BlueKai Pulse Reveals In-Market Shopping Insights Beyond Search With Industry's First Index of Consumer Intent Actions Across the Web

BlueKai, the online industry's first intent-focused, auction-based data exchange and online marketing's largest source of user intent data, today announced that it will issue a quarterly index of consumer intent action across the Web. "BlueKai Pulse" reflects data trends and insights from the BlueKai Data Exchange which aggregates anonymous intent data of over 145 million unique users on top-tier US e-commerce, online travel agency and auto comparison sites.

The intent actions captured by the BlueKai Exchange include strictly low-funnel purchase activities such as price search by auto make and model, travel destination search by airport or city, or activity on price comparison sites. Interest data such as contextual relevancy and demographic data are not considered intent. BlueKai Pulse shows the depth of intent data that is representative of 64% of total US online population, and offers a new view into user intent beyond search. Generated quarterly, this report examines recent trends in US intent data from the BlueKai Exchange in the Automotive, Travel, and Retail verticals.

"Search advertising has long been the gold standard for online marketers seeking to connect with consumers based on intent. However, consumers often begin their shopping experience with a search, and leave other, more detailed signals of intent across e-commerce or shopping comparison sites before they make an actual purchase," says Omar Tawakol, BlueKai's CEO. "Via the BlueKai Exchange, we have unique access to a large set of these intent actions across key verticals such as retail, auto and travel. The BlueKai Pulse is a way to encapsulate our view of intent actions across the Web and to share it with the industry as a measure of consumer in-market shopping trends."

To access the first issue of BlueKai Pulse in PDF format, please visit: http://www.bluekai.com/pulse/112009.pdf.

Automotive Intent Data shows Long Tail of Model Interest

Intent data from BlueKai's Automotive vertical shows the continued popularity of Toyota, Ford, Chevrolet and Honda. When compared with actual sales of top models in the US -- the BlueKai intent actions show a strong correlation. This strong correlation goes beyond the top makes; intent actions also correlate with actual sales at the model level. There are two notable differences between BlueKai intent actions and actual sales of cars. BlueKai intent actions tend to pre-date sales activities by at least two months because cars are intended purchases. The second notable difference is that some sports models slightly over index in intent actions over what is sold. An example of this is the Ford Mustang, which was on the top 10 list for models searched through BlueKai but not the top list of actual models sold.

BlueKai tracks over 50 manufacturers and 700 car models, allowing advertisers to target users actively considering specific auto models or manufacturers. The degree of correlation between intent actions and sales shows that influencing online intenders is the most effective way to target in-market consumers.

Top 5 Makes & the top two models per     Top 5 Makes & top two models
make (BlueKai Intent Actions)            (Actual Sales)

Toyota:      Camry, Corolla              Ford:        F-Series
Ford:        Mustang, F-150              Toyota:      Camry, Corolla
Chevrolet:   Camaro, Silverado           Chevrolet:   Silverado, Impala
Honda:       Accord, Civic               Honda:       Accord, Civic
Nissan:      Altima                      Dodge:       Ram

New York and Las Vegas Dominate Airport and Hotel Travel Interest

The BlueKai Exchange shows that, not surprisingly, Las Vegas was the most popular destination for flight and hotel shoppers alike in September 2009, accounting for nearly 9% of flight destination intent actions and 13.9% of hotel interest. New York was a distant second, with 9% of hotel interest and 8.3% of flight destination requests, when including the three major New York City area airports of John F. Kennedy International (JFK), Newark International (EWR), and La Guardia International (LGA).

All of the top 20 cities listed by the US Bureau of Transportation as the top US airports based on enplaned passengers in Q1 2009 appear on the top list below with the exception of Houston and Charlotte. This high degree of correlation shows that intent actions as captured by the top travel commerce sites are good predictors of actual consumer behavior.

Top 20 US Airport Destinations        Top 20 US Hotel City Destinations

1       Las Vegas, NV (LAS)           1       Las Vegas, NV
2       Los Angeles, CA (LAX)         2       New York, NY
3       Orlando, FL (MCO)             3       Chicago, IL
4       Miami, FL (MIA)               4       San Francisco, CA
5       Boston, MA (BOS)              5       Orlando, FL
6       San Francisco, CA (SFO)       6       San Diego, CA
7       Atlanta, GA (ATL)             7       Boston, MA
8       Fort Lauderdale, FL (FLL)     8       Washington, DC
9       New York, NY (JFK)            9       Miami Beach, FL
10      Chicago, IL (ORD)             10      Lake Buena Vista, FL
11      Phoenix, AZ (PHX)             11      Anaheim, CA
12      Denver, CO (DEN)              12      Atlantic City, NJ
13      Dallas, TX (DFW)              13      Seattle, WA
14      Seattle, WA (SEA)             14      Niagara Falls, NY
15      Tampa, FL (TPA)               15      New Orleans, LA
16      San Diego, CA (SAN)           16      Los Angeles, CA
17      Newark, NJ (EWR)              17      Atlanta, GA
18      New York, NY (LGA)            18      San Antonio, TX
19      Honolulu, HI (HNL)            19      Honolulu, HI
20      Philadelphia, PA (PHL)        20      Kissimmee, FL

Retail - Smartphones Dominate Cell Phone Interest

The BlueKai Exchange offers a wide array of shopping and retail intent actions that can be segmented and targeted by product type. This report features data from the Cell Phones, PDAs & Smartphones shopping category.

All of the Top 5 cell phones that users on the BlueKai Exchange researched were smartphones. The Blackberry Curve and the Apple iPhone had the largest number of intent actions, with almost a third of all total intent actions. LG's models also proved to be quite popular. The BlueKai top 5 match up well with actual sales (during the latest period sales figures are available). BlueKai intent actions highlight the growing popularity of smartphones. The five top selling cell phones in the US are smartphones which show that BlueKai intent actions correlate well with actual sales but over index to smart phones because consumers research smartphones online.

Top 5 Cell Phone        Top 5 Cell Phone Models Actual Sales
Models Intent Actions   (Q2, 2009)
on BlueKai Exchange
September 2009

1 Blackberry Curve      1 BlackBerry Curve (83xx series and 8900)
2 Apple iPhone          2 Apple iPhone 3GS (both 16GB and 32GB versions)
3 Samsung Impression    3 BlackBerry Pearl (81xx series not the Pearl Flip)
4 LG Dare               4 Apple iPhone 3G (8GB and 16GB versions)
5 LG Xenon              5 BlackBerry Bold

BlueKai (http://www.bluekai.com) created the first online data exchange designed with consumer transparency and control in mind. By aggregating valuable shopping and research activities across the Internet, BlueKai is building the world's largest database of true intenders. Unlike ad networks, BlueKai does not sell ads or impressions; it simply provides data on-demand for marketers, ad networks or publishers to boost the quality and scale of ad targeting initiatives. Data providers earn revenue in a privacy friendly way. The BlueKai Registry enables consumers to see what marketers know about them, edit their online preferences and gain rewards in charitable donations. The privately-held company is based in Bellevue, WA and is a recipient of the AlwaysOn 2009 OnMedia 100 award as a Technology Innovator in Advertising.