SUP numbers, growth, and tipping points

[Admin]

Always fun to have a look at sport metrics, to guage against other sports, and to conjecture about a potential tipping point.

Here is how SUP stacks up in comparison with some similar sports in terms of Google web searches:

SUP:

Skimboarding:

Kiteboarding:

Windsurfing:

Bodyboarding:

Surfing:

Snowboarding:

[PonoBill]

So you're bored too, huh.

I've been tracking those numbers for quite a while. You might find the Google Trends tool more useful.



MY GOD, IT TRACKS PRECISELY WITH POLAR ICE CAP AREA!!!

[PonoBill]

Here's the trend for Stand Up Paddle, the term you tracked:


If I were going to reassure some longboarders that SUP isn't going to dominate their breaks I'd be bringing some of this stuff to the meeting. If there's going to be a hockey stick sport adoption curve it ain't started yet.

[Admin]

So you're bored too, huh.

You might find the Google Trends tool more useful.

MY GOD, IT TRACKS PRECISELY WITH POLAR ICE CAP AREA!!!

The problem with Google trends or any search trends data right now is that search in itself is losing steam to people getting their specific info elsewhere.  Rather than going to the engines, they come to a specialty social networking site (read forum) and search there.    The search engines used to be where to find out, now they are to find out where to find out.  

The Google keyword tool will pull an almost identical list regardless of the search term entered (as long as you choose a reasonable one).  It will then go out and find the top few hundred related terms.  I just sorted those by # of searches and cropped it to the most popular 9).

[PonoBill]

Yeah, but it still works for general volume. The book I'm writing is all about keywords and the web as a market research tool. Got to get back on it. It's mostly crap so far, as usual I'm saving the hard stuff for last. At my current rate of progress it will be done about 2035. But my surfing will be much, much better.

If you're REALLY bored you can read the working draft stuff here: http://www.automarq.com/

[Admin]

Wait a second, it's possible to write a book about web marketing?  I didn't think you could get off a postcard before everything had changed  

[PonoBill]

Absolutely true. A quote from the book:

For example, CMOs who were surveyed for the Deloitte study said that retraining and developing existing staff is the leading strategy for acquiring or sharpening expertise in digital marketing competencies, with 62.9% of respondents electing training over recruiting new talent (28.6%) or outsourcing (17.1%).

I don’t know of any training that will ensure digital marketing competency, in fact I can’t imagine it. This world moves too fast for a syllabus. The examples in this book will be obsolete before I finish writing it, never mind before it gets printed. I suspect that few of the CMOs surveyed have any idea, much less an actionable plan, for what it would take to get their staff trained and competent. They just like the idea. They don’t have to replace good old Wally, just get him some training.

[Weasels wake]

Wow, windsurfing is still the #1 surfing alt (non-snow) sport, cool I had a feeling that this might be true (assuming this data isn't ancient).  It's hard to tell from my narrow window on the world, but it's good to know.  
Not that there is anything wrong with SUPing, it's my #2.  

[Admin]

Wow, windsurfing is still the #1 surfing alt (non-snow) sport, cool I had a feeling that this might be true (assuming this data isn't ancient).

I just ran those this morning.  Those are the average monthly search #'s from the last year for those search terms on Google and the Google network. 

The trend charts that Bill mentioned can be pulled for all of those search terms as well and those are really interesting as well.  This is kind of a cool indicator though, beacuse it flattens factors like seasonality, the X-mas internet pulse, etc.

It is pretty compelling info, but is not the complete story, and of course there can be a lot of alternate explanations for the numbers (i.e. do windsurfers use the net more, do snowboarders search the same terms more frequently, etc.).  Also, it is not limited to one search per user, the total could include the same users a # of times.

[Admin]

...and an add on for perspective (however warped):