BOSTON – (August 17, 2009) – Compete, a TNS Media company, today released a snapshot from the Compete 250, its monthly ranking of the top 250 trafficked Web sites.  In July 2009, Automotive OEM sites capitalized on interest in the Cash for Clunkers trade-in program; Hollywood kept internet users entertained with Summer blockbusters; and the back to school season kicked into gear for online retailers.  The media industry also saw highs and lows with some of the biggest single-site unique visitor (UV) gains and losses. 

“Marketers need a mechanism for spotting consumer trends as soon as they begin to emerge, especially as the U.S. economy starts down the uncertain road to recovery,” said Cynthia Stephens, director of Marketing for Compete.  “The Compete 250 gives marketers a window into online consumer activity and sentiment, which helps them keep a pulse on the market and capitalize on the Internet economy.”

Cashing in on Clunkers

With the Cash for Clunkers program in full swing, July proved to be a big month online for Automotive OEMs.  Overall, the Automotive Manufacturer category hit a two-year high of 18.9 million unique visitors, attracting 16 percent more traffic in July 2009 than June of this year.  The top three sites in the category, Toyota.com, GM.com and Fordvehicles.com each grew by more than 20 percent in July and surpassed July 2008 unique visitor counts.  Compete also found that during the last week of the month alone, 1.2 million searchers looked for information on the Cash for Clunkers program and one third of those searchers also visited an OEM site.  For a more detailed analysis of which OEMs are cashing in on Cash for Clunkers,  click here.

Box Office Blockbusters

Summer heated up the box office online and offline.  With Hollywood pumping out hit features including “Bruno,” “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs,” “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” and “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” movie fans flocked to theaters nationwide and to popular entertainment Web sites.  IMDb.com (22.8 million UVs) and Netflix.com (21.3 million UVs) both maintained their spots among the top 50 sites ranked by overall UVs, while Flixster.com, Moviefone.com and Fandango.com were among the fastest growing sites in July.  Flixster.com grew by 22.9 percent over June 2009 to reach 6.58 million UVs; Moviefone.com saw a 20.5 percent bump (6.5 million UVs); and Fandango.com attracted 15 percent more unique visitors, reaching 10.04 million UVs.     

  
Back to Shopping

With the back to school season right around the corner, parents and students are gearing up; increasingly, that means online shopping at popular e-commerce Web sites.  Overall, consumers this year are spending more time researching their back to school needs on the Web, as evidenced by the 1.67 million back to school-related searches performed in July 2009, compared to 1.23 million in the same month last year.  Walmart.com (32.6 million UVs) and Target.com (29.8 million UVs) both saw an increase in back to school search traffic and held their ranks in the top 50 Web sites for July 2009.  BedBathandBeyond.com also cracked the top 250 sites in July, growing by 21 percent to 6.23 million UVs.  For more details on how back to school searches will affect e-commerce this season,  click here.
 

In the News

The News Aggregators and Social Generated News category has grown steadily since June 2008.  The combined sites, which include Digg.com and Tweetmeme.com, grew 4.6 percent from June to July 2009, attracting 53.2 million UVs.  Tweetmeme.com was the top mover in the category, growing 85 percent month-over-month to reach 11.9 million UVs. 

The Compete 250 is a category made up of the top 250 trafficked sites across the Web, providing an index to understand what is happening with the top online sites on a regular basis.   Marketers use the Compete 250 to see where people are spending their time online, which sites are moving up or down in the ranks and how traffic and engagement changes over time. The Compete 250 is available to Compete PRO subscribers at www.compete.com.  

About Compete
Compete, a unit of TNS Media, helps the world’s top brands improve their marketing based on the online behavior of millions of consumers. Leading marketers such as Carlson Hotels Worldwide, Hyundai Motor America, Upromise, Chrysler, and Verizon Wireless rely on Compete's services to create effective online experiences and highly profitable advertising campaigns.  Compete’s online behavior database—the largest in the industry—makes the web as ingrained in marketing as it is in people’s lives.

Compete was founded in 2000 and is located in Boston, MA, with offices throughout the U.S.  For more information about us, please visit http://www.competeinc.com/, or to join the conversation visit http://www.compete.com/.

About TNS media
Established in more than 30 countries, TNS Media explores all the media—print, radio, TV, Internet, social media, cinema and outdoors worldwide, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and offers a full range of insights, analyses and audience measurement services.

TNS Media combines the deepest expertise in the industry to provide media and marketing intelligence including advertising expenditure monitoring, advertising creation monitoring, audience measurement, market influence analytics, online consumer behavior tracking, news monitoring, sports sponsorship evaluation and more.  The TNS Media companies track more than 3 million brands and provide vital market intelligence to 16,000 customers in the world. http://www.tnsmediagroup.com

About Kantar Group
The Kantar Group is one of the world's largest research, insight and consultancy networks. By uniting the diverse talents of more than 20 specialist companies – including the recently-acquired TNS – the group aims to become the pre-eminent provider of compelling and actionable insights for the global business community. Its 26,500 employees work across 80 countries and across the whole spectrum of research and consultancy disciplines, enabling the group to offer clients business insights at each and every point of the consumer cycle. The group’s services are employed by over half of the Fortune Top 500 companies.  The Kantar Group is a wholly-owned subsidiary of WPP Group plc. For further information, please visit http://www.kantargroup.com