Tiger Woods Shines in the Public Eye

With several recent victories on the PGA tour, Tiger Woods is unquestionably at the top his game. Reflecting this on-course excellence, how do internet searches for Woods reflect his lofty accomplishments and popular persona? Which topics rise to the top of the public’s mind when searching for Woods online?

Seeking to answer these questions, a recent study by Epiar Inc. set out to explore and analyze the online search activity surrounding the world’s #1 ranked golfer. Are people looking for pictures, galleries, or movies? How about caps, t-shirts, or golf clubs? Or perhaps details pertaining to his personal life, history, or golfing statistics?

Analyzing the top 1000 phrases relating to Tiger Woods in online search, the following concepts came to the top of the list:

Click here for a full report of Tiger Woods related searches.

Perhaps not surprisingly, searches relating to specific golf events and terms appeared within the top searches. However, the dominance of the Tiger Woods Golf Video Game over Tiger’s real life golf activities (an estimated 277,000 annual searches for the video game vs. 166,000 for “real” golf terms) was surprising. Well done, EA Sports!

Searches surrounding Tiger’s personal life, particularly relating to his wife and late father, were also surprising. With an estimated 464,000 annual searches relating to Tiger’s family and biography, the public’s thirst for personal information overshadows even the number of public searches (76,000) for Tiger-related merchandise.

Searches for online resources such as pictures, biographies, and wallpaper were also strong. Are Nike and Woods’ management team capitalizing on all of these searcher-initiated business opportunities?

One noteworthy feature of the searches featured in this study was the overwhelmingly positive tone of the public. Having stayed clear of personal controversy and having maintained a good relationship with golf fans, searches for negative rumours, smut, or malice were noticeably absent from this record of popular consciousness. Tiger’s personal brand could hardly be cleaner.

As one of the most dominant and likable golfers to hit the tour in decades, healthy levels of online public interest (a new phenomenon in the history of professional sports and personal marketing) are hardly surprising. Still, quite the online fever surrounding a guy who plays golf for a living!

Epiar Inc. is an Edmonton-based internet market research and search engine optimization company. Please contact us for more information or to commission your own research reports.