About Hitwise

Hitwise is the leader in online competitive intelligence. Contact Hitwise to maximize your online marketing programs.

Hitwise Intelligence - Heather Hopkins - UK

Analyst Weblog

« Pete Burns Celebrity Big Brother Most Searched for Contestant | Hotmail Trumps Gmail in UK »

Arctic Monkeys & Viral Marketing - Update

January 31, 2006

The Arctic Monkeys' new album became the fastest selling debut album of all time last week and so to follow up on my original Arctic Monkeys post, I took a look at Hitwise data to see if the band continues to enjoy online popularity.

The Arctic Monkeys built up a substantial fan base through the internet and in my earlier post, I remarked at the increase in searches for the band's name following word of mouth success through viral channels. The band's online popularity has not subsided since signing a record deal. Hitwise data reveals that searches on the band have gone into overdrive, increasing by 62% ahead of the release of their debut album last week, "Whatever People Say I am, That's What I'm Not".

Cut to January 2006, and the Arctic Monkeys are not just the most searched-for band on the internet but the website also ranked #1 as the most visited website in the Bands and Artists category.

Given the importance of community websites to the success of the Arctic Monkeys, I took a look at which online communities are most popular in the UK. MySpace.com, Spaces.MSN.com, and Bebo.com were the top three Net Communities and Chat websites last week based on market share of UK internet visits. These sites, along with Piczo (ranked #6 last week) have experienced staggering year on year growth. Last week, market share of UK internet visits to MySpace had grown 555% year-on-year, visits to Spaces.MSN.com had grown 1056%, visits to Bebo had grown by 6009%, and visits to Piczo had grown 2173%!.

Community is not new to the internet. However, the opportunities for marketers to harness the energy of online communities remain largely untapped.

Searches for Arctic Monkeys.png