Broncos or Seahawks? Who's winning the Search Engine Bowl Game?

We know the BIG GAME will be decided Sunday evening, February 2nd, 2014, but which team and its fans are winning the battle off the field for search and social media dominance? We decided to find out, deploying a range of research tools we normally use for clients to provide us the data to arrive at the answer.

This is the first of four planned installments in a series.  Next up:  Broncos or Seahawks? Who's winning the Social Media Bowl Game? An in-depth look at the two teams and their fan base on Twitter and Facebook.

Google Trends, the Global Water Cooler

In the month before the big game, which team ruled Google's search engine?

As you can tell, search queries peaked the day after the conference championships, and have reverted to more normal levels this past week (with the bye weekend), but the Seahawks lead by a wide margin on Google (in the USA and Globally).

The following chart updates on a feed from Google and will continue to show relative search queries between the two teams: 

In the week before the big game, which team ruled Google's search engine?

The Seahawks remained in the lead in the week leading up to the game, but as of Sunday (1/26/14) their comfortable 61% lead in search query volume had narrowed to just 33%.

Here's a live, updating chart showing the past week's traffic for the two teams, directly from Google Trends:

Where are all these searches coming from? 

Google Trends data confirms that interest in both teams on their search engine comes predominantly from both team's home cities. In fact, in what could be troubling for the executives at FOX, there is little interest outside the Denver and Seattle MSAs (Metropolitan Statistical Areas; the USA's #21 and #15 biggest media markets, respectively):

Next Up: What are people search for relative to the Broncos and Seahawks? 

We asked Google to give us the top categories and related search phrases, as well as rising categories and search phrases. Here are the top categories/topics and queries related to the Denver Broncos:

Here are the fastest rising categories/topics and queries related to the Denver Broncos:

Here are the top categories/topics and queries related to the Seattle Seahawks:

Here are the fastest rising categories/topics and queries related to the Seattle Seahawks:

Conclusion: Seahawks win first quarter

The first quarter of this battle -- the Search Engine quarter -- goes to the Seattle Seahawks. But as Seahawk head coach Pete Carroll has said on many occasions, "You can't win a game in the first quarter..." If you like this article, please share it with friends and colleagues, and stay tuned for the next "quarter" in the series, "Broncos or Seahawks? Who's winning the Social Media Bowl Game? An in-depth look at the two teams and their fan base on Twitter and Facebook."

Why go to all this trouble? 

As the co-author and originator of the Idol Prediction Project, I've always been fascinated with using Search Marketing Equity and Social Media Equity data we collect for our clients -- and repurposing it for general interest, big media events.

Our hope is to expose a broader audience to the science behind Inbound Marketing -- what we do at Connection Model for our clients to grow their business.

Next up:  Broncos or Seahawks? Who's winning the Social Media Bowl Game? An in-depth look at the two teams and their fan base on Twitter and Facebook.

Comments, Complaints, Suggestions?

We welcome them all... until the end of February 2014, at which time all comments for the series will be closed. Please leave yours below.