year on year. We decided to look at searches around these two products.
Shown below are the various TV sizes that consumers are searching for, with the number of searches for each one. There were 657,000 searches for TVs.
The searches include qualifiers such as “LCD”, and “HDTV”. 32” TVs are the most searched for size of TV, with nearly 185,000 searches during May.
42” TVs are also very popular with just over 163,000 searches. The least searched for TVs are 28” TVs, with just over 6,000 searches in May.
These insights should be of real interest for manufacturers or for chain retailers, as some consumer behaviour is associated with the data. For instance, it seems that consumers trade up from 32” TV to 42” TVs, and they show little interest in the mid range product (37” TV).
sales Of electricals grew by 13% (imrg) year On year, and tOp searched type Of tv cOrrespOnded tO 32”tv fOllOwed by 42”tv
0 20,000 40,000 60,000 80,000
100,000 120,000 140,000 160,000 180,000 200,000
26" T
V
28" T
V
32" T
V
37" T
V
42" T
V
47" T
V
50" T
V
52" T
V
SONY
0 20,000 40,000 60,000 80,000
100,000 120,000 140,000 160,000 180,000 200,000
26" T
V
28" T
V
32" T
V
37" T
V
42" T
V
47" T
V
50" T
V
52" T
V
0 20,000 40,000 60,000 80,000
100,000 120,000 140,000 160,000 180,000 200,000
26" T
V
28" T
V
32" T
V
37" T
V
42" T
V
47" T
V
50" T
V
52" T
V
27
© COPYRIGHT 2010 ICROSSING LTD - HEARST GROUP -
UK SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA DURING THE WORLD CUP 2010
WHO GETS THE MOST TRAFFIC FROM PEOPLE SEARCHING FOR TVS?We can estimate the top sites which are getting this traffic and rank them accordingly.
Shown below are the top 15 sites that received natural search traffic around these terms:
The price comparison site NexTag.co.uk received the most traffic, with an estimated 45,000 clicks in May. Amazon.co.uk also had a significant share of voice, taking just over 31,000 clicks.
Other price comparison sites shown include Pricerunner.co.uk, dealtime.co.uk and kelkoo.co.uk.
0
5,000
10,000
15,000
20,000
25,000
30,000
35,000
40,000
45,000
50,000
www.nexta
g.co.u
k
www.amaz
on.co
.uk
www.ench
anted
learni
ng.co
m
www.crwfla
gs.co
m
www.map
ofworl
d.com
www.price
runne
r.co.u
k
www.flags
.net
www.pictu
resofe
nglan
d.com
www.flags
pot.n
et
www.cia.g
ov
www.pixm
ania.
co.uk
www.digit
aldire
ct.co
.uk
www.riche
rsoun
ds.co
.uk
www.teleg
raph.c
o.uk
the price cOmparisOn site nextag.cO.uk receives the mOst traffic, with an estimated 45,000 clicks in may
28UK SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA DURING THE WORLD CUP 2010
WHAT ABOUT PEOPLE LOOKING FOR BEER?Doing the same sort of analysis on the data we have on people searching for beer, we can see that searches around beer and cider saw an increase in the months running up to the World Cup. Shown below are search trends across ‘beer’ and ‘cider’related search terms:
There were 280,400 around beer and cider related terms in May compared to 253,000 in April.
Although cider was very popular, there were nearly nine times more searches for beer than cider in May.
0
50,000
100,000
150,000
200,000
250,000
300,000
Jan Feb Mar Apr May
0
50,000
100,000
150,000
200,000
250,000
300,000
Jan Feb Mar Apr May
0
50,000
100,000
150,000
200,000
250,000
300,000
Jan Feb Mar Apr May
0
50,000
100,000
150,000
200,000
250,000
300,000
Jan Feb Mar Apr May
90%Beer
10%Cider
90%Beer
10%Cider
althOugh cider is very pOpular, there were nearly nine times mOre searches fOr beer than cider in may.
© COPYRIGHT 2010 ICROSSING LTD - HEARST GROUP -
29
© COPYRIGHT 2010 ICROSSING LTD - HEARST GROUP -
WHO HAS THE GREATEST VISIBILITY FOR BEER?Perhaps surprisingly, Wikipedia again receives the largest share of the traffic generated by searches for beer. This is mainly due to ranking first for generic beer and cider terms.
What’s interesting to note is that commercial sites don’t have much visibility in this space despite the huge investment in offline marketing by some of the top beer brands, leaving a hole within the online space. Also supermarkets chains miss the opportunity to rank highly for these products and around these ‘World Cup’ terms.
We can estimate what sites receive traffic for these key terms:
UK SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA DURING THE WORLD CUP 2010
cOmmercial sites have nO visibility fOr beer related searche during the wOrld cup 2010 despite Of an Online sales grOwth Of 13% year On year
0
10,000
20,000
30,000
40,000
50,000
60,000
70,000
en.w
ikiped
ia.org
www.beer-
devo
n.co.u
k
www.beeri
nthee
venin
g.com
www.beerm
ad.or
g.uk
www.camra.
org.uk
www.amaz
on.co
.uk
www.beers
ofeuro
pe.co
.uk
www.beerr
itz.co
.uk
www.wine
ware.co
.uk
www.cobra
beer.
com
www.beera
ndpu
b.com
stores
.ebay
.co.uk
www.wes
tons-c
ider.c
o.uk
www.ukcid
er.co
.uk
www.fireb
ox.co
m
30
© COPYRIGHT 2010 ICROSSING LTD - HEARST GROUP -
UK SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA DURING THE WORLD CUP 2010
PREFERRED BRANDS DURING THE WORLD CUP 2010
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© COPYRIGHT 2010 ICROSSING LTD - HEARST GROUP -
WHICH ARE THE PREFERRED BRANDS DURING THE WORLD CUP AND WHICH ONES HAD MORE VISIBILITY AND ENGAGEMENT?
BRAND VISIBILITY
The World Cup 2010 had 21 partners, sponsors and supporters, which included many large global and leading brands. These brands have varying amounts of visibility across search and social networks, thus, we explored the level of engagement for some of these brands during the world Cup as we believed that given the enormous marketing expenditure during this event, this was of key relevance in our analysis.
The search volumes for all the brand sponsors totalled nearly 2.5 million searches in the UK as opposed to 2.25 million in YouTube globally(*).
The chart below shows the total searches for the top 15 brand sponsors/partners of the World Cup, in natural search, and also YouTube searches in comparison:
(*) Note that YouTube figures in the UK are not enough to be representative
McDonalds had the largest number of brand searches both in natural search and also within YouTube, with more than 0.5 million natural searches in the UK and YouTube searches worldwide. This large amount of searches had been impacted by a recent advert for McDonalds shown in France.
Adidas also had a large number of natural brand searches, with 510,000 searches, but a much smaller YouTube search volume despite of almost 4 million YouTube views with - Adidas Originals - Star Wars™ Cantina 2010 (http://www.facebook.com/adidasoriginals), a campaign also promoted using social networks Adidas YouTube search volume was smaller in proportion to McDonalds, or Sony. These brands had 450,000 natural searches and 578,000 YouTube searches respectively.
BP had the third largest YouTube search volume, mainly due to the recent oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, and not because of the World Cup related views.
UK SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA DURING THE WORLD CUP 2010
mcdOnalds has the largest brand search bOth in natural search and alsO within yOutube
100,000
0
200,000
300,000
400,000
500,000
600,000
700,000
Mcdon
alds
Adidas
Son
y
Emirates
BP
Hyund
ai
Coca C
ola
Contin
ental
Budweis
er Visa
Fnb
Mahind
ra
Aggrek
o Mtn
Telko
m
brand searchesyoutube searches
32
© COPYRIGHT 2010 ICROSSING LTD - HEARST GROUP -
UK SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA DURING THE WORLD CUP 2010
BRAND ENGAGEMENT
In this section of the research we also looked at some figures that provide insights around brand engagement. We checked the number of ‘status updates’ and ‘fan reactions’ to ‘status updates’ (likes and comments) over a two week period (4th to 20th June) covering the beginning of the World Cup.
We separated out updates which related to the World Cup from those which did not and compared the level of fan reactions to each. The more reactions that brands received from World Cup status updates compared to non World Cup status updates the more engagement can be seen to be generated by the brands’ association with the event.
Brands along the top line only spoke about the World Cup in their status updates and those sitting at 0 did not produce an update regarding the World Cup at all.
The chart above visualises the value that association with the World Cup brought to brand engagement on Facebook. Those which utilised the association through specific campaigns were more likely to benefit from better engagement.
Brands which decreased their ‘fan engagement’ when talking about the World Cup did not make a strong enough association with the event or present this association in a way which interested their fans.
This also visualises the amount of effort put in by brands to make the most of their sponsorship and describes how aligned their online/offline strategy was with social networks. The ideal position to be in would be in the top right hand corner of this diagram which would show a high level of engagement and a rapid increase in engagement which is appropriate for a event of this nature.
The size of the bubbles indicates the number of fans each brand has on Facebook. Bubbles appended with “Football” indicate a brand’s dedicated World Cup or Football Page. As we can see the largest brands are Coca-Cola, Adidas and McDonalds.
In order to decide which brands were making the most of their Social Media presences with regard to the World Cup it is worth comparing with other social spaces.Another interesting insight is provided by checking overall number of followers, fans and subscribers.
adidas fOOtball has achieved very pOsitive sOcial engagement thrOugh their wOrld cup 2010 related status updates
World Cup related status updates
Castrol FootballHyundai Football
Continental
Visa
Coca-Cola FootballAdidas Football
Fan
enga
gem
ent w
ith W
orld
Cup
v N
on W
orld
Cup
Sta
tus
upda
tes
10 20 30 40 50 60 -10 0
Adidas
Budweiser Football
Budweiser
Coca-ColaSony
MahindraMcDonalds
Hyundai
33
© COPYRIGHT 2010 ICROSSING LTD - HEARST GROUP -
UK SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA DURING THE WORLD CUP 2010
whilst mcdOnalds dO appear tO freQuently publish cOntent On yOutube, they missed the OppOrtunity tO publish related status updates
OVERALL
Points of note include the fact that in some cases (such as Budweiser), campaign channels (i.e. those specifically targeted around the World Cup) are more popular than their main brand channel.
This would seem to demonstrate that brands were not benefiting from a connected social media plan which can leverage the popularity of individual campaigns to strengthen brand presence.
Conversely, it is also worth noting that not all brands are utilising their overall brand strength to effectively communicate individual campaigns.
For example, McDonalds did not publish any status updates in the time period we looked at which can be seen to be a waste of a communication channel. Whilst McDonalds do appear to frequently publish content on YouTube they have turned off the ability to comment on videos meaning that they were missing out on free consumer feedback.
0
1000000
2000000
3000000
4000000
5000000
6000000
7000000
0
5000
10000
15000
20000
25000
30000
35000
40000
Coca C
ola
Adidas
McDon
alds
Adidas
Footba
ll
Budweis
er Foo
tball
Budweis
erSon
y
Castro
l Foo
tball
Hyund
ai
Hyund
ai Foo
tball
Mahind
ra
Contin
ental Visa
Coca-C
ola Foo
tball
youtusubscriberstwitter followersfaceb fans
34
© COPYRIGHT 2010 ICROSSING LTD - HEARST GROUP -
YOUTUBE
The graph below measures the number of Channel and Total Upload views and the number of subscribers a Channel has. Whilst there is no “ideal ratio” of Channel views to total upload views, it is generally accepted that:
• Total upload views should be the higher number• Channel views should give an indication of the volume of total upload views
Budweiser’s dedicated football channel (BudUnited) allows users to watch videos in a flash section of the page, views of which may not be accounted for through the traditional “video count”, which may be why Channel views are so much higher than video views.
In instances such as Continental and Sony where the Channel views are as high or nearly as high as Total Video uploads, the conclusion seems to be that whilst there is an interest from consumers in viewing brand related content, their expectations aren’t being met by the content being published by the brand.
Alternatively a previously successful video could have driven interest in the channel but subsequently been removed (and therefore not included in the manual count up of their video counts).
Other Channels such as McDonalds and Hyundai suffer from the opposite problem of a relatively low number of Channel views compared to total upload views which suggests that they are not doing enough to drive interest in their branded channel. Whilst users may stumble across their video content, their interest in the brand’s content is not enough to encourage them to click through to the channel.
Alternatively you could say that users may be browsing other Brand videos through on-page search options, as well as subscribing to the channel on the actual video page.
best pOsitiOned brands in yOutube are adidas fOOtball (adidas) and cOca-cOla
UK SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA DURING THE WORLD CUP 2010
Coca C
ola
Adidas
McDon
alds
Adidas
Footba
ll
Budweis
er Foo
tball
Budweis
erSon
y
Castro
l Foo
tball
Hyund
ai
Contin
ental Visa
0
2,000
4,000
6,000
8,000
10,000
12,000
0
1,000,000
2,000,000
3,000,000
4,000,000
5,000,000
6,000,000
7,000,000
8,000,000
9,000,000
10,000,000 channel viewstotal upload viewssubscribers
35
© COPYRIGHT 2010 ICROSSING LTD - HEARST GROUP -
The graph below shows the number of times a brand tweeted and were retweeted/@ replied in a day and the number of followers that brand has. Brands which are missing here are Visa, Budweiser, Castrol Football and Continental.
Here we can see that there is no direct correlation between the number of published tweets (effort), retweets/@ replies (engagement) and the number of followers of a brand (interest).
Engaging with a brand on Twitter requires users to publically publish a tweet either directed at a brand or repeating something it has itself tweeted. Unless you are implying some level of negativity in your tweet, you are acting as an advocate for the brand by, in effect, advertising their presence and in the case of retweeting, distributing their message.
This could perhaps be taken to mean that it is a brand’s ability to target their content to the needs and wants of their audience that is more important on Twitter, as engagement ultimately means a higher level of advocacy.
Brand usage of social media appears to be inconsistent across many brands though those which do maintain their presence were able to leverage their social media strength during the World Cup to their advantage. However, this was also affected by whether there was a clear and obvious relationship between brands and the World Cup through the incorporation of event aspects included within the brand’s messaging.
International sponsors which did not have any official brand presence in the social spaces we investigated are BP and Emirates. We did not look at national as opposed to international brands (such as FNB and Neo-Afrika).
UK SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA DURING THE WORLD CUP 2010
brands which are missing here are visa, budweiser, castrOl fOOtball and cOntinental which prOves lack Of hOlistic apprOach with the wOrld cup marketing effOrts
Coca C
ola
Adidas
McDon
alds
Adidas
Footba
ll
Coca C
ola Foo
tball
Budweis
er Foo
tball
Sony
Hyund
ai
Hyund
ai Foo
tball
Mahind
ra0
5000
10000
15000
20000
25000
30000
35000
40000
0
50
100
150
200
250
300 number of @/rt in one daytweets a dayfollowers
36
© COPYRIGHT 2010 ICROSSING LTD - HEARST GROUP -
UK SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA DURING THE WORLD CUP 2010
ABOUT iCROSSING
37
© COPYRIGHT 2010 ICROSSING LTD - HEARST GROUP -
ABOUT iCROSSINGiCrossing UK is a digital marketing agency that specialises in search and social media. We design and build search and social media strategies for some of the world’s biggest brands, including The Coca-Cola Company, Toyota, Virgin, Bank of America, and TK MAXX. iCrossing UK is part of iCrossing, one of the world’s largest, digital marketing agencies, which employs 600 staff in 12 offices around the globe, including 100 staff based at UK offices in London and Brighton. iCrossing has won numerous accolades, including the number one-ranked agency for both paid and natural search in Forrester Research’s 2009 Wave report of US search marketing agencies, OMMA’s Search Agency of the Year, Best Use of Search at the Revolution Awards and a finalist for Revolution’s Agency of the Year award. We are also the only agency with two Forrester social-media case studies to its name.
iCrossing is a unit of Hearst Corporation, one of the world’s largest diversified media companies.
Find out more at www.icrossing.co.uk or contact us on +44 (0)1273 827 700 ([email protected])
London
2nd floor22 Chapter StreetLondon SW1P 4NP
Tel: +44(0)20 7821 2300Fax: +44 (0)20 7828 2866
Brighton
Moore House13 Black Lion StreetBrightonUnited KingdomBN1 1ND
Tel: +44 (0)1273 827 700Fax: +44 (0)1273 827 701
UK SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA DURING THE WORLD CUP 2010