Burke Interactive and Infratest Burke Paper Receives Top Case History Prize At ESOMAR Congress.

Business Editors & High-Tech Writers

CINCINNATI & LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 11, 2000

A study examining what makes a Web site "sticky" was named the best case history presented at the recent annual congress of the premier international marketing research association.

The study was co-authored by Martin Oxley, director of interactive research at Infratest Burke (an NFO Worldwide company), and Jeff Miller, senior vice president of Burke Interactive. Oxley and Miller presented their paper in Vienna, Austria, on September 19 at the 53rd Congress and Trade Exhibition of ESOMAR -- The World Association of Research Professionals.

A five-member international jury, including ESOMAR president Daniel Leconte of Renault Portuguesa and program committee chairman Franz Tessun of DaimlerChrysler Aerospace, voted on the award, which carried a prize of 2,000 Swiss francs. The award was announced at the September 20 closing session of the congress. The prize-winning study will also be featured in the October issue of Research World.

In their paper, Oxley and Miller take issue with a common definition of "stickiness," which uses only the average time spent at a site as a positive measure. The study, in fact, finds visit duration to be a factor independent of measures relating to site satisfaction.

The stickiness of a Web site is instead here defined as its propensity to get high overall evaluations, high evaluations compared to other Web sites, a high likelihood of being revisited, and a high likelihood of being recommended to others. Responses to four questions relating to these topics are combined into a single stickiness score.

The study was conducted among 2,293 members of NFO's European access panels in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Panelists who had previously bought a product or searched for information in a category were asked to go to a particular e-commerce Web site being rated, then return to another Web site where they were asked to complete an online survey. The German music, video, and game site Boxman received the highest stickiness score in the survey, receiving, on average, 17.0 points out of a possible 20.0 from German survey respondents.

In addition to providing overall "stickiness" ratings, survey respondents were asked to rate sites on 36 particular performance aspects. Analysis of study results indicated that aspects of sites that are the strongest "drivers" of stickiness relate to content, including content that is presented in an interesting manner, is relevant to site user needs, and encourages them to explore further.

Additional study results can be found at: http://www.burke.com/about/PressRelease/SiteStickinessRelease.htm

Burke Interactive, www.burke.com/interactive, gathers and disseminates research information via the Internet, enabling better understanding of marketplace dynamics, customers, employees and other organizational stakeholders. Burke Interactive is part of Burke, Inc., an international leader in custom marketing research and business consulting. Founded in 1931 and based in Cincinnati, Ohio, Burke, Inc. also offers business solutions through Burke Customer Satisfaction Associates, Burke Marketing Research, Burke Strategic Consulting Group, Burke Qualitative Services, and The Training & Development Center.

NFO Worldwide, www.nfow.com, is a leading provider of research-based, marketing information and counsel to the worldwide business community. With more than 15,000 full and part-time employees and operations in 38 countries, NFO is the largest custom marketing research firm in North America and is among the top three in the world. Together with its affiliated companies, NFO is the world's largest provider of Internet-based custom marketing research. NFO is a member of The Interpublic Group of Companies (NYSE:IPG).