Google Congratulates America's eCities:
Google eCity Awards recognize the strongest online business community in each state
2013 Winners
AL - Madison
AK - Homer
AZ - Scottsdale
AR - Bella Vista
CA - Carlsbad
CO - Boulder
CT - Glastonbury
DE - Bear
FL - Santa Rosa Beach
GA - Atlanta
HI - Kailua Kona
ID - Sandpoint
IL - Oak Brook
IN - Zionsville
IA - West Des Moines
KS - Lenexa
KY - Lexington
LA - Mandeville
ME - Scarborough
MD - Ocean City
MA - Westborough
MI - Walled Lake
MN - Minnetonka
MS - Ridgeland
MO - Maryland Heights
MT - Whitefish
NE - Lincoln
NV - Carson City
NH - Amherst
NJ - Princeton
NM - Albuquerque
NY - New York
NC - Cary
ND - Fargo
OH - Solon
OK - Edmond
OR - Ashland
PA - Exton
RI - Middletown
SC - N. Myrtle Beach
SD - Sioux Falls
TN - Hendersonville
TX - Austin
UT - Park City
VT - South Burlington
VA - Chantilly
WA - Bainbridge Island
WV - Charleston
WI - Pewaukee
WY - Casper
Methodology
STAGE 1 - eCities Shortlist
To develop the eCities shortlist, Ipsos assembled a list of all US cities, broken down by population size. Google then added the AdWords data for each city to calculate the top five cities in each of the 50 states with the highest AdWords penetration relative to population size.
1. A list of all valid zip code areas and city names was created for each state with population data for each zip code area and city. Ipsos aggregated these zip codes to a city level to include both large and small populations within each city and also to prevent neighborhoods within the same city from dominating the list in each state.
2. Google created an AdWords penetration figure for each city, by dividing the total population of each city by the number of AdWords customers in that city.
3. If a city appeared in duplicate states the population and AdWords was aggregated and the city assigned to the state where its population was the largest.
4. Ipsos was then asked to conduct desk research in each of the top five AdWords penetration cities in each of the 50 states.
STAGE 2 - Business Scoring
5. Ipsos identified a random sample of 51 small and medium businesses (employing between 1 and 50 people) in each of the top 5 AdWords penetration cities from each state.
6. The 51 businesses were divided according to company size Self-employed
(1 employee) (n=17)
2 to 10 employees (n=17)
11 to 50 employees (n=17)
7. The profile of small businesses in each city was quota'd according to employee band to ensure an even distribution of each.
8. Each of the randomly selected businesses were then marked according to the following criteria:
- Was it listed in an online directory (such as Yellowpages.com, manta.com and findthecompany.com)? (YES / NO)
- Did it have its own website? (YES / NO)
- Did it have a social network presence? (YES / NO)
- Did its website allow eCommerce? (YES / NO) [Directly within the site, there must be a section to purchase product / service offered]
- Did it have a blog? [This can be a page within the company's website OR a page on a blogging site e.g. Tumblr / blogspot]
- How did the website (if it has one) score on www.howtogomo.com?
- Overall score and Speed.
10. Each answer was given a score and the scores from each business were aggregated to provide the city with a total score. The city with the highest score in each region was then awarded eCity status.
11. Scores were calculated as below:
- Was it listed in an online directory? (YES / NO) [If Yes=1, if No=0]
- Did it have its own website? (YES / NO) [If Yes=10, if No=0]
- Did it have a social network presence? (YES / NO) [If Yes=5, if No=0]
- Does its website allow eCommerce? (YES / NO) [If Yes=7, if No=0]
- Did it have a blog? (YES / NO) [If Yes=3, if No=0]
- How did the website (if it has one) score on www.howtogomo.com
- Overall score and speed.
i Score = the score
ii Speed - If >0 and =5 =3, if 0 or >5 = 0.
The total score was calculated by the sum of all yes/no scores +the average of the two scores from www. howtogomo.com.
For more information on this news release, please contact:
Ipsos
Jared Mack Director, Ipsos MediaCT 310.736.3427 [email protected]
Jon Greenwood President, Ipsos MediaCT 646.313.7680 [email protected]
Samantha Smith Manager, Global Communications & Public Affairs, Google Washington [email protected]
About Ipsos
Ipsos is an independent market research company controlled and managed by research professionals. Founded in France in 1975, Ipsos has grown into a worldwide research group with a strong presence in all key markets. In October 2011 Ipsos completed the acquisition of Synovate. The combination forms the world's third largest market research company.
With offices in 85 countries, Ipsos delivers insightful expertise across six research specializations: advertising, customer loyalty, marketing, media, public affairs research, and survey management.
Ipsos researchers assess market potential and interpret market trends. They develop and build brands. They help clients build long-term relationships with their customers. They test advertising and study audience responses to various media and they measure public opinion around the globe.
Ipsos has been listed on the Paris Stock Exchange since 1999 and generated global revenues of e1,789 billion (2.300 billion USD) in 2012.
Visit www.ipsos.com to learn more about Ipsos' offerings and capabilities.
