When we originally launched the Barometer Blog, it was with the intention of providing you with the latest digital learnings, insights, tools and general tips to help plan great campaigns. Over the past two and a half years, we have shared our latest research, industry stats, Vox Pops, examples of cool and inspiring uses of Google's products, and much more.



We are pleased to confirm that we will be providing more of the same on our new Think With Google blog but with a slight twist. Introducing the 4Is: Insight, Ideas, Implement and Impact.

On the new Think With Google blog, you will notice most of our posts now correspond to at least one of the four categories which we hope will help you to:

• Discover great insights

• Be inspired to develop creative ideas

• Find the most effective ways to implement those ideas

• Measure the impact.

This blog will continue to be run by the Google UK team. Much of the content will have a UK focus but we hope our readers in other markets will also find it useful.


Posted by Selina Rennie, Agency Team

Our recent whitepaper uncovers new insights as to consumers' movie-going intentions and the evolution of their search behaviour over the last few years.

The study shows that consumers are searching for movies and considering what they want to watch much earlier than they used to. In 2010, we saw that searches for film titles began to ramp up five weeks prior to the opening weekend, whereas in 2008, they would pick up much closer to the time.

Not only are movie-goers searching earlier, they are searching more. Movie-goers searched 1.75 times more per film in 2010 than in 2008. Additionally, searches for film trailers were up by more than 50% in 2010 versus the previous year.

Search provides a unique look at how consumers are researching movies revealing great opportunities to better engage with them.



If you are interested in exploring this topic further, the full study is available for download here.

Posted by Selina Rennie, Agency Team

In June, we shared some research from the US market looking into the user behaviour of smartphone owners in our post Understanding smartphone consumers. This month, we are pleased to share the UK version of the study.

As with the previous study, the key objectives were to understand:

• How smartphones are typically used on a day-to-day basis
  
  
• What other activities consumers carry out while using their smartphones
  
  
• The types of information they are searching for on mobile
  
  
• How smartphone consumers are using their devices to help them make their purchase decisions
  
  
• How receptive they are to mobile ads.

More than half of UK smartphone owners use their device every day to go online. They have become so attached to their little pocket PCs that more than one in five claim that they would sooner give up their TV than their smartphone!

As you would expect, a large proportion of smartphone users (89%) access the internet while they are out and about. What is slightly more surprising is that an even larger proportion (98%) are using their device to go online while they are at home.

As with their trans-Atlantic counterparts, some of the most popular smartphone uses among UK smartphone owners include passing the time when waiting (65%) and finding information quickly (52%), as well as being used as a "kind of modern accessory" (48%).

Increasingly, smartphone owners are using their mobiles to assist with their purchase decisions. More than 50% make a purchase based on information which they obtained from a smartphone. Further, 81% looked for local information with nearly a third of these local information seekers going on to make a purchase.

When it comes to mobile advertising, 87% of smartphone owners recall seeing a mobile ad. However, 83% of top UK advertisers do not have a site optimised for mobile. It is important that advertisers build a good mobile user experience as 28% of smartphone owners have taken action after having been exposed to a mobile ad. More specifically:

• 44% have clicked on a mobile ad
  
  
• 33% have visited the advertiser's site
  
  
• 32% have made a purchase.

If you are interested in learning more about UK smartphone users, please watch our short video here or download the full study here.

Posted by Selina Rennie, Agency Team

The internet is a multi-billion pound industry in the UK, which accounted for 7.2% of the nation's GDP in 2009. The UK leads the world in e-commerce as the country with the highest per capita spending online. [1]

As the growth of e-commerce remains unabated, we see that consumers are increasingly researching their purchases online.

Our new whitepaper conducted in conjunction with Nielsen, takes a detailed look at consumers' path to purchase across multiple sectors. The study seeks to understand the length of research journeys, how shoppers are researching their purchases and how they are using search during their decision making process.


Here are somes key findings from the study:

• Research journeys are often lengthy and in some sectors, can last more than a month.

• 1 in 3 conversions takes place 30 days after the initial research.

• 70% of consumers who purchase use search.

• Generic search terms play a key role in the research process. Shoppers who convert online are 19% more likely, on average, to search on generic terms than those who are just 'window shopping' or end up making their purchase offline.

To learn more, please download the full study here.

[1] BCG Report - The Connected Kingdom, October 2010

Posted by Selina Rennie, Agency Team

Here is our latest round-up of some of the most current insights on Google Internet Stats:

Online video

• Britons watch 11,000 years of video online every month.
  Nielsen VideoCensus, May 2011
  
  
• 23% of people watch online video every day, nearly double the 2010 figure.
  

  MediaTel, July 2011
  
  

• Three times more people watch music videos on YouTube than download music.
  Nielsen, July 2011
  
  
• Nearly a quarter of all global mobile bandwidth is consumed by people watching YouTube videos.
  Allot Communications, July 2011

Mobile

• For 1 in 4 smartphone owners, their phones are their primary way of accessing the internet.
  Pew Internet & American Life Project, July 2011
  
  
• Nearly half of UK teenagers own a smartphone.
  Ofcom, August 2011
  
  
• Almost half of mobile users make more than one purchase per month via their mobile devices.
  Myxer, July 2011
  
  
• Nearly 1 in 4 people are interested in using their mobile phones instead of cash to make purchases.
  YouGov, June 2011

Reviews & Recommendations

• More than 1 in 4 UK adults claim that online product reviews have a major influence on their purchasing decisions.
  TGI, Q2 2011
  
  
• 50% of consumers admit that recommendations from their friends and family influence their decision to buy a new product or brand.
  

  Havas Media Social and Lightspeed Research, June 2011
  
  

• More than 50% of consumers have changed their perceptions about brands based on social influences.
  

  GroupM, February 2011

For more stats like these, visit google.co.uk/internetstats.


Posted by Selina Rennie, Agency Team

Many advertisers wonder how much of the traffic driven by their search ads is actually incremental to the traffic driven by organic search results for their brands. So, what happens if search ads are paused?

Our brand new research addresses this much debated issue. The results from the study which examined more than four hundred advertisers, show that on average, when search ads are paused, 89% of paid clicks are lost and not recovered by organic clicks.

Watch our short video for a brief overview of the study and its highlights.



If you would like to read the full study, please download it here.

Posted by Selina Rennie, Agency Team

Innovation's co-founders; WPP's Sir Martin Sorrell; Nike's head of Innovation, Hannah Jones and our very own Susan Wojcicki.

We're living through a time of rapid change. As technology, culture and even democracy evolve, it's becoming clear that we must learn to adapt in the face of uncertainty.

At Google, we're doing this by working hard to help people and organisations take advantage of technology to fuel their own creativity.

What do you need to do differently to shape the future? Are you ready to be unrealistic? To do the unexpected? To act boldly? Where will you find inspiration, and who else will you inspire?

Read the fascinating articles in Think Quarterly and you'll find some of Google's secrets of innovation revealed, alongside cutting-edge insights from some of the world's brightest minds. Most of all, though, you'll find a series of questions, not answers. Think. Innovate. Think Innovation.

You should have a read at www.thinkquarterly.co.uk and let us know your thoughts @thinkquarterly.


Posted by Rich Pleeth, Product Marketing Manager