As the Occupy movement passed its two month anniversary last week, Occupy-related sites (e.g occupywallstreet.org) experienced a resurgence in market share of visits.

The initial peak in searches for variations of “occupy” and traffic to Occupy-related sites occurred in the first two weeks of October, as web-users sought general information about Occupy protests, the movement’s demands and associated celebrities. The subsequent decline in traffic and searches indicated that general interest in the movement was waning. However, New York’s temporary clearing of Zuccotti Park, and the occasion of the two month anniversary’s “day of action” leading to numerous major events piqued interest in the movement once again.

The psychographic profile of the visitors to the Occupy sites highlights the diversity of those concerned with the movement across economic, geographic and age groups. Using Experian Mosaic Lifestyle segmentation, a household-based consumer lifestyle segmentation system that classifies all U.S. households and neighborhoods into unique segments, we can understand a more robust view of the visitors, including their preferences and habits. “Jet Set Urbanites” accounted for the highest share of visits to the category and the category over-indexes the most in visit share from this Mosaic Type against the online population; this group tends to be highly affluent, progressive and to live in major metropolitan areas. Given the protests which have popped up on college campuses, it’s no surprise to see the category over-indexing in visit share from the “Colleges and Cafes” Mosaic Type. On the other side of the spectrum, the category captured a high share of visits from “Small Town Shallow Pockets” – which skews older, towards those living in exurban small towns and represents one of the least affluent psychographic segments.

The movement’s relevancy to web-users is dependent on major, newsworthy events, rather than an organically sustained interest. But, at these critical junctures, it is worth noting that OWS successfully captures the attention of a broad swath of the US online population, not just a particular segment.
Thanks to Margot Bonner, Analyst on the Custom Data & Insights team for today’s analysis.