Nokia is most searched online brand, says Google Zeitgeist

Google launched its first Brand Zeitgeist in Mumbai on Friday afternoon at its event Creative Sandbox, termed by the search giant as an "opportunity to experience the latest web technologies being used by creative minds around the world."

May 31, 2010 07:00:00 AM | Article | Campaign India Team

The Brand Zeitgeist was a look at the most searched brands and the activities related to the brands on Google search in India. Nokia emerged as the most searched online brand followed by SBI, Samsung, Sony and BSNL respectively. Google also shared the key trends across verticals like Telecom, Finance, Travel, Auto and education and its impact on online advertising in India.

According to the Google Brand Zeitgeist, the top 10 brands are Nokia, SBI, Samsung, Sony, BSNL, Tata, IRCTC, HDFC, ICICI and Airtel. For Nokia, searching for specifications of its handset models was the number one activity, while price enquiries were the second most popular activity. For SBI, online banking was the most popular activity, followed by recruitment. For Samsung, research on mobile phones was the most popular activity, followed by downloads for mobile. For Sony, mobile phone research was the most popular activity, followed by laptop research. Broadband pan enquiries was the most popular search activity for BSNL, followed GPRS. For Tata, Broadband was the most popular search activity, followed by Motors. For IRCTC, website access was the most popular activity, followed by Availability/Agents. Net banking was the most popular activity for HDFC, followed by Cards.

For ICICI, Banking was the number one activity, followed by Insurance. With Airtel, Broadband was the number one activity, followed by Customer care and payments.

Google also released search trends by verticals, such as follows:

I. Telecom is fast growing, adding new categories rapidly, with new product categories driving research.

- The most promising in terms of monetizable query volumes

- Mobile and VAS services make up 20% of the queries followed by broadband and DTH

- Nokia tops the Mobile Phones Category and Airtel biggest in service provider category

- Multi media for mobile and VAS are highest growth areas

- Popular activities are research about data plans, retail outlets, online music stores connected to a particular service etc.

II. Finance - search witnessed 73% growth

- 33% queries related to Banking

- LIC is the top searched brand in Insurance followed by ICICI Pru and Bajaj Allianz

- India leads the world in the online interest for investing/stock markets

- Net banking is the top activity

- Increased interest for Home loans and Bank Recruitment online

III. Travel – Train Bookings leading the growth story, travel is the largest in e - commerce

- The Indian Railway booking website is by far the most popular brand in this category

- Growth fuelled by Train and Bus Bookings, while Airline bookings remain high and steady

- IRCTC is the most searched brand/ site overall in Travel

- Interest in Hotels in metros higher than hotels in vacation destinations

- Honeymoon packages are the most researched for, followed by Domestic holidays and International holidays

IV. Automotive – High Growth, High research category

- Maruti is the leading brand in cars while Yamaha leads the motorbikes category

- Motorbikes show the maximum growth in queries at 126% YoY

- While research on specific brand makes and models are most popular, consumers do a lot of reading on expert websites and seek expert opinions on their vehicles or prospective buys on Google search

- There is also significant interest in super bikes like, Ducati, Hayabusa etc.

V. Education - One of the largest in terms of Search

- Online searches related to education witnessing YoY growth of over 45%

- 30% - 40% wallet share of total advertising spend is on education

- Has significant traction with students, teachers and parents across different sectors - private universities research, course research, vocational training institutes research, foreign education and test preparation research

-One of the largest categories in terms of online search interest, ample scope for advertisers to capture existing target group

The Zeitgeist surmises that automotive and telecom are the fastest growing verticals in terms of search volumes on Google. Mobile Phones and VAS make up 20% of the queries in the telecom vertical. Finance on Google search is a sophisticated category with 80% queries containing specific brands. Air travel is giving way to rail and bus bookings in the online travel category. The Motorbikes Category in Auto has grown exponentially at 125% YoY (in terms of search volumes). Online searches related to education is witnessing a YoY Growth of over 45%.