AKO3 Festival Boosts Online Rankings

AKO3 Festival Boosts Online Rankings

Hitwise Media Release

AK03 Festival boosts online rankings

New Zealand, 14 th October 2003 - Hitwise, the world's leading online competitive intelligence service has reported that the Auckland Festival website (www.ako3.co.nz), has drawn significant attention from websurfers in New Zealand, achieving the top position in the ‘Entertainment – Performing Arts’ category, retaining a remarkable market share of 30.36% for the week ending October 4, 2003.

The Auckland Festival, the first in 30 years, is a cultural event featuring an array of artists performing in venues throughout the city. The website has received a substantial increase in traffic for the New Zealand ‘Entertainment – Performing Arts category over the September period. Between the period of 30th August to 27th September 2003, the AK03 site market share significantly increased from 9.23% to 44.98%, also increasing its ranking from 3rd to 1st position respectively.

Corporate sponsorship played a major role in the operational success of AK03, whilst bringing measurable publicity for businesses: Silver sponsors, Barfoot and Thompson, www.barfoot.co.nz, who are an Auckland Real Estate Agent and Auctioneer, witnessed a siginificant jump in their rankings across all categories, from 73rd place, to 67th place over the festival period.

Hitwise Clickstream data for the week ending 27th September 2003, visitors to the AK03 site predominantly came from Google NZ, which contributed 18.05% of traffic to the site, followed by Ticketek NZ (www.ticketek.co.nz), with 9.75% of traffic, and Auckland City Council ( www.aucklandcity.govt.nz), consuming 8.30% of traffic. The website of the event’s main sponsor, Barfoot and Thompson, directed 1.08% of traffic to the AK03 site.

About Hitwise

Hitwise is the leading provider of online competitive intelligence services to Fortune 1000 corporations, providing corporate marketers with real-time insights into their online competitive environment. Via a combination of ISP data partnerships and opt-in mega panels, Hitwise collects anonymous information about the usage habits of more than 25 million Internet users worldwide, covering home, work and educational usage. With a categorized database of over 300,000 of the world’s most popularly visited websites, Hitwise is able to offer a daily analysis of over 150 vertical markets in each country of operation.

Hitwise is a privately held company and is headquartered in Melbourne, Australia and operates in New Zealand, UK, US, Hong Kong, Australia and Singapore.

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