• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, August 29, 2004

JibJab Parody Reaches Three Times As Many As Kerry Plus Bush

The comScore Media Metrix analysis of consumer Internet behavior this month revealed that JibJab.com, the online video released in mid-July satirizing John Kerry and George Bush, reached substantially more visitors than both of the candidates' sites combined. JibJab.com drew an impressive 10.4 million unique visitors in July, more than three times the 3.3 million Americans who collectively visited JohnKerry.com and GeorgeWBush.com.

Highlights of online behavior in July :

- substantial increases in activity at sites including Staples, Dell and Ikea, serving as an early indicator of back-to-school shopping and promotional activity.

- all of the top ten Hotel/Resorts properties saw summer seasonal traffic increases. Airline sites, including Southwest.com, American Airlines and JetBlue Airways, posted double-digit increases as well.

- "... JibJab.com took the Web by storm..." said Peter Daboll, president and CEO of comScore Media Metrix. "This is an example of just how quickly compelling content can spread in a wired world."

- The lack of a major "convention bump" in voter polls, presidential candidate John Kerry did enjoy a significant bump online, which fueled a 42-percent spike in traffic to the Politics category, ranking it as the second largest gainer in July.

- in July, well over 40 million Americans visited Microsoft Windows sites in pursuit of updates, catapulting the Technology category up 14 percent to 98.5 million visitors in July.

Top Ten Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors Total U.S. Home, Work and University Internet Users

	Jun-04 (000)	Jul-04 (000)	Percentage Change	Rank by Unique Visitors
Total Internet Users	156,436	156,775	0%	N/A
JIBJAB.COM	N/A	10,402	N/A	56
GAMEFLY.COM	1,322	3,469	162%	195
JPMorgan Chase Property	6,661	12,908	94%	39
Atomshockwave Sites	5,175	8,396	62%	71
Pepsi Co.	3,079	4,614	50%	150
Staples.com Sites	2,730	3,821	40%	176
AMERIQUESTMORTGAGE.COM	2,903	3,869	33%	174
InterContinental Hotels	2,795	3,596	29%	189
Dell	9,638	12,286	27%	43
Marriott	2,731	3,483	28%	193

Source: comScore Media Metrix

Top Ten Gaining Categories by Unique Visitors Total U.S. Home, Work and University Internet Users

	Jun-04 (000)	Jul-04 (000)	Percentage Change
Total Internet User	156,436	156,775	0%
Games-Gaming Info	38,109	55,287	45%
News/Info-Politics	12,334	17,557	42%
Travel-Hotels/Resorts	23,572	27,535	17%
Technology	86,558	98,543	14%
Directories	77,282	87,788	14%
Retail-Toys	13,421	15,203	13%
Travel-Airlines	21,254	23,331	10%
Sports	47,093	51,675	10%
Classifieds	15,494	16,862	9%
Retail-Department Stores	33,963	36,826	8%

Source: comScore Media Metrix

The complete release is available in PDF format here.