Oscar Buzz Drives Online Behavior

Oscar Buzz Drives Online Behavior

Oscar-Related Sites Reel in Traffic as the Show Approaches; 31% Online While Watching the Broadcast

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., March 4 /PRNewswire/ -- As Hollywood's biggest celebrities prepared to walk down the red carpet at the Academy Awards, Internet users headed online to research the star-studded event. According to independent research conducted by Feedback Research (www.feedbackresearch.com), a division of Claria Corporation, consumers flocked to Oscar-related sites in the four weeks leading up to the event, significantly boosting site traffic on the MSN Oscars' page by 1303%, Oscar.com by 424% and the Yahoo! Oscars' page by 636%.

By analyzing the actual online behavior of Claria's tens of millions of anonymous users, Feedback Research was able to gain insight into Internet users' actions in the days leading up to and during the Academy Awards broadcast. The research ran from January 27, 2005 to February 27, 2005 among users who viewed Oscar-related Web sites. Feedback Research also surveyed a random sampling of Claria users to determine the respondents' Oscar predictions.

The Consumer Knows "Best"

When asked who would win the night's biggest awards -- Best Actress and Best Actor -- more than half of respondents guessed correctly:

-- 55% of respondents predicted that Hilary Swank would bring home the Best Actress award. -- 56% of respondents predicted that Jamie Foxx would win Best Actor.

Conversely, Million Dollar Baby's Best Picture award was a surprise to Internet users:

-- 41% of respondents predicted that Ray would win Best Picture, followed by The Aviator with 26%.

Visitors Reach for the Stars Online

-- 31% of Internet users were online and watching the Academy Awards simultaneously. -- In looking for the latest Academy Awards information on Oscar-related sites, the Oscars' page on MSN had the most viewers during the research period with 23%, followed by Oscar.com with 18% and EOnline.com with 16%. -- On the day of the event, Oscar.com saw the largest percentage of total Oscar-related traffic with 46%. The Oscars page on MSN second largest percentage with 19% followed by the Oscars page on Yahoo! with 15%. - 41% of all Oscar.com's traffic and 19% of all Yahoo!'s traffic during the month leading up to the broadcast, occurred on that day. - On the day of the broadcast, 64% of Oscar.com's traffic and 25% of Yahoo!'s traffic occurred as the event was being televised between the hours of 6-9 p.m. PST.

Oscar Getting The Buzz

-- Oscar.com received the most cross-traffic from other Oscar-related sites: - 40% of those who viewed the Academy Awards directory on Yahoo! also viewed Oscar.com - 33% of those who viewed the Oscars page on Hollywoodreporter.com also viewed Oscar.com - 30% of those who viewed Oscarrace.com also viewed Oscar.com

Additional Oscar Related Findings

-- 31% of respondents would purchase the movie Ray on DVD or VHS -- 36% of survey respondents planned to watch the Academy Awards - 62% were interested in finding out the winners of all awards; 58% were interested in finding out the winners of only the major awards - 52% were interested in seeing what the celebrities were wearing

For more information and insights into online statistics contact Mandy Mladenoff of SHIFT Communications, LLC - 415-591-8420, mmladenoff@shiftcomm.com.

NOTE: Claria and Feedback Research are trademarks of Claria Corporation. ACADEMY AWARD(S)(R), OSCAR(S)(R), OSCAR NIGHT(R) and the OSCAR(R) statuette design mark are the trademarks and service marks of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Neither Claria Corporation nor Feedback Research is affiliated with, sponsoring, or sponsored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and the Academy's marks are used for descriptive purposes only. All other trademarks or service marks used herein are the property of their respective owners, and neither Claria Corporation nor Feedback Research is in any way affiliated with, sponsoring, or sponsored by the owners of those marks. These trademarks and service marks are used for descriptive purposes only.

About Claria Corporation: Founded in 1998, Claria Corporation (www.claria.com) is a leader in online behavioral marketing. Claria's behavioral data platform provides Web publishers and advertisers the information they need to deliver advertisements targeted to individual consumer interests. Claria provides marketing research and business insights through its Feedback Research division, delivering in-depth analytics of consumer Web usage patterns across the Internet. Claria's Vista Marketing Services division is dedicated to bring consumers a more relevant and highly personalized Web experience. Claria headquarters are located in Redwood City, California, with U.S. offices in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Washington D.C., Detroit, Austin, and International offices in the U.K. and Asia.

About Feedback Research: Feedback Research, a division of the Claria Corporation, offers a breakthrough way to conduct one-to-one research with tens of millions of consumers while they surf the Web. With access to the wealth of information and respondents from Claria's GAIN Network, Feedback Research can help advertisers find out more about customers, because advertisers can create samples based on what consumers actually do online versus the less reliable method of using self-reported data.

Source: Claria Corporation

CONTACT: Mandy Mladenoff of SHIFT Communications, LLC, +1-415-591-8420, or mmladenoff@shiftcomm.com

Web site: http://www.feedbackresearch.com/

Web site: http://www.claria.com/

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