Google Trends Gets World Cup Fever

12-06-2014Tags: Marketing Insight

With the FIFA World Cup kicking off next week, Google has unveiled a World Cup microsite that will analyse national search trends before, during and after all matches.

A team of approximately 20 analysts will examine real-time search data to create shareable facts and visuals to help boost online conversations about the World Cup.

"Casual"

In Google's words, the national search trends will provide a "unique glimpse into what the world wants to know during the tournament." Google Trends will analyse series of trends including national sentiment, insightful questions and rising players. Through this real-time data, Google Trends will outline how each nation is feeling about upcoming matches. For example, English fans appear to be feeling "casual" ahead of England's opening match against Italy (Saturday 14 June). With 57 percent neutral sentiments, 27 percent positive and only 16 percent negative.

Content Creation

Once the match has begun, Google Trends will then analyse national search terms and any significant events that occur, in order to create high-quality shareable content; which is designed to be easily shared via Facebook and Twitter. The upcoming World Cup provides the first step into content creation for Google, but as a low-cost, low-risk project, Google is confident of success.

In addition to national sentiment, Google Trends will analyse which nation is more popular worldwide, the top World Cup-related questions and which players generated the top search volumes. On top of the standard trends for each match, the analysts will use the national search trends to create unique content about nation-specific topics. For example, if Italy had selected their team captain based on national search volume, Andrea Pirlo would be leading the squad, not Gianluigi Buffon.

Analysing a range of trends will offer Google a unique opportunity to test the various content types and measure the trends that are shared the most. As a significant worldwide event with large search volumes, the World Cup Google Trends is certain to be a success and a solid foundation on which to build upon.

For more information and to see national search trends, visit the Google Trends World Cup microsite and the official FIFA World Cup 2014 Brazil website.