Google played host to India’s finest creative minds, at the Google Creative Sandbox held at India Bulls Centre in Mumbai. The Google Creative Sandbox was held to spark the imagination of agencies by immersing them in a highly unique environment. It gave them an opportunity to experience the latest web technologies that are being used by creative minds around the world, pushing new boundaries and delivering extraordinary results.
At Google’s Creative Sandbox event in Mumbai, Google also released its first ‘Brand Zeitgeist’, highlighting 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.
Search Trends by Verticals:
I. Telecom – Fast Growing, Adding New Categories Rapidly, 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
Executive Summary
- 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 witnessing a YoY Growth of over 45%
About Creative Sandbox:
Envisioned by the product and marketing teams in Mountain View, US in 2008, the Google Creative Sandbox has been enhanced and promoted across geographies by introducing local flavors. After its grand success in San Francisco, Chicago, New York and Sydney, Google India introduced Creative Sandbox to India for the first time.
About Google Inc.
Google's innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford PhD. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major global markets. Google's targeted advertising program provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall web experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit www.google.com.
