Compete Blog

Startup-Watch: A Closer Look at Etsy.com

Damian Roskill — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:30:27 +0000

One of the companies I’ve been following for a long time is Etsy.com. Etsy.com is a website for folks selling craft items – or as they put it “Your place to buy & sell all things handmade.” More broadly, they are referred to in the startup world as P2P commerce (person-to-person) – similar to eBay or any other site that enables person-to-person transactions with the website in the middle taking a small cut.

The press around the site has been amazing. According to Techcrunch, “$100 million worth of goods were sold on Etsy in 2008. The company is generating over $1 million/month in revenue, Kalin told me.”

(more…)

Visa and the NFL team up for another season

Anthony Gulino — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:00:54 +0000

Football is in full swing as we enter the midpoint of November and are two months into the NFL season. Many teams are still in the hunt for a playoff berth which makes for numerous exciting and must see games each weekend. Not only are the fans of these teams enthused by this but also companies that sponsor the league. The start of the NFL season brings excitement to sponsors as this is a key time of the year to reach a vast audience with marketing and promotional materials. One of the league’s major sponsors on a yearly basis is Visa which is hoping to use this season to further strengthen its brand name in the credit card space.

(more…)

Droid Really Does

Nina Current — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:25:01 +0000

The Motorola Droid is here. And though I’m a little disappointed it didn’t actually arrive via Stealth Bomber, it did come in with a bang. From all of the buzz online and an aggressive advertising campaign, Verizon Wireless has declared the Droid as the poster child of its new line of phones running Google’s Android OS.

Speaking of Android, remember the T-Mobile G1 from last fall? There was a ton of anticipation around the release of the G1, which was essentially the poster child of the first generation of Android phones. How does interest in the Droid compare to interest in the G1 around launch?
(more…)

October Search Market Share Update: Most gain in volume but only Google gains share

Simon Schanche — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:00:54 +0000

Apparently October brought a lot of costume searchers online. After several months of declining search query volumes, October query volumes ticked up 4% m-o-m. Total web search activity peaked just shy of 13 billion queries in the US. Among the major market players nearly every engine benefitted from the lift in activity. However behind the rising tide only one engine managed to pull ahead of the pack.

(more…)

Casinos Need to Continue the Digital Evolution

Lincoln Merrihew — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:27:38 +0000

Casinos, like many travel industries, have struggled during the recession. To help gauge the impact, Compete analyzed traffic to its “Casinos” industry category. Category traffic represents unique traffic across all sites in the category (over 100 in this case), meaning a person that visits more than one category site in a month is counted only once in that month’s category total.

(more…)

The Myth of Advertising Decay

Kyle Johnson — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:07:17 +0000

Sometimes, it seems like omniscience. With our Ad Impact product, we’re able to measure the impact of advertising exposure on online behavior. Did an ad lead to more visits, searches, sales? The answer rests comfortably in Compete’s data. This gives us an enviable perspective on how (and whether!) specific ads and ad strategies work.

But of course, it takes work and experience to turn data and information into intelligence and insights. (Omniscience would be deadly boring, if you think about it.) Though we’ve been doing advertising effectiveness analysis for over a year now, we’re continually learning new things about online advertising. The newest learning? The time-honored concept of “advertising decay” is a myth.

(more…)

What’s More Important to You: Bandwidth or TV?

Matt McGlinn — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 05:00:46 +0000

So what’s going on in my house this month that’s forced this Bandwidth vs. TV question? One word: Boxee. I could write a whole post on Boxee (maybe next time) – the short story is that thanks to Boxee, I now have the ability to easily watch videos (Netflix, Hulu, CNN, BBC) through my living room television except my Internet connection can’t handle it. As Captain Kirk would say, “We need more power, Scotty!” So, I’ve placed the order with a new Internet service provider for 4x more speed than I am currently receiving. As a result, I’ll become even less reliant on a television schedule and will bring the instantaneous downloads of Netflix not just to my computer, but to my living room, on the TV, where it belongs.

(more…)

Who’s ready to bring clicks to bricks?

Drew Fortin — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:19:04 +0000

For years people have been asking the question “how does online behavior impact my offline sales?” The question has been asked so much so that an entire industry has been built around trying to find the answer. In comes Compete…

Yesterday, Compete and Cannondale Associates, a marketing and sales management consulting firm, announced a partnership that gives marketers new insight into online to offline purchases. For the first time, marketers will be able to see which digital marketing campaigns are actually delivering results. Specifically, the partnership will provide insight into the impact of online activities and media consumption (including search, ad exposure, sites visited, etc), on in-store purchase behavior and brand loyalty.

Read yesterday’s press release…

The “Easy to Read” Secret of Students

Chris Bulger — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:45:55 +0000

When I look back on my education, I can fondly remember the hours spent reading through the classic novels for English classes. However, I would be lying if I said my classmates and I didn’t turn to Cliffs Notes for more interpretation as we read. We were always curious about the analysis of things like Piggy’s glasses in “Lord of the Flies”, and the depth of the available information for how much they represented science and intellect in society. Now, students flock to both sparknotes.com and cliffsnotes.com for their “deep dive” into they novels they are reading.

(more…)

Halloween: An Experiment in Retail Blitzing

Stephen Bagg — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:30:15 +0000

If the Retail world sees the end of the year as the Triple Crown, Halloween would be the Kentucky Derby. It is the initial measure of shoppers’ purchasing power leading into the holidays, and companies are quick to be the first out of the gate with sales of costumes, candy, and decorations. Search behavior offers a unique perspective on how consumers use the online channel for Halloween shopping; being relevant one month out of the year, Halloween shoppers do not have an obvious go-to place to find the necessities, and thus they turn to search as a discovery tool.

(more…)

Dicing into Facebook Ads

Jessica Ong — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:00:25 +0000

If you are an advertiser who wants to drive large volumes of traffic to your site, there are two important things you are probably looking for: reach and ease of implementing your campaign. Facebook meets these qualifications. It is currently the third largest site online with 125MM visitors in September and it is quickly approaching parity with the #1 and #2 publishers, Google and Yahoo.

(more…)

“Game Over” for Wii?

Sarah Kalauskas — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:25:52 +0000

When Nintendo first introduced the Wii in 2006, they did so with a lower price point than the competition and a focus on capturing interest from all demographics. Demand for the Wii was so high that finding a Wii in a store was a rarity until earlier this year. Since then, Nintendo has dominated in sales of consoles leaving both the Sony Playstation 3 (PS3) and the Microsoft Xbox360 in the dust. In August, both Sony and Microsoft lowered the price of their consoles to $300, but the PS3 came out victorious in September with monthly console sales surpassing Wii for the first time. Interestingly, Nintendo retaliated and lowered the price of the Wii to $200 in September.

(more…)

Want a Tip about Podcasting? Digital 180 Speaks with Tippingpoint Labs’ Chief Strategy Officer

Cynthia Stephens — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:00:45 +0000

Digital 180, Compete’s online “TV” series, spoke with Andrew Davis. Andrew founded Tippingpoint Labs with James Cosco in 2002. Since the early nineties Andrew has been creating valuable content for companies like The Jim Henson Company, CNN, The Today Show and even MTV.

Andrew spoke with Digital 180 about podcasting and what he sees as an evolution in podcasting. “I think podcasting as a whole has kind off fallen off the radar screen. It was something big two years ago. But what changed I think was the expectation from the user.”
(more…)

More Castrol Traffic No Fantasy

Lincoln Merrihew — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:00:17 +0000

For months, traffic to Castrol.com has trailed rivals, notably Shell.com. That all changed in September, with the Castrol site reaching its highest traffic level in at least a year and pulling ahead of Shell. The gains were unique to Castrol, so are not seasonal. Not seasonal to oil at least…
(more…)

Digital 180 Speaks with Espresso’s Managing Director Marta Kagan

Cynthia Stephens — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:00:48 +0000

Digital 180, Compete’s online “TV” series, spoke with Marta Kagan, who leads Espresso’s growing Boston office. As the outspoken voice behind The Secret Diary of a Bonafide Marketing Genius, Marta writes and speaks frequently about branding and advertising in the digital channel. Her viral hit What the F**k is Social Media? has been translated into seven languages.

(more…)

Apple Having a Little Fun

Jessica Ong — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:00:22 +0000

When you take a look at online display ads today, it is usually automotive or entertainment companies that have splashy eye-catching ads. But leave it to Apple to pave the way for more exciting ads that standout in the Tech category. Apple has made headlines before with creative video ads aimed at attacking its rival Microsoft on the front pages of top news sites like Wall Street Journal and New York Times. These ads first appeared almost two years ago and have since ran several more times.

(more…)

HTC Poised to Grow as Smartphone Market Expands

Nathan Ingraham — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:00:03 +0000

T-Mobile’s MyTouch 3G commercials may be all over the TV and internet these days, but most consumers viewing these commercials are probably not aware that HTC is actually the device’s manufacturer. HTC has long been making innovative handsets that, more often than not in the US, are branded by the wireless carrier at which they are available. In fact, HTC provided the hardware behind the first two Android-capable phones in the US: the T-Mobile G1 and the aforementioned MyTouch 3G.

However throughout 2009, HTC has not only offered more phones at the major carriers under its own brand but has also refocused its website to position HTC as a leading brand offering user-friendly smartphones that focus on the individual’s needs, both business and personal. (more…)

Getting The Most Out Of Compete PRO : Keyword Destination Reports

Aaron Prebluda — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:52:35 +0000

It’s time to get a little bit tactical. On the Compete blog, we talk about data all the time, but very rarely do we actually “show” and not just “tell.” I get pretty fired up about Compete PRO, and the latest enhancements to Search Analytics provide a great excuse to devote an entire post to my favorite Compete PRO report: Keyword Destination.

Call it shameless self-promotion, but as far as I’m concerned, no online marketer can live without Keyword Destination, which sheds light on where people go downstream after searching for specific keywords. (more…)

Walmart and Amazon declare war : Online Retailers Fight for Book Sales

Debra Miller — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:00:15 +0000

Many epic battles have been fought on soil, but far fewer in cyberspace. Leave it to Walmart and Amazon to break that barrier. Walmart and Amazon (and newcomer Target) are currently locked in an all out price war over online book sales that has culminated into the American Booksellers Association asking the Department of Justice to launch an antitrust investigation. (more…)

Clicking Their Way to Home Improvement: How Consumers are using the web in home improvement projects

Tim Wilson — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:00:13 +0000

I think Macgyver is the ultimate handyman. The way he is able to fix, create, or build whatever it is he needs under nearly any circumstances is amazing.

Most Americans don’t have Macgyver’s knowledge, capabilities, or writers- but what many of us do have is access to the Internet. And when it comes to fixing, creating, or building, people are using it in record numbers. (more…)