State Insurance’s ‘Nothing’s going to break my stride‘ commercial showing a stream of unlucky customers singing about their insurance quandaries was the most searched for ad this year, according to Google’s New Zealand Brand Zeitgeist 2012.
The Zeitgeist is a yearly report aggregating search queries made on Google by New Zealanders, giving an indication of the key trends this year. The word zeitgeist means ‘spirit of the age’ in German, and is also the name of that horrible post-reunion Smashing Pumpkins album.
State’s 90-second commercial was produced by Colenso BBDO, and launched in March across television, radio, and online. The YouTube version has almost 110,000 views, its success prompting State to upload a karaoke version which hasn’t seen much traction.
Vodafone’s ‘Do your thing better‘, featuring Boy star James Rolleston, was the second most searched for ad. New World took third spot for the term “New World ad”, which Google says is a likely reference to the company’s ‘Every day a new world‘ campaign.
According to Google, Trade Me was the most searched for brand in 2012, followed by Stuff.co.nz, and Westpac.
Although Trade Me was the top shopping brand search, it and other New Zealand retailers are facing increasing competition from overseas outfits. UK-based fashion retailer Boohoo.com, which launched its New Zealand website in June, was the fastest rising shopping brand searched for on Google this year.
Unsurprisingly for Google, its advice for New Zealand retailers is to invest more in online search.
“We know that Kiwi shoppers trust their local brands and tend to look for them first online,” says Tony Keusgen, country manager Google NZ.
“Kiwi retailers can maintain their edge by taking full advantage of the web to reach potential customers who are searching for them online, from mobile or from desktop.”
This is the first time Google has released the brand-specific Zeitgeist in New Zealand. Yesterday Google launched its global search report, which includes more generic trends from around the world and New Zealand.
Top Searches for New Zealand Brands
- Trade Me
- Stuff.co.nz
- Westpac
- ASB Bank
- NZ Herald
- The Warehouse
- National Bank
- Kiwibank
- Air New Zealand
- ANZ Bank
Top Searches for Ads
- State ad
- Vodafone ad
- New World ad
- Tui ad
- Westpac ad
Top Searches for Shopping Brands
- Trade Me
- The Warehouse
- ebay
- Amazon
- Harvey Norman
Fastest Rising Searches for Shopping Brands
- Boohoo
- Torpedo7
- etsy
- JB HIFI
- ASOS
