Google Trends Bristol arts venues

The Colston Hall might be Bristol’s largest concert venue, but how does it compare to the cities other arts venue in terms of its popularity? Using Google Trends its possible to compare the frequency with which certain terms are searched for on the internet. The analysis of Bristol’s arts venues has been done by Ian Nockolds, Research Director at Cognisant Research.

“Google Trends featured in a presentation at the Market Research Society Conference. The example used by Stan Sthanunathan from Unilever used ice cream, but I thought it might be interesting to compare some of Bristol’s best-known entertainment venues.”, Ian said. “The Google Insights website features a number of tools businesses can use to better understand how their consumers are accessing them and their competitors, on the internet. Its free and you don’t need to be in business to find a use for it, as my example shows.”

The comparison data goes back to 2004, although the analysis focuses on only the last 12 months. The analysis shows The Colston Hall consistently features as the most searched for a venue, although the gap between the Hall and the Old Vic narrows considerably around the end of March with the theatre’s production of Long Days Journey into Night, starring Jeremy Irons and Lesley Manville. The data Ian has produced is based on searches for arts and entertainment venues. Using the more general search term of “Old Vic” the picture changes quite significantly, as shown by the purple line.

Ian explained, “The other useful element of the arts venue example is that you can use Google Trends to be very specific. Thinking about how people use the internet means understanding the variety of search terms they might be using. Using a general search term for “Old Vic” skews the analysis, as it includes references to the Old Vic theatre in London.”

More information about the Google Trends Tool can be found at https://www.google.co.uk/insights.

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