Shopping Blog

Are you ready for some football? Break out the six-packs, pizzas, buffalo wings, Tums and Alka-Seltzer—it's that time of year again! Though some are predicting one of the starkest match ups in Super Bowl history, with the explosive Cardinal offense taking on the Steeler's top-ranked defense, much of the excitement will be happening off the field. No we're not talking about Tom and Gisele; we're talking about marketing and promotions.

Over the years, marketers have taken to airing creative, often over-the-top ads that capture the imagination and attention of viewers. In recent memory, we've seen Naomi Campbell dance with lizards and P-Diddy hitch a ride in a Pepsi truck. This trend is not surprising, as for many Super Bowl viewers, the advertisements take center stage on game day; in fact, 1 in 4 viewers prefer the ads over the game, according to comScore. With a record 97 million viewers watching the television broadcast in 2008 and huge viewership expected again this year, the Super Bowl is a true mass marketing opportunity. As such, advertisers are now kicking it to the Internet for that extra point.

Super Bowl advertisements are no longer siloed efforts to woo viewers, but have become integrated with the web to bring consumers into the brand's fold. We recently spoke to Prof. Timothy Calkins, a clinical professor of marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University who conducts a yearly study on Super Bowl ad effectiveness, to get further insight. "No one just runs a TV spot any more. Most people pair their spot with an integrated campaign that includes the Internet," he states. "This has been a striking shift over the past few years." In fact, according to Reprise Media, last year 84% of Super Bowl advertisers integrated a URL into their ads and 70% ran search ads in conjunction with their TV campaign, nearly a 20% increase over the previous year.

While most advertisers are directing fans to their online presence, some are gaining ground by taking it ten yards further. Doritos' successful 'Crash the Super Bowl' Contest, last year awarded unknown artist Kina Grannis a recording contract and the opportunity to have her music video played during the game after an online contest. This year they're giving novice filmmakers Super Bowl airtime to showcase a user-generated commercial. Last year, Super Bowl ads received 20 million views on YouTube with online streams of the commercials remaining strong for 3 weeks after the game. Pedigree is running a search campaign around their Super Bowl spot and promoting their ad on YouTube Ad Blitz. Ad Blitz is a contest that begins right after the Super Bowl where the YouTube community can vote for their fav spot (http://www.youtube.com/adblitz). Similarly, E*TRADE is starting their Super Bowl campaign early - and with good reason. Searches for E*TRADE were up 1,000% after last year's Super Bowl Ad. This year they are re-introducing the talking baby and building buzz online by posting outtakes on YouTube a week before the ad runs (the last time we checked it had gotten nearly 47,000 views). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8Ev5HgGACg. The talking baby also has a Facebook fanpage and a Twitter account.

(Google Insights for Search)

If you aren’t advertising during the Super Bowl, you can still capitalize on the big game. Sports fans will be online searching for highlights, ads and sports swag, so be where they are by uploading your own Super Bowl videos to YouTube or simply advertising next to someone else’s Super Bowl videos. The heaviest traffic will be during and after the game, so you still have time to get out a rich media blast or a MySpace text homepage take-over.

And while we don’t want to get too Jess Simps and Tony Romo on you, we’d like to remind you that V-Day is just around the corner. So if you are in the non-pig skin business, ride the coattails of the biggest game in town and reach those sports fans. Do a quick Google search on “Arizona cardinals valentines” and you can find this beautiful picture frame. Pittsburgh fans are just as prolific in their gifts of the heart. A search for “steelers love gifts” got us this beautiful Steelers Pendant. So Ben Roethlisberger, we know you wear your heart on your sleeve, but remember that nothing says love like wearing your team in your heart.

Posted by Paulita David and Eric Lopez, Google Retail Team

The moment you have all been waiting for!

The final installment of our interview with Avinash Kaushik, Analytics Evangelist. This is a five part video interview series focused on the synergies between online engagement and offline sales and the ways to measure that ever-important connection.

The series culminates today with Avinash discussing the "crimes against humanity" and how you can become "God".



You can view the first four installments by searching the blog for "Avinash".

Posted by Emma Weisberg, Google Retail Team

"Searching" for answers on brand value

How does branding affect purchase behavior? What is branding worth? What can I do to build my brand?

These are all timely and hotly contested questions. While there may never be definitive answers, new research on the brand value of search advertising can shed some precious light on the subject.

Working with Media-Screen, a group of our Google CPG folks conducted a study titled Brand Value of Search. They set out to measure the impact of paid search ads on generic search terms. Using four product categories (beverage, cosmetics, food/snack, household cleaning/laundry) they measured the following:

- unaided brand awareness (What brands come to mind when I say "beverage"?)

- aided brand awareness (Have you heard of Snapple?)

- purchase consideration

- purchase intent

The most significant impact was on unaided brand awareness, with an average lift of 24 percentage points, depending on the category and the brand measures. Purchase intent and purchase consideration were also significantly affected, with an average lift of 6 and 7 percentage points, respectively.

Click through rates (CTR) and conversions have traditionally been the most visible measurements for search campaigns, but advertisers can rest at ease knowing that even just having eyeballs hit ads is a very good thing. In fact, your ROI calculations could be much more accurate if you account for the brand value of search advertising.

Let's look at an example. Say you have a campaign set at $1 per click with a two percent CTR. So for $2 you would get two clicks…but you would also get 100 impressions. Those impressions are a key factor in driving top-of-mind awareness and are another crucial element in customer engagement with your brand. In fact, in the study, researchers found that a lack of search presence negatively impacts awareness. In other words, not showing up in paid search can result in customers forgetting about your brand!

A similar study conducted last year with Enquiro Search Solutions, Inc. found that even for branded queries, presence in both top sponsored and top organic results boosts purchase intent. In the study, Honda showed a 7 percent lift in purchase intent. The key finding was that both unbranded and branded keywords are effective in building brand value.

Every company and brand is different, and so advertisers should think about the impact impressions has on their brand and how they can include it in their ROI calculations. Although humanity will probably continue to struggle with branding questions, at least we are headed down the path to enlightenment.

Posted by the Google Retail Team

Mondays have always gotten a bad rap. ‘Monday Morning Quarterbacks’ are known as know-it-alls who complain without adding value -- and when you have a slow week, ‘every day feels like a Monday’. All of this could lead one to wonder why The Adams Family’s morose daughter wasn’t named Monday.

The Bangles so eloquently gave song to the feelings of worker bees across the country when they sang, “Just another manic Monday…wish it were Sunday,” but for online retailers this holiday season, Monday seems to be the best day of the week. According to Wikipedia “In some cultures, Monday is held to be the first day of the week… many languages refer to Monday as the ‘day of the beginning.’” In our 9-5, 24/7, "Mo Money Mo Problems" culture, Monday has morphed into the “day we spend shopping online for holiday gifts”. According to comScore Inc., in 2007, the Monday before the Christmas Shopping deadlines (12/10/07) was the biggest shopping day ever online. What will this year hold? The verdict is still out; it looks like consumers may just be waiting til the last possible minute to buy gifts, maybe even until December 22^nd, the Monday before Christmas.

The National Retail Federation reports that by the second week in December, only 47% of consumers had completed their Holiday shopping, compared to 53% last year. By early December, a whopping 41 Million people had not started their Holiday Shopping and only 8% reported completely finishing their holiday gift buying, compared to 12% last year. Many of those feet draggers plan to avoid the holiday masses at the mall and surf the web instead, with 40% of consumers planning to shop online, up significantly from 35% in 2007. NRF's 2008 Holiday Consumer Intentions and Actions Study.

With shipping deadlines as late as December 23rd, there is still plenty of time to sway consumers to shop your site. According to Hitwise, Google search driven traffic is up across most retail categories year over year, with categories like Consumer Electronics (28%), Home improvement (27%) and Office Supplies (26%) all up significantly. Even Apparel (24%), Home Furnishings (16%), Toys (16%) and Sporting Goods/Fitness (11%) saw a jump over the same week in 2007. Hitwise weekly upstream traffic % increase/decrease for week ending 12/13/08 over week ending 12/15/07. This weekend's weather washout in parts of the country may keep shoppers inside cruising the keys instead of the mall. If last year is any indication then this coming Monday will be one to watch. Retailers be prepared, the shopping season is not close to done, keep your physical and virtual doors open, keep the emails coming and make sure your sites are prepared for the increased traffic (even on Christmas Day!). Here’s hoping your holiday sales do indeed have a case of “The Mondays”.

Posted by the Google Retail Team

Who is doing it right?

In part III of our video interview series with Avinash we learned about the meaning and the importance of the "non-line world".

Today, we ask Avinash a very important question..."In the retail space, who is doing an excellent job of understanding and measuring the online impact on offline sales?"

Did Avinash name your company? Watch the video below to find out!

If you missed the earlier installments you can find them by searching the blog for "Avinash".

Posted by the Google Retail Team

I sat down with Ken Cassar, VP of Industry Insights at Nielsen Online, to discuss the findings of his report called "Pinpointing the Value of Multi-Channel Behavior". In part I of the video interview series Ken shared his thoughts about why Nielsen had embarked on this piece of research. Today, we dive into the meat of the findings and speak specifically to the key questions on all of our minds:

• What is the actual value of a multi-channel consumer (one who shops on your website and in your store) versus a single channel consumer (one who shops only in your store)?
• Recommendations for retailers on how to measure multi-channel behavior?
• and...what was surprising, even to Ken; a seasoned online consumer researcher, about the findings???

Please watch the following two videos to get the answers.

Posted by Emma Weisberg, the Google Retail Team

What to do to Boost Year End Sales Figures and Close Out 2008 with a Bang

From Cyber Monday to December 5th, online spend is up 9% over 2007, according to comScore. With 50% of shoppers planning to purchase gifts throughout December¹ and more key shopping days just around the corner, it’s important to not lose momentum as the holidays approach. And even as we begin wrapping up the holiday season, many new opportunities will arise that will carry on into the new year. To help you prepare for the home stretch and beyond, we've compiled some recommendations:

1. Will Santa arrive on time? Online shoppers will be interested in knowing whether their gifts will arrive on time so set the correct expectations in your creatives.

• Call out the last ship-in-time-for-Christmas date in your creatives. Have new promotional creatives ready to be switched on after this deadline.

• Promote expedited shipping options that guarantee Christmas delivery and when this option ends (i.e. Order by 12/23 for guaranteed Christmas Delivery!)

• If your business can automatically upgrade customers to expedited shipping for free, call this out; it is a great way to earn goodwill and leave a lasting memory of excellent customer service

• If its not possible to upgrade everyone, be selective in how you offer this incentive: for example, do so for shoppers that use your private label credit card, for specific order sizes (i.e. Orders of $100 or more), for a very limited time (i.e. 3 days only), or for a discounted rate (i.e. 2-day shipping for only $5)

2. Promote in-store pick-up: If you offer buy online and pick-up in-store options, consider using geographic targeting to promote products and product categories in the regions where selection is ready.

3. Promote the multi-channel experience: If you are a multichannel merchant, consider using your online ads to invite shoppers to visit your physical store locations. After shipping deadlines have passed, last minute shoppers will be interested in store locator pages that feature your business address, extended store hours, and driving directions -- make sure these are easy to locate on your website.

4. Budget Within Your Means: If you’re going to be out of the office for a few days, make sure to set your Adwords spend at a comfortable level. Leave your daily budgets and bids at a level that will allow you to be competitive and allow for plenty of shoppers to see your ads.

5. Multiple Holidays, Multiple Opportunities: Santa isn’t the only gift giver this holiday season. Don’t forget to build campaigns around other key holidays, such as Hanukkah (Dec 22-29) and Kwanza (Dec 26 - Jan 1). Search interest in Hanukkah generally upticks 2 weeks prior to the start (Dec 5 in 2007) and search interest in Kwanza upticks a month before the holiday.

6. Post-Holiday Sales: Roughly 10% of sales during the November-December holiday season happen the week after Christmas.² If you’re closing out inventory or having a year-end sale, ensure that your ad texts reflect this. You can also expand your advertising efforts by placement targeting ads on consumer-tips sites in the Google Content Network or by driving traffic to your brick-and-mortar store with Local Business Ads.

7. Gift Card Redemption: Last year 42% of consumers planned to redeem their holiday gift cards after January,³ and every year many of those gift cards simply go unused or unredeemed.4 Make sure every gift card dollar counts: Have a post-holiday campaign ready to target gift card receivers; and for those who don't sell gift cards, use your ad creatives to target the many consumers who get non-store-specific gift cards backed by major credit card companies (i.e. "We accept all major credit cards.").

8. Reach the Resolutionaries: Every year millions of Americans make New Year's resolutions. The most popular resolutions revolve around decreasing debt, losing weight, developing a healthy habit, spending time with family, and getting organized.⁵ If you have products that relate to these resolutions, you might consider building a campaign around these products.

9. Think Small, Think Big: Historically search interest for occasions like prom, wedding planning and the presidential inauguration increases significantly in late December and January. Even if your niche isn't prom, wedding, or politics, think of any complementary products that you do sell (i.e. flowers, jewelry, home furnishings, party favors or even gourmet food) that can benefit from this potential traffic and start getting creative with your ad texts.

1. Google Consumers Intentions Survey, November 2008.

Posted by the Google Retail Team