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

Experian Hitwise Brands Index

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 12th and the week ending June 19th 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 19th) 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 5th 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 15th 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 71h 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
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.

For more information, visit http://www.experian.co.uk.

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

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