HITWISE UK COMMUNITY UPDATE

Walkers walkEARS and Comic Relief websites rise as UK consumers seek red ears and prepare for Red Nose Day.

London, 16th March 2007 To coincide with Red Nose Day, dubbed "The Big One", Hitwise data reveals that the Walkers Crisps walkEARS website (www.walkears.com) and the official Comic Relief Red Nose Day website (www.rednoseday.com) have seen their market share of UK Internet visits soar. The Red Nose Day website has seen its weekly market share of visits increase 3-fold in the past four weeks and the walkEARS website's visits are up 6-fold. Based on daily visits, Hitwise data reveals that the Red Nose Day website took the top rank among Community websites on Saturday, a position it has held since.

Walkers Crisps have been promoting red ears as part of its fundraising for Red Nose Day, through television ads and crisp packaging. Hitwise data reveals that UK consumers were eager to order the latest Red Nose Day accessory, with the walkEARS website last week ranking top among Community websites, ranking even ahead of the Red Nose Day website, until Saturday.

The share of UK Internet searches for 'red nose day' were up nearly 3-fold in the past four weeks. The share of UK internet searches for 'walkears' rose 7-fold, though they still trailed those for 'red nose day' by 63%

"The latest accessory for Red Nose Day has proved a hit with UK consumers", commented Heather Hopkins, VP of Research for Hitwise UK. "To put the volume of searches for Red Nose Day and walkEARS in context, we compared their volume to searches for Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. Searches for 'red nose day' were 75% higher than those for 'britney spears' and nearly 4-times those for 'paris hilton'. The share of UK internet searches for 'walkears' trailed those for 'britney spears' but were 41% higher than for 'paris hilton'"".

walkEARS Popularity Driven by Social Networks

Last week, social networking site Bebo was the #3 source of upstream UK visits to the walkEARS website, accounting for 7.42% of the site's visits. Red Nose Day is being promoted through links on profile pages and through a featured sponsored link on the Bebo homepage. Bebo is promoting the "Big Bebo Takeover" contest challenging Beboers to design a Red Nose Day themed homepage.

Last week, MySpace was the #8 source of upstream visits to walkEARS, accounting for 2.4% of the site's visits. Several MySpace profiles make reference to walkEARS and the red ears.

"The popularity of walkEARS is no doubt being driven by above the line advertising on television and package promotion, however the creative use of social networks has also driven traffic to the walkEARS website and fuelled interest in the red ears", continued Heather Hopkins. "Whilst there are several promotions running on Bebo and MySpace for Red Nose Day, more traffic from both social networks is going to the walkEARS website than to the Red Nose Day website. The red ears seem to have struck a chord with members of both communities, fuelling popularity of red ears online."

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