Posts tagged Buzz
Carlsberg reaps the rewards of England’s World Cup loss
Jul 1st
Drinks brands sponsoring World Cup teams continue to benefit most from increased online traffic, according to Experian Hitwise.
Peroni, sponsors of the Italian team and England sponsors, Carlsberg saw the greatest number of UK internet searches of all World Cup sponsors last week.
Searches for Peroni, increased by 50% between the week ending June 19th and the week ending June 26th, although the Italian team were on their way home from South Africa by June 24th.
Peroni’s Experian Hitwise World Cup Index score increased from 100 to 150 based upon the volume of searches for the brand.
What does mean for advertisers? Products that are easily accessible to consumers can often get the most from major event sponsorships. Why? Because they are also affordable. How many times has World Cup sponsor Hyanidi been in the ‘most searched’ for rankings…well, none. Why, a pint of Carlsberg may set you back £3. A Hyundai is more like between £8,000 and £17,000.
And alcohol can help the punters when highly stressed: the promise of a last-16 tie against Germany saw UK internet searches for Carlsberg increase by a third over the week.
Meanwhile, telecoms businesses T-Mobile and Vodafone (down from fourth place in last week’s index) completed the top five, but with a much lower increase in the volume of searches.
The top five performing brands in the Experian Hitwise World Cup Brands Index last week (w/e June 26th):
The results highlight the relative dominance of drinks brands in generating online buzz in the 2010 World Cup.
Budweiser topped the brand index last week with a 25% increase in online searches, while in the first week of the tournament, beer companies made up four of the top five performers.
Overall the best performing sector was food (comfort food like McDonald’s) and drink, with a 4.8% increase in searches, followed by technology and telecoms with a 2.8% increase.
Robin Goad, Research Director for Experian Hitwise, said, “Last week it was those brands sponsoring relative underdogs that did well in terms of online buzz – Westfield with Australia and Kia with Slovakia to name but two. This week, as the group stage of the tournament drew to a close, it was the so called big guns that started to draw more attention: those sponsoring Italy, England and Germany.
“The brands that will fare well for the remainder of the tournament will be those that can respond quickly to what’s happening, adapting campaigns and targeting people with eye-catching and engaging content that makes them stand out from the crowd.”
Google – Buzz or Boredom?
Feb 15th
From Bruce Townsend, Actinic
Google seem to have created a bit of a buzz lately with a product called… well, Buzz. But is it any good, and should marketers pay it any attention?
Google Buzz is essentially a feed reader, and a pretty basic one at that; in fact it seems to be derived from Google Reader, which has been around for a few years now.
With Buzz, though, Google have done some clever things. They’ve included support for media; given it a particular focus on social networking sites; and made it easy to add feeds from the main ones. They’ve also integrated it with Google Mail. So now you can check your emails and view posts from all the people you are following, all in one place – including picture feeds from Flickr and Picasa, and video from YouTube.
They’ve also branded and marketed it quite neatly. Coupled with its profile within Google Mail, this has grabbed a lot of attention and made it the talked-about application of the moment.
Being a feed reader, information does only flow in one direction. Comments posted only appear in Buzz, not in the application the original message came from. This may prove to be a weakness, and makes it vastly inferior to Flock, which has never gained much of a following. On the other hand, Buzz has the benefit of Google’s massive weight behind it.
To really gain traction, Buzz may have to actually wean people away from services like Twitter, and it may be too late in the day for that. Initially it will probably be used mainly for person to person interaction, particularly Google Mail users. But it could become a useful tool for businesses wanting to monitor what customers are saying. And with Google behind it, who knows how far it will go?
It’s certainly one to watch.
Google wants to be your broadband provider. And sell more ads.
Feb 11th
Imagine downloading a high-definition, full-length feature film in less than five minutes. Universal, ultra high-speed internet access will make all this and more possible – says Google.
The search engine giant has today made a bid to launch its own high-speed broadband network.
Search engine + email + phone handsets + social sites + broadband = world domination.
Just kidding. But Google really is every where, isn’t it? Mmmm, everywhere except China. But never mind that. Google’s latest venture is only launching as a trial in the US, for now.
Should it succeed, it will be able to gather yet more customer information from its broadband network and target users better with ads. There really is no escaping.
But aside from that, you have to hand it to Google. They’re are doing an excellent job at remaining in the hearts and minds of customers.
Remember a few years ago when Pay TV companies were launching triple-play packages and they would sell you broadband internet , mobile and fixed line plans and satellite TV and you’d pay for it all in one bill? Well I see Google heading down a rut e that is much the same. It’s streamlining digital communication and making itself a one-stop shop.
That should make things easier for advertisers too. They will be able to send one consistent brand message through a range of different digital channels while only having to deal with one provider/host. Maybe they’ll get a package deal too – say some search ads, some video ads on YouTube, a profile on Buzz and maybe throw in a display ad here or there for free.
In a statement on its blog, Google said, “We plan to offer service at a competitive price to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people. Our goal is to experiment with new ways to help make internet access better and faster for everyone.”
The search giant also lists a number of specific features it has in mind. Here they are:
Next generation apps
Google wants to see what developers and users can do with ultra high-speeds, whether it be creating new bandwidth-intensive “killer apps” and services, or other uses not even it can yet imagine.
New deployment techniques
Google will test new ways to build fiber networks, and to help inform and support deployments elsewhere.
Openness and choice
Google plans to operate an “open access” network, giving users the choice of multiple service providers.
Although, for now, Google says that the initial purpose of the project is to “experiment and learn”.
Network providers are making real progress to expand and improve high-speed Internet access, but there’s still more to be done – and Google is the King that has the money to do it.
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