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web spree: Free shipping
Banner campaign to get e-shoppers out early
By Marty Beard
For e-tailers as well as traditional retailers, the big challenge as Christmas rolls around is to get shoppers spending as soon as they can after Thanksgiving, and the need this season is only heightened by the sour economy.
The chief come-on for e-tailers this season is free shipping, along with discounting.
"For e-tailers, the Thanksgiving holiday week is critical to getting holiday shopping on track. Aggressive promotions have been used industrywide, including free shipping and day-after-Thanksgiving pricing specials," says Sean Kaldor, vice president of analytical services at Nielsen//NetRatings.
Mass retailer Target got a jump on the holiday with a banner campaign the week before Thanksgiving with two banners that were among the most-seen on the internet.
According to Nielsen//NetRatings, Target Stores had the No. 1 and No. 4 banners for the week ending Nov. 18.
The No. 1 banner was a full-sized Target banner promising a that-week-only free shipping deal for merchandise ordered from Target.com. It was exposed to a unique audience numbering 10 million, roughly 14 percent of the audience of active internet users.
The smaller of the banners carried the same message, but with less text, saying only, "Free shipping, this week only!" next to the Target logo and the entreaty, "Learn more," which is designed to persuade people to click through.
The banners appeared on sites including msn.com, yahoo.com, discovery.com and eonline.com, among others.
Target would not comment about its online ad campaign. A company spokeswoman said that the company does not speak to trade publications.
Target.com is competing head-to-head with the online presences of its two major off-line competitors, Kmart’s Bluelight.com and Wal-Mart’s Walmart.com.
In terms of post-Thanksgiving traffic, all three sites saw major gains. Walmart.com had the most traffic, with 355,000 unique visitors on Friday, Nov. 23, an increase of 132 percent over the previous Friday.
Target.com drew 312,000, which was 152 percent more than the previous Friday, and Kmart.com had 227,000 unique visitors, an increase of some 227 percent.
Target has tried to distinguish itself from its two chief rivals by appealing to a slightly more upscale consumer, and if that’s the case, the web may be a good fit for it.
Holiday matters continue their dominance of the internet. Elsewhere in the Nielsen rankings, people making holiday travel plans greatly boosted Mapquest.com’s presence as an ad domain.
Thanksgiving travel by air was off slightly from last year, with airlines offering fewer flights, but that didn’t mean people weren’t traveling at all.
Instead, they were hitting the road, and logging on to Mapquest to map out their routes.
With 28 million banner and button impressions delivered, Mapquest was the No. 16 ad domain for the week ending Nov. 18, up two spots from the previous rankings.
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Top 25 Properties |
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| Property |
Unique |
Reach |
Time Spent |
| 1. AOL Time Warner |
40,147 |
51.6 |
0:16:04 |
| 2. Yahoo |
32,682 |
42.0 |
0:27:43 |
| 3. MSN |
29,272 |
37.7 |
0:24:26 |
| 4. Microsoft |
9,996 |
12.9 |
0:04:47 |
| 5. Lycos Network |
9,239 |
11.9 |
0:07:04 |
| 6. eBay |
8,365 |
10.8 |
0:40:40 |
| 7. Google |
7,304 |
9.4 |
0:09:21 |
| 8. Amazon |
7,297 |
9.4 |
0:08:53 |
| 9. Excite@Home |
6,971 |
9.0 |
0:12:14 |
| 10. Walt Disney Internet Group |
6,780 |
8.7 |
0:15:05 |
| 11. eUniverse Network |
5,925 |
7.6 |
0:07:47 |
| 12. About-Primedia |
5,872 |
7.6 |
0:05:04 |
| 13. American Greetings |
4,768 |
6.1 |
0:07:54 |
| 14. CNET Networks |
4,264 |
5.5 |
0:06:38 |
| 15. ClassMates Online |
4,088 |
5.3 |
0:04:53 |
| 16. InfoSpace |
4,063 |
5.2 |
0:05:01 |
| 17. Ask Jeeves |
3,720 |
4.8 |
0:04:39 |
| 18. AT&T |
3,501 |
4.5 |
0:11:32 |
| 19. iWon |
3,146 |
4.1 |
0:23:33 |
| 20. EarthLink |
3,134 |
4.0 |
0:06:46 |
| 21. United Online |
2,901 |
3.7 |
0:09:19 |
| 22. EA Online |
2,878 |
3.7 |
0:51:33 |
| 23. Vivendi Universal |
2,829 |
3.6 |
0:11:55 |
| 24. Gator.com |
2,691 |
3.5 |
0:06:26 |
| 25. iVillage |
2,364 |
3.0 |
0:08:33 |
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Source: Nielsen//NetRatings |
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Top 10 Advertisers |
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| Advertiser |
Banner |
Unique |
Reach % |
| 1. AOL Time Warner |
781,218 |
31,621 |
40.67 |
| 2. Microsoft Corp. |
689,471 |
23,668 |
30.44 |
| 3. Yahoo |
306,211 |
18,791 |
24.17 |
| 4. National Geographic Society |
247,321 |
10,109 |
13.00 |
| 5. Oxygen Media Inc. |
171,401 |
13,007 |
16.73 |
| 6. Providian Financial Corp. |
158,227 |
20,302 |
26.11 |
| 7. Orbitz |
147,387 |
15,567 |
20.02 |
| 8. eDiets.com |
135,511 |
22,952 |
29.52 |
| 9. Zairmail Inc. |
126,933 |
2,577 |
3.31 |
| 10. Classmates Online |
123,258 |
16,179 |
20.81 |
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Source: Nielsen//NetRatings |
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Top 25 Domains |
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| Domain |
Unique |
Reach |
Time Spent |
| 1. yahoo.com |
31,141 |
40.1 |
0:28:01 |
| 2. aol.com |
28,836 |
37.1 |
0:13:14 |
| 3. msn.com |
25,991 |
33.4 |
0:20:34 |
| 4. passport.com |
14,034 |
18.1 |
0:02:56 |
| 5. microsoft.com |
9,285 |
11.9 |
0:04:34 |
| 6. ebay.com |
7,806 |
10.0 |
0:41:17 |
| 7. google.com |
7,304 |
9.4 |
0:09:20 |
| 8. amazon.com |
6,965 |
9.0 |
0:08:27 |
| 9. geocities.com |
6,680 |
8.6 |
0:04:15 |
| 10. netscape.com |
6,659 |
8.6 |
0:09:55 |
| 11. go.com |
6,592 |
8.5 |
0:15:08 |
| 12. excite.com |
5,447 |
7.0 |
0:13:55 |
| 13. cnn.com |
4,169 |
5.4 |
0:08:42 |
| 14. classmates.com |
4,088 |
5.3 |
0:04:53 |
| 15. msnbc.com |
3,714 |
4.8 |
0:07:34 |
| 16. lycos.com |
3,517 |
4.5 |
0:08:14 |
| 17. about.com |
3,189 |
4.1 |
0:04:02 |
| 18. iwon.com |
3,146 |
4.1 |
0:23:33 |
| 19. tripod.com |
3,097 |
4.0 |
0:03:48 |
| 20. compuserve.com |
2,983 |
3.8 |
0:16:21 |
| 21. earthlink.net |
2,710 |
3.5 |
0:07:04 |
| 22. gator.com |
2,661 |
3.4 |
0:06:22 |
| 23. digitalcity.com |
2,582 |
3.3 |
0:04:27 |
| 24. mapquest.com |
2,504 |
3.2 |
0:07:40 |
| 25. att.net |
2,422 |
3.1 |
0:12:38 |
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Source: Nielsen//NetRatings |
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Top 25 Advertising Domains |
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| Domain |
Banner and Button |
Reach % |
| 1. yahoo.com |
963,051 |
33.25 |
| 2. msn.com |
958,193 |
30.06 |
| 3. aol.com |
275,351 |
24.33 |
| 4. musiccity.com |
208,316 |
2.76 |
| 5. ebay.com |
204,291 |
6.41 |
| 6. pogo.com |
199,906 |
2.64 |
| 7. netscape.com |
129,102 |
6.8 |
| 8. go.com |
102,146 |
6.54 |
| 9. lycos.com |
71,643 |
3.25 |
| 10. monster.com |
65,659 |
1.67 |
| 11. att.net |
64,328 |
2.52 |
| 12. excite.com |
43,710 |
3.16 |
| 13. cnn.com |
39,467 |
4.44 |
| 14. compuserve.com |
39,175 |
3.2 |
| 15. classmates.com |
33,560 |
2.5 |
| 16. mapquest.com |
27,718 |
3.08 |
| 17. netzero.net |
27,299 |
1.1 |
| 18. fastclick.net |
27,279 |
6 |
| 19. looksmart.com |
26,927 |
1.83 |
| 20. audiogalaxy.com |
24,768 |
0.92 |
| 21. blackplanet.com |
23,233 |
0.52 |
| 22. msnbc.com |
21,813 |
4.14 |
| 23. cartoonnetwork.com |
20,745 |
1.17 |
| 24. americangreetings.com |
16,773 |
1.74 |
| 25. about.com |
15,747 |
2.53 |
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Source: Nielsen//NetRatings |
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Top Ten Banners |
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| Advertiser |
Unique Audience |
Active |
Banner |
| 1. Target Stores |
10,810 |
13.9 |
91,140 |
| 2. National Geographic Society |
8,506 |
10.94 |
201,788 |
| 3. eDiets.com |
8,199 |
10.54 |
15,036 |
| 4. Target Stores |
7,133 |
9.17 |
13,117 |
| 5. eDiets.com |
7,116 |
9.15 |
23,802 |
| 6. Debticated Consumer Counseling |
6,383 |
8.21 |
21,808 |
| 7. Debticated Consumer Counseling |
5,611 |
7.22 |
19,063 |
| 8. Orbitz |
5,377 |
6.92 |
17,865 |
| 9. Classmates Online |
5,099 |
6.56 |
12,012 |
| 10. Bonzi.com Software |
4,631 |
5.96 |
18,113 |
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Source: Nielsen//NetRatings |
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|
Average Usage |
|||
|
Current Week |
Last Week |
% Chg |
|
| Number of Sessions per Week |
6 |
6 |
0.00 |
| Page Views per Week |
228 |
231 |
-1.30 |
| Page Views per Surfing Session |
36 |
37 |
-2.70 |
| Time Spent per Week |
3:24:28 |
3:26:02 |
-0.76 |
| Time Spent During Surfing Session |
0:32:15 |
0:32:51 |
-1.83 |
| Duration a Page Viewed |
0:00:54 |
0:00:53 |
0.90 |
| Active Internet Universe |
77,757,131 |
78,354,534 |
-0.76 |
| Current Internet Universe Estimate |
174,773,427 |
174,753,646 |
0.01 |
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Source: Nielsen//NetRatings |
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November 28, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
-Marty Beard is a staff writer for Media Life.
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