Political Party Conventions and Campaign Activity Drive Traffic to Political Sites
As the Democratic National Convention closed out the month of August with the Republican National Convention following on its heels, the politics category surged 33 percent to 14 million visitors as many Americans directed their attention to this historic Presidential contest. The category, which was the fastest growing for the month, was led by BarackObama.com with nearly 4 million visitors (up 113 percent from July), while JohnMcCain.com climbed 108 percent to 1.4 million visitors.
The entertainment - humor category also witnessed strong gains this month, growing 12 percent to 16.5 million visitors, in part due to the success of a viral comedy video relating to the presidential race. Comedic video site FunnyOrDie.com jumped 256 percent to 2.4 million visitors as people flocked to the site to view Paris Hilton’s video response to John McCain’s ‘Celebrity’ ad, which featured Hilton as a way of deriding Senator Obama’s celebrity status.
Olympics Drives Surge at Sports and News Sites
The Olympics was a significant driver of Internet activity during the month of August, with official Olympic site Beijing2008.cn capturing the top spot among the fastest-gaining properties during the month. The site realized a twelvefold increase in August with 5.8 million visitors.
The Olympics generated the most substantial gains in the sports and news categories. Sports grew 26 percent to more than 93 million visitors in August, led by Yahoo! Sports with 38.5 million visitors (up 76 percent), NBC Sports with 23.8 million visitors (up 740 percent) and ESPN with 22 million visitors (up 23 percent). The category also benefitted from pre-season interest in the 2008 NFL season.
Meanwhile, general news sites grew 10 percent to 105 million visitors. MSNBC led the category with 44.5 million visitors (up 53 percent), with much of the site’s increase due to the flood of visitors to NBCOlympics.com site. Yahoo! News, ranking second in the category, grew 15 percent to 44.3 million visitors, while CNN ranked third with more than 32 million visitors (up 12 percent).
Back to School Season Prompts Growth to Education and Consumer Goods Sites
August marked the beginning of another school year for many students, resulting in gains to education and retail – consumer goods sites. Education sites grew 9 percent to 96 million visitors, with each of the five most-visited sites in the category experiencing double-digit growth during the month. The category was led by Dictionary.com with 10.9 million visitors (up 24 percent), followed by Pearson Education with 9.9 million visitors (up 30 percent) and Answers.com with 8.4 million visitors (up 26 percent).
The retail – consumer goods category grew 9 percent to 24.6 million visitors, propelled by large increases at several office supplies sites. Category-leader Staples.com Sites jumped 22 percent to nearly 8 million visitors, while Office Depot increased 10 percent to 5.3 million visitors and OfficeMax increased 39 percent to 2.6 million visitors.
Top 50 Properties
Google Sites maintained its #1 position in the Top Properties ranking, reaching 144.7 million Americans in August, while Yahoo! Sites ranked second with 141.5 million visitors and Microsoft Sites ranked third with 123.5 million visitors. Target Corporation and Bank of America both climbed three spots this month with Target rising to #22 with 30.5 million visitors and Bank of America reaching #30 with 25.6 million visitors. The beginning of football season helped propel ESPN seven positions to #36 with more than 22 million visitors. Answers.com Sites (#45), WorldNow – ABC Owned Sites (#47) and NBC Universal (#50) each entered the rankings this month.
Top 50 Ad Focus Ranking
Platform-A, which includes Advertising.com, Quigo and other ad networks, led the Ad Focus ranking in August, reaching 90 percent of the nearly 189 million Americans online. Google Ad Network moved up one spot in the ranking, capturing the second position with a reach of 156.4 million visitors. Yahoo! Network claimed the third spot reaching 156.2 million visitors in August.
