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power to cross-promote
Real success was in pairing coverage with TV
By Marty Beard
Whatever the future holds for the internet, in terms of its potential to compete with TV for the attention of consumers, there's little doubt about its present role and the enormous synergies that arise when the two media are employed in tandem, as they were during the Olympics.
The winter Olympics, running over 17 days in February, was billed as the first true internet Olympics, and it proved to be just that, with well-orchestrated cross-promotions that drove traffic to Olympic web sites while enhancing the enjoyment of the Games for viewers of NBC and its sister cable networks.
"Each year several events serve as a litmus test of online media’s increasing role in cross-media promotions and programming," says Jupiter Media Metrix analyst Charles Buchwalter.
"This year the Super Bowl and the Winter Olympics both fell in February, but the 17 days of Olympic programming provided a unique case study of the emerging synergies between network television, cable and the internet," Buchwalter says.
Traffic to MSNBC’s web news channel rose 26.3 percent in February over January, to 20.2 million unique visitors for the month, from people seeking Olympics-related news updates and information.
Within MSNBC's network of sites, Olympics-related content experienced massive gains in traffic. NBCOlympics.com received 6.7 million unique visitors in February, up from 319,000 in January.
SaltLake2002.com traffic more than tripled, going from 1.1 million unique visitors in January to 3.5 million in February.
Olympics.com traffic increased from 508,000 in January to 3.1 million unique visitors in February.
The Olympics also gave rise to a number of new web sites that received sizeable amounts of traffic. For example, AT&T sponsored an Olympics tickets giveaway. The site related to the contest, ATTPerform.com, received 761,0000 unique visitors.
Olympic.org attracted 756,000 unique visitors, and USOlympicTeam.com, a site offering biographies and information about U.S. Olympians, drew 734,000 unique visitors.
Another Olympics-related site, Roots.com, belonging to the official outfitter of the U.S. and Canadian Olympic teams, drew some 679,000 unique visitors.
The Super Bowl affected web traffic as well.
Mlife.com, the AT&T wireless brand first advertised during the game, drew 2.1 million unique visitors during the month. The Super Bowl, historically, is prime time for snacking, and contributed to the strong traffic to the web sites of snack-chip brand Doritos, which drew 671,000 visitors; and new tortilla chip brand Torengos, which drew 640,000 unique visitors during the month.
In addition to the Super Bowl and Olympics, February saw heavy traffic tied to Valentine’s Day sites.
Flower, gift and greeting sites experienced a 17.6 percent increase in terms of the percentage of the internet audience they reached, and personal-ad sites as a category experienced significant traffic growth, reaching 13.8 percent more of the internet audience in February than they did in January.
Jewelry and luxury-goods retail reached 10.4 percent more of the internet audience than they did in January.
Likewise, Tax Day emerged last month as a major concern of web surfers. IRS.gov debuted among the 50 most-visited properties, drawing almost 10.8 million unique visitors.
Search site Google continued its ascendancy in popularity, coming in as the sixth-most-visited site online in February, up from No. 8 in January. The site received 29 million visitors in February, up 20.6 percent over the previous three months’ average.
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TOP 50 WEB PROPERTIES |
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|
Property |
Feb. |
Jan. |
Dec. |
Nov. |
% |
|
1. AOL Time Warner Network |
89,527 |
86,954 |
83,612 |
83,843 |
5.57 |
|
2. Microsoft Sites |
79,033 |
78,825 |
75,081 |
74,782 |
3.68 |
|
3. Yahoo Sites |
75,681 |
74,942 |
71,487 |
71,976 |
3.96 |
|
4. Terra Lycos |
40,966 |
40,562 |
37,318 |
38,299 |
5.78 |
|
5. About/Primedia (6) |
34,084 |
34,972 |
33,464 |
30,974 |
2.86 |
|
6. Google (8) |
29,014 |
26,912 |
23,004 |
22,256 |
20.60 |
|
7. eBay |
28,582 |
28,859 |
28,316 |
28,364 |
0.24 |
|
8. Amazon Sites (6) |
27,543 |
30,105 |
30,957 |
30,326 |
-9.58 |
|
9. Gator Network (11) |
25,242 |
20,780 |
17,664 |
13,093 |
46.94 |
|
10. InfoSpace (9) |
23,683 |
25,436 |
25,245 |
21,928 |
-2.15 |
|
11. CNET Networks (10) |
21,824 |
23,232 |
23,247 |
23,262 |
-6.12 |
|
12. ClassMates.com Sites (16) |
20,828 |
18,087 |
15,221 |
15,080 |
29.13 |
|
13. American Greetings (18) |
19,838 |
17,007 |
22,946 |
25,540 |
-9.13 |
| 14. Walt Disney Internet Group (12) |
19,409 |
20,232 |
19,812 |
20,123 |
-3.22 |
|
15. Viacom Online |
18,078 |
18,817 |
17,779 |
17,366 |
0.50 |
|
16. eUniverse Network (14) |
17,983 |
19,075 |
20,312 |
23,054 |
-13.60 |
|
17. AskJeeves |
17,729 |
17,492 |
16,630 |
17,667 |
2.70 |
|
18. Real.com Network (19) |
16,758 |
16,238 |
16,274 |
14,823 |
6.21 |
|
19. Excite Network (13) |
16,450 |
19,302 |
20,113 |
20,723 |
-17.94 |
|
20. AT&T Web Sites |
15,883 |
15,985 |
14,487 |
14,724 |
5.43 |
|
21. Ticketmaster Sites (23) |
15,524 |
14,570 |
12,481 |
12,526 |
17.67 |
|
22. Vivendi Universal Sites (24) |
14,819 |
14,553 |
35,925 |
35,793 |
-48.47 |
|
23. Homestore.com Network (27) |
14,442 |
13,741 |
8,070 |
10,626 |
33.57 |
|
24. Monster.com Sites (26) |
14,199 |
13,890 |
8,858 |
10,101 |
29.68 |
|
25. iVillage (22) |
13,529 |
14,691 |
11,256 |
10,848 |
10.31 |
|
26. RedeemMyGifts.com (28) |
12,117 |
12,178 |
10,379 |
9,151 |
14.64 |
|
27. United Online (29) |
11,811 |
11,489 |
11,447 |
11,573 |
2.68 |
|
28. Coolsavings.com (21) |
11,688 |
15,701 |
9,455 |
8,499 |
4.19 |
|
29. The Weather Channel (25) |
11,635 |
13,957 |
11,097 |
10,364 |
-1.45 |
|
30. Gannett Sites (33) |
11,083 |
10,816 |
8,438 |
9,184 |
16.92 |
|
31. SBC Communications Sites |
10,874 |
11,057 |
9,968 |
9,832 |
5.72 |
|
32. EarthLink |
10,849 |
10,986 |
11,109 |
10,660 |
-0.64 |
|
33. IRS.gov |
10,765 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
34. Expedia Travel (30) |
10,306 |
11,398 |
8,304 |
-- |
4.62 |
|
35. EA Online |
10,149 |
10,550 |
10,757 |
9,674 |
-1.72 |
|
36. Columbia House Sites |
10,020 |
-- |
11,262 |
-- |
-11.03 |
|
37. Sony Online (40) |
9,958 |
9,863 |
8,971 |
8,143 |
10.74 |
|
38. NBC Internet Sites (41) |
9,880 |
9,513 |
8,436 |
8,862 |
10.55 |
|
39. LookSmart (34) |
9,794 |
10,558 |
8,540 |
9,426 |
3.01 |
|
40. UGO Networks (36) |
9,395 |
10,205 |
8,936 |
8,173 |
3.19 |
|
41. Travelocity (42) |
8,873 |
9,318 |
-- |
-- |
-4.78 |
|
42. Adobe (50) |
8,777 |
9,249 |
-- |
-- |
-5.10 |
| 43. X.com Sites |
8,738 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
44. Barnes & Noble (39) |
8,734 |
9,903 |
10,437 |
8,971 |
-10.61 |
|
45. HotJobs (49) |
8,577 |
8,272 |
-- |
8,655 |
1.34 |
|
46. New York Times Digital |
8,497 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
47. Tribune Interactive |
8,351 |
8,447 |
-- |
-- |
-1.14 |
|
48. News Corp. Online (44) |
8,323 |
8,865 |
7,824 |
9,188 |
-3.51 |
|
49. MyPoints Sites |
8,259 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
50. Citigroup |
8,245 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
Underline indicates a site not in the Top 50 in
January. |
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March 20, 2002 © 2002 Media Life
-Marty Beard is a staff writer for Media Life
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