Nintendo DS, Wii and Xbox 360 most popular searched for products online, in January

London, 7 April, 2010 - Totalling 16 million and accounting for 75% of online searches, gaming consoles & games were the most queried items when UK consumers went online in January to buy entertainment retail-related products, including CDs, DVDs and Blu-Ray DVDs. This is according to new research published by leading independent search specialist, Greenlight, titled 'Entertainment Retail Sector Report - Issue 1', the first of a new quarterly report series covering this sector.

Greenlight used industry data to classify 3,500 of the most popular search terms that consumers use to find entertainment-related products online. It totalled the number of times each one was used to give an indication of the size of the audience and a profile of how Google users went about their search for entertainment products in January.

The report reveals there were 22 million searches performed in January for entertainment retail-related keywords, a decrease of 16% since December 2009 when 26 million searches were made. This difference is most likely due to the Christmas period.

Of the total search volume, terms for gaming consoles & games were most searched for, followed by DVDs (12%), Blu-Ray DVDs (7%) and CDs (7%).

Amounting 1.8 million queries, 'Nintendo DS games' accounted for 11% of all searches for gaming-related products. Wii games and Xbox 360 followed with 7%, Amazon being the most visible website, achieving 68% share of voice. Game followed with 58% then Play.com with 43%.

67% of all DVD-related searches consisted of just two keywords: 'DVDs' and 'DVD'. Play.com was the most visible website in January attaining 84% share of voice. It was followed by Amazon with 83% then Wikipedia with 54%.

Wikipedia was the most visible website for Blu-Ray DVD-related keywords with 94% share of visibility, followed by Blu-Ray.com with 83% then Play.com with 80%.

Searches for CD-related terms, including generic keywords and popular artists, accounted for more than 1.4 million searches in January. The term 'CDs' accounted for 55% of all searches for CD-related terms. Play.com topped the table, achieving 74% visibility for CD-related keyword searches. Wikipedia followed with 70%. Amazon ranked at position one for 117 of the keywords analysed. However, it achieved lower visibility for the high volume driving terms compared to Play.com and Wikipedia, which saw it attain third position in Greenlight's league table.

(Table 1 showing Greenlight's top 5 of the 60 most visible entertainment retail websites in natural search*, shows below. If you are unable to view it please contact the press office)

Table 1: Top 5 of the 60 most visible entertainment retail websites in natural search, UK

Source: Greenlight

Greenlight conducted a detailed level of monitoring and analysis to determine which advertisers appeared in the paid search** space. An advertiser's share of voice is based on how often they were present in Google, which ad position they bid for, and the associated search volume for the keywords they bid on.

All of the top ten advertisers in paid search in January were multi-channel retailers. Amazon was the most visible, achieving 73% share of voice. It was followed by Game with 45% and Play.com with 42%. Interestingly, although Amazon was the most visible advertiser, it was Game which displayed the most visible individual ad creative.

(Table 2 showing Greenlight's top 5 of the 60 most visible entertainment retail advertisers in paid search, shows below. If you are unable to view it please contact the press office)

Table 2: Top 5 of the 60 most visible entertainment retail advertisers in paid search, UK

Source: Greenlight

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