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.”