About Hitwise
Hitwise is the leader in online competitive intelligence. Contact Hitwise to maximize your online marketing programs.
Hitwise Intelligence - Heather Hopkins - North America
Analyst Weblog
« Yahoo! Search Draws Younger Audience; Google Users Big Spenders Online | MSN Search and Ask Audience Profile »
SI Swimsuit Issue - Radical Change in Search Behavior
February 20, 2008
Sports Illustrated has published its annual Swimsuit Issue. I noticed the website in my weekly fast movers report and thought it could make a fun post. When I looked at the data however, something struck me as really odd. The top search term sending visits to the Swimsuit Issue website was "si swimsuit issue". The term had a huge spike this year but was relatively flat for the past two years. I had expected it to spike for each annual issue. What did this year's issue include, I wondered, to cause such a frenzy online.
But this year's spike is not just about some top model - for the past three years consumers didn't search for "si swimsuit issue" but instead used the term "sports illustrated swimsuit". Take a look at the following chart, showing the market share of US Internet searches for "si swimsuit issue" (this year's chosen term) and "sports illustrated swimsuit" over the past year and a bit. Year on year we've seen a 26% increase in the share of US Internet searches for "sports illustrated swimsuit". But then there is this new term - where did it come from?
I am sure there are people much more up to date on the SI Swimsuit Issue than me, so please do help me figure this out. It is likely due to some offline promotion or high profile mention in the media.
Also, the issue seems to be gaining in popularity online. Visits to the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue website are up 47% year on year and 29% over the past two years.
Posted by Heather Hopkins at 08:21 AM
| 
(3)
| 
(0)
In Categories Search
TrackBack
TrackBack URL:
http://weblogs.hitwise.com/movabletype/mt-tb.cgi/733.
Comments
SI did a lot of promotion with a Download-able calendar this year (sponsored by Honda). I dont know if or to what extent this was promoted in years past.
Posted by Scott Zakrajsek | February 20, 2008 02:51 PM
My colleague Chris Hafer had some thoughtful suggestions that I wanted to share.
He pointed out that the change to "si swimsuit issue" might be a result of consumers using shorter search phrases. We've noticed this in our data - that consumers are increasingly using shorter search strings. This is a really interesting idea.
He also noticed in Hitwise data that the breadth of searches for the term "sports illustrated swimsuit" (number of queries that include the words) still far outnumber those for "si swimsuit". So while the individual search query "si swimsuit issue" is more searched for than "sports illustrated swimsuit", when we count variations of both queries, the latter wins.
Thanks, Chris!
Heather
Posted by Heather Hopkins | February 21, 2008 08:54 AM
It might be due to their offline marketing efforts. I have noticed over the past year when I see/hear/read and ad from them it refers to their mag as SI alot of times. It is similar to when kentucky fried chicken switched to KFC.
Posted by JDog | February 20, 2008 01:19 PM