Soccer World Cup lowers UK search activity

[dburdon]

I've just finished analysing search activity for Saturday 10th June and compared it with the week previously. The 10th was the day England played Paraguay in the World Cup. Approximately 30 million watched the event on UK TV.

Across 12 campaigns, 10 showed a decline in search activity - on average 35%. 1 campaign showed a small gain of 6% and 1 a 26% gain.

The only campaign to show a significant rise was for Montenegro Property. Serbia and Montenegro were due to play Holland the following day and the fixture may have led to people searching for one of Europe's least known countries.

This is the first World Cup of the search engine era. The World Cup should be great for companies selling canned beer, barbecue equipment, LCD TVs and of course those ubiquitous flags for putting on cars. But for many market categories - travel (except to Germany), clothes, furniture, real estate - the World Cup represents a real downturn.

[Pascal77]

Originally Posted by dburdon

I've just finished analysing search activity for Saturday 10th June and compared it with the week previously. The 10th was the day England played Paraguay in the World Cup. Approximately 30 million watched the event on UK TV.

Across 12 campaigns, 10 showed a decline in search activity - on average 35%. 1 campaign showed a small gain of 6% and 1 a 26% gain.

The only campaign to show a significant rise was for Montenegro Property. Serbia and Montenegro were due to play Holland the following day and the fixture may have led to people searching for one of Europe's least known countries.

This is the first World Cup of the search engine era. The World Cup should be great for companies selling canned beer, barbecue equipment, LCD TVs and of course those ubiquitous flags for putting on cars. But for many market categories - travel (except to Germany), clothes, furniture, real estate - the World Cup represents a real downturn.

Since saturday my visitors coming from SE's is cut in 2.

But don't forget, we have the first sunny days with nice weather overhere. I don't think it's only football, lotts of people are going out or are going to the beach etc.

[dburdon]

In many market categories search is the first step in the buying process chain. Its therefore a leading indicator of business activity. No search, no sale.

In 2002, I recall a whole host of business leaders blaming their poor financial results on the World Cup. Now the World Cup comes around every 4 years. So its impact shouldn't be a surprise. The only difference is where its staged and which countries qualify. This time the event is in Germany. And most major European economies, USA and Australia are there.

To most European men football is more important than intimate relationships and money. So for the next four weeks they'll both have to be put on hold.

[Pascal77]

Originally Posted by dburdon

In many market categories search is the first step in the buying process chain. Its therefore a leading indicator of business activity. No search, no sale.

In 2002, I recall a whole host of business leaders blaming their poor financial results on the World Cup. Now the World Cup comes around every 4 years. So its impact shouldn't be a surprise. The only difference is where its staged and which countries qualify. This time the event is in Germany. And most major European economies, USA and Australia are there.

To most European men football is more important than intimate relationships and money. So for the next four weeks they'll both have to be put on hold.

i agree with you but not all woman look at soccer(or football) :-)

It's the first time this year in Holland and Belguim that we get such a nice weather(it was very bad till now) these days and i think there is a percentage i must allocate to the good weather in my case. But i see a greater impact then you in my logs. The beaches overhere are at most 2hours driving and they are well fulled up.

Offcouse i don't know how the weather is elsewhere ...

[DrTandem1]

Excuse my ignorance, how often is the World Cup played?

[Pascal77]

Originally Posted by DrTandem1

Excuse my ignorance, how often is the World Cup played?

A lot but every time with an interval of 4 years :-)

The weather(and the weekend) was a big factor with me because today search traffic is rised to 80% of normal situation.

[dburdon]

DrT,

every four years. It was even played in the USA in 1994.

[ronparrs]

Thanks for this post. We don't normally see significant drops in traffic except on certain days: ie. Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, certain TV events.

Our traffic is off almost 50% over the past several days. Now I understand why! When I read a promo piece about how World Cup closes countries down, they weren't kidding. Now even in the US.

Thank God this only happens once every 4 years!

[pdstein]

Originally Posted by dburdon

I've just finished analysing search activity for Saturday 10th June and compared it with the week previously. The 10th was the day England played Paraguay in the World Cup. Approximately 30 million watched the event on UK TV.

Across 12 campaigns, 10 showed a decline in search activity - on average 35%. 1 campaign showed a small gain of 6% and 1 a 26% gain.

Very interesting. Thanks for the post. What I would be interested to know is whether this is really lost business or whether it is simply displaced to other days. Are people are buying more before and after the WC to make up for the down days during the WC.

[Steelchord]

This is not much more than a "me too" post; but I have to express the fact that I had NO IDEA how big soccer really was until this moment. Wow. The superbowl is a gradeschool game of tag compared to this.

D

[DrTandem1]

Originally Posted by Steelchord

This is not much more than a "me too" post; but I have to express the fact that I had NO IDEA how big soccer really was until this moment. Wow. The superbowl is a gradeschool game of tag compared to this.

D

Possibly in the rest of the world, but not in the US. Didn't notice a thing. I read something in the WSJ about Busch beer being an official sponsor; which I thought was funny, because like most Germans, I think it's wasser bier.

My neighbor, who is a Brit, hasn't mentioned it to me. Maybe he just knows I like American football. When I invited him over to watch the last Super Bowl, he told me, "I love you like a brother, but I don't like American football."

[stevealmond]

Originally Posted by Pascal77

i agree with you but not all woman look at soccer(or football) :-)

These days (compared to 20 years ago) European football (soccer) is now more of a family sport, and so kids, teenagers, men and women all follow the sport. I agree with you that not all woman follow soccer, but then neither do all men. The fact is that football (soccer) is now more of a family sport. The hooligan elemant of the 80's has more or less been eliminated thanks to good club policy and Police presence at games.

Dburdon's post stated that he noted a drop in search activity for his site on the 10th, the day of Englands game against Paraguay. DBurdon is UK based and so I presume that his market is the UK.

So, on the 10th 30 Million people out of 65 Million watched the game in the UK. Coverage started at 12:30 (GMT), the game kicked off at 14:00 (GMT) and finished at 16:00 (GMT). Post match analysis took an hour and finished at 17:00 (GMT). It was then time to have something to eat and then go off to the pub to celebrate Englands best start to a world cup final for ages.

Please tell me who in the UK would have even thought about doing an online search on the 10th, unless it was about David Beckham or Wayne Rooney!!

Oh, by the way I also noticed a significant drop in the number of visitors to my site on the 10th. Visits to my site have recovered slightly but not to usual levels.

Not too bothered though as I am really enjoying 'world cup fever', and thoroughly enjoyed the Australia v Japan game today, when Australia were 1 0 down with ten mins to go and beat Japan 3 1.

Counting down the hours to the England v Trinidad and Tobago game.

Come on you lions!!

Steve

[stevealmond]

Originally Posted by DrTandem1

Possibly in the rest of the world, but not in the US. Didn't notice a thing.

That's a bit sad really as you guys do have a team that have qualified for the finals. As with all international teams, whatever the sport, they do need the support of the whole of their country behind them to do well. Unfortunately the USA lost 3 0 to the Czech Republic today. I hope that you have better luck in your next game against Italy on Saturday.

Steve

[DrTandem1]

Originally Posted by stevealmond

That's a bit sad really as you guys do have a team that have qualified for the finals. As with all international teams, whatever the sport, they do need the support of the whole of their country behind them to do well. Unfortunately the USA lost 3 0 to the Czech Republic today. I hope that you have better luck in your next game against Italy on Saturday.

Steve

Maybe, but after sending literally generations of American kids to play the game and even have the term "soccer mom" coined here, virtually no adults have any interest in the game.

Support? It's not just soccer, I really don't like basketball either. So, I don't really care who wins. Support for teams is when you have a passion about the sport. There is very little passion in the US for soccer.

As far as reading anything into the search results, I think you would need to compare them to other days with major sporting events in the recent past. As I have been told that the World Cup is only every four years, I don't see how you can establish a pattern with the internet being relatively new.

In the US, the streets are virtually empty on Super Sunday afternoon; at least here on the West Coast where the weather is usually good that time of year, compared to the northern and eastern parts.

If you love the sport, here's to your team! Good luck. The US lost? I didn't even know when (if) they were playing. Like most sports, any team can beat any other given team on game day.

[known]

Ironically I just checked my web stats for the 10th to realize it has been the slowest traffic day so far. And here I attributed it to beautiful sunny early summer weather across the country. Even more interesting is that the 10th was the largest dollar day I've had in the store so far this summer. Go figure! Thanks guys for the insight.

Cheryl
Known Books
known.com

[Jabber_uk]

Is it a surprise that search and website activity drops when you see this sort of statistic:

It is estimated that 1.3 billion people watched the final of the 2002 World Cup in Japan, a number which is sure to rise this year in Berlin

(From the Worldbank) http://rru.worldbank.org/features/worldcup2006.aspx

Also:

For the last three tournaments, the winning country's stock market considerably outperformed the losing finalist's market. On average there was 10% positive effect in the winner's and a 25% negative effect in the loser's. The authors believe that the best final for the global economy would be between Germany and Italy, with Italy lifting the World Cup.

[pdstein]

Originally Posted by Jabber_uk

For the last three tournaments, the winning country's stock market considerably outperformed the losing finalist's market. On average there was 10% positive effect in the winner's and a 25% negative effect in the loser's. The authors believe that the best final for the global economy would be between Germany and Italy, with Italy lifting the World Cup.

LOL! If that were true, wouldn't the best result for the global economy be the one where the biggest economy had the biggest growth (U.S. +10%) and the smallest economy had the biggest recession (Trinidad -25%). I suspect the author is either Italian or has shorted stock in BMW. ;)

[Pascal77]

Originally Posted by stevealmond

That's a bit sad really as you guys do have a team that have qualified for the finals. As with all international teams, whatever the sport, they do need the support of the whole of their country behind them to do well. Unfortunately the USA lost 3 0 to the Czech Republic today. I hope that you have better luck in your next game against Italy on Saturday.

Steve

That's very sad i think.
Ogushi Oneywu plays here in Belguim in my favorit team and he is a great defender. I love seeing him play.
And there are a few others which i like in the USA-team.
But they need a coach like Guud Hiddink of Australia and then you will see that Americans are intrested in soccer.

[DrTandem1]

Originally Posted by Pascal77

That's very sad i think.
Ogushi Oneywu plays here in Belguim in my favorit team and he is a great defender. I love seeing him play.
And there are a few others which i like in the USA-team.
But they need a coach like Guud Hiddink of Australia and then you will see that Americans are intrested in soccer.

If after some thirty years of jamming soccer down our kids' throats hasn't produced an interest in the game or a great coach, then I see little hope for soccer making much headway in the US.

This discussion comes up every once in a while. Probably every four years, now that I realize when it is played.

Last year, when the US played an American football game in Mexico City's soccer field, Americans were shocked to see that Mexico has a huge fence and a moat to separate fans from the field. Not that we don't have occasional violence at games, but nothing like the riots we are shown at soccer matches around the globe.

If billions of people are watching the games, then yes, I would expect to see a drop in traffic, while the game(s) are being played.

[Chris]

Originally Posted by DrTandem1

If after some thirty years of jamming soccer down our kids' throats hasn't produced an interest in the game or a great coach, then I see little hope for soccer making much headway in the US.

the reason it won't make headway has nothing to do with that, i don't believe. it has more to do with the fact that most americans find soccer boring. with the exception of baseball, most, if not all US sports are much more action packed, not to mention focused on scoring. with soccer, seeing only 2 goals in 90 minutes is quite common.

and fwiw, bruce arenas is considered a world class coach.