Update: Experian Hitwise identifies the brands topping the World Cup sponsorship league

Update: Experian Hitwise identifies the brands topping the World Cup sponsorship league

• Budweiser tops the list for the w/e June 19th, but dominance of beer companies declines
• Kia out manoeuvres larger automotive rivals
• Five times as many searches for vuvuzelas as for Wayne Rooney
• 1 in every 88 UK Internet searches currently World Cup related
• 150% increase in searches for the French World Cup team

London, 22 June 2010 - Experian Hitwise, the leading online competitive intelligence service, today reveals that Budweiser, an official FIFA World Cup sponsor and sponsor of the USA team, was the brand that made the most of its World Cup involvement last week. UK Internet searches for Budweiser increased by 25% between the week ending June 12^th and the week ending June 19^th and its Experian Hitwise World Cup Brands Index* score increased from 145 to 182 based upon the volume of searches for the brand.

The top five performing brands in the Experian Hitwise World Cup Brands Index last week (w/e June 19^th) were as follows.

Brand Index Week 2 – top five performers

Rank	Brand	Experian Hitwise Brand Search Index, w/e June 12th	Experian Hitwise Brand Search Index, w/e June 19th	Week on week change (%)
1	Budweiser	145	182	25.0%
2	Kia	91	103	13.2%
3	Westfield	84	95	12.7%
4	Vodafone	115	127	11.0%
5	Adidas	107	117	10.0%

Budweiser was the only brand featured in last week’s Index to retain its position in the top five. The remaining top four positions in the table were this week filled by sponsors from a variety of categories, with car manufacturer Kia in second place and significantly outperforming its larger automotive rivals. Kia (Slovakian team sponsor and FIFA partner) saw UK Internet searches increase by 13.2% and its Brand Index improve from 91 to 103. Fiat was the next best performing automotive brand with an 8.2% increase in searches. Australian shopping centre giant, Westfield, completed the top five along with Vodafone and Adidas.

Meanwhile, the Technology and Telecoms category was the best overall performer in the brand index with searches up 5.2%, well ahead of its nearest rival, Automotive (1.6%).

“The brands that performed well in the Experian Hitwise World Cup Brands Index this week were those sponsoring the ‘underdog’ teams: Kia (Slovakia), Westfield (Australia), Vodafone (Greece) and Budweiser (USA). Given the poor performances of some of the favourites in the opening games, this isn’t perhaps so surprising,” commented Robin Goad, Research Director for Experian Hitwise.

“Our analysis highlights that it’s as much about how a brand runs its sponsorship package as it is about who they are sponsoring. Simply aligning with a hopefully successful team isn’t enough. Budweiser has an integrated marketing campaign that links outdoor media, TV and press advertising with in-store on pack promotions, trade promotions and an online presence that includes a ‘predict the winners’ game. Kia is also pushing its sponsorship through dealerships, a special World Cup edition car and by creating a World Cup fans’ site in conjunction with four newspapers and broadcasters.”

Robin Goad adds: “It is also interesting to see that the Technology and Telecoms brands performed best overall, as this hasn’t yet had a big impact on searches for many of their products. Sales of televisions were expected to surge on the back of the World Cup, but last week searches of television were down 14% compared to last year. It would seem to be the mobile phone brands Vodafone and T-Mobile that are boosting the performance of this category.”

Other ways in which the World Cup has influenced UK online behaviour over the last week include:

• Five times as many searches for vuvuzelas as for Wayne Rooney
• 1 in every 88 UK Internet searches currently World Cup related
• 150% increase in searches for the French World Cup team
• Following the 20-fold increase in searches for vuvuzelas between the weeks ending June 5^th and June 12th, there was a further 4-fold increase in searches last week. During the week ending June 19th there were five times as many searches for ‘vuvuzela’ than for ‘wayne rooney’, the England team’s most searched for player.
• Bavaria , the Dutch larger, was the fifth most visited beer website in the UK on the 15^th June following the beer brand’s marketing ambush stunt during the Holland versus Denmark game, which saw the arrest of two Dutch women.
• 1 in every 88 Internet searches in the UK was World cup related last week. The FIFA homepage ( www.fifa.com ) is the biggest recipient of World Cup search traffic, and last week was the 71^h most visited website in the UK, and the fourth most popular Sports website.
• UK Internet searches relating to the French football team increased by 150% last week as the team experienced problems with player revolt following the sending home of Nicolas Anelka.

  Overall Brand Index Week 2

  
  

  		Experian Hitwise Brand Search Index, w/e June 12th	Experian Hitwise Brand Search Index, w/e June 19th	Week on week change (%)
  All Brands	All Brands index	105	105	-0.3%
  Automotive	Overall Automotive index	94	95	1.6%
  	Chevrolet	94	88	-5.6%
  	Fiat	92	100	8.2%
  	Hyundai	91	98	7.1%
  	Kia	91	103	13.2%
  	Mercedes Benz	94	98	4.3%
  	Peugeot	87	81	-7.3%
  	Volkswagen	102	101	-1.1%
  Food & Drink	Overall Food & Drink index	111	107	-3.6%
  	Budweiser	145	182	25.0%
  	Cadbury	77	77	0.0%
  	Carlsberg	120	60	-50.0%
  	Coca Cola	98	101	3.9%
  	Corona	133	89	-33.3%
  	Heineken	78	44	-42.9%
  	McDonalds	90	97	8.1%
  	Pepsi	57	49	-14.3%
  	Peroni	100	100	0.0%
  	Powerade	80	80	0.0%
  	Tesco	113	108	-3.9%
  Sports & Fashion	Overall Sports & Fashion index	101	101	0.2%
  	Adidas	107	117	10.0%
  	Dolce & Gabbana	96	96	0.0%
  	Gillette	96	96	0.0%
  	Marks and Spencer	103	100	-2.7%
  	Nike	92	100	9.4%
  	Nivea for Men	100	100	0.0%
  	Puma	98	104	6.3%
  	Westfield	84	95	12.7%
  Travel	Overall Travel Index	103	102	-0.5%
  	Emirates	103	101	-1.7%
  	Hertz	95	101	6.1%
  	Lufthansa	88	88	0.0%
  	Quantas	117	108	-7.1%
  	South African Airways	250	232	-7.3%
  	Virgin Atlantic	96	97	0.5%
  Technology & Telecoms	Overall Technology & Telecoms index	105	111	5.2%
  	Samsung	98	99	1.1%
  	Sony	93	93	0.4%
  	T-Mobile	107	110	2.2%
  	Vodafone	115	127	11.0%

  The next Experian Hitwise Brand Index will be available on 29 June 2010.

  ENDS

Contact:
Jannie Cahill
Experian Hitwise
+44 20 3042 4773
press.uk@hitwise.com

* About the Experian Hitwise Brand Search Index

The Index is based upon the volume of UK Internet searches for multiple variations of each brand. All of the brands selected are either official FIFA World Cup sponsors, or sponsors of national teams with products that have strong brand recognition in the UK. The base for the index was set at 100 using the average weekly search volume for each brand during May 2010.

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, Canada and Brazil. More information about Experian Hitwise is available at www.hitwise.co.uk.

For up-to-date analysis of online trends, please visit the Experian Hitwise research blog at www.ilovedata.com and the Experian Hitwise Data Centre at www.hitwise.com/datacentre.

About Experian
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