Online Car-Hire Search Drops Consecutively From June Through to September

LONDON, December 17 - The number of car-hire related searches made by UK-based
consumers online, dropped between June-September, reveals a new report by
Greenlight, the UK's leading independent search marketing agency. According
to the report 'Car Hire Sector Report - Q3 2009', of the 5.8 million searches
for car-hire related terms over the period, 1.5 million occurred in
September. However, this was a 25% drop when compared to August volumes and
34% down on July's. The report also reveals that some key players in this
sector have slid down the ranks in the Greenlight league table which charts
the 60 most visible websites for car hire per quarter.

Greenlight's report used industry data to classify 356 of the
most popular global destinations that people in the UK travel to. The
independent research profiled the search terms used to find car hire
companies in each location and how popular each search term was. The data was
then used to rank the most visible brands on page one of Google's search
results.

According to the report in September, the top 3 most popular
car hire-related terms that UK-based consumers searched for online were 'Car
hire' (13%), 'Car rental' (5%) and 'Car hire UK' (3%).

Accounting for 476,000 searches, European destination-based
terms were the most searched for by UK consumers, accounting for a 31% share
compared to 18% for the UK & Ireland, 9% for North America and 5% for the Far
East and Australasia.

Greenlight's research determined the best positioned, and
hence the top 60 most visible websites and brands in the UK Car Hire sector,
based on the search volumes for each keyword, and their respective ranking on
page one of Google UK, for both natural* and paid search.**

In natural search, the three most visible car hire websites to
UK consumers were CarRentals followed by Travelsupermarket then Easycar,
achieving 54%, 40% and 32% share of voice in September, respectively.

By contrast, EuropeCar and AnyCarHire fell three places in the
league table due to a decrease in visibility of 6% and 5% respectively. In
the previous quarter, they held fourth and fifth position in Greenlight's top
60 most visible websites for car hire. Both sites lost ground to more
aggressive competitors such as Enterprise and Hertz.

Despite its huge offline presence, Avis failed to improve on
its Q2 search visibility. It remained visible to just 21% of UK online car
hire searches in September.

"The car hire sector is notoriously competitive with
competition up, down and across the supply chain, which is partly aided by
the ease with which data and systems can be scraped, integrated,
white-labelled and syndicated", said Warren Cowan, CEO at Greenlight. "This
has resulted in a market where brands are competing with their direct
competitors and agents, as well as having all their affiliates in tow.
Consequently, rankings are difficult to achieve."

In terms of paid search, CarHire3000 was the most visible
advertiser in September, achieving 73% share of voice of the top 90 key words
analysed. Of the top 10 advertisers, six were direct providers and four were
aggregators. This contrasts with natural search where seven were
agents/aggregators, which included the top two most visible websites:
CarRentals and Travelsupermarket.

The analysis of consumer search behaviour revealed
considerable surges in activity early in the week with particular hot spots
during the lunch period and after work. Surprisingly, many advertisers did
not seem to be taking advantages of these surges, maintaining relatively
consistent levels of advertising activity.

In relation to search bidding strategies, Greenlight's
research reveals that none of the advertisers recognised the importance of
increased consumer search activity on Mondays and Tuesdays. Neither did they
recognise the importance of bidding during either the 'lunchtime spot' of
12pm to 2pm, or the 'after work slot' of 6pm to 8pm.

Cowan concludes:

"Interestingly, we have seen in other verticals, such as
insurance, the top advertisers achieve considerably more visibility in the
natural search space. By contrast, our research revealed the opposite in the
car hire sector, since the majority of brands focused on paid search."

Notes to Editors:

*Natural Search - Listings in search engine results pages that
appear because of their relevance to the search terms

**Paid Search - an Internet advertising model used on
websites, in which advertisers pay their host only when their ad is clicked.
With search engines, advertisers typically bid on keyword phrases relevant to
their target market

Greenlight's report, 'Car Hire Sector Report - Q3 2009'
profiles search behaviour in this sector. It assesses which brands,
aggregators and review sites are the most visible in natural and paid search
results, and hence have the greatest share of consideration when UK-based
searchers go to Google to look for and hire a car around the world. The
report is based on search volumes for the last quarter, with a focus on
September to give a more in-depth analysis.

Warren Cowan is available for comment. To arrange an interview
or for further information about this report contact:

About Greenlight

Greenlight is an award winning (1), specialist search
marketing agency providing targeted and accountable natural and paid search
solutions. The agency has helped numerous companies to succeed in search
marketing over the years by improving its clients' positioning and website
visibility in the top search engines, and driving traffic to their websites.

Greenlight provides a full range of search marketing services
from offices in London and New York (2), including search engine
optimisation, pay per click management, link building, consultancy and SEM
training.

Clients include FTSE, NASDAQ and NYSE listed companies as well
as charitable organisations and government bodies. Greenlight works with
SMEs, global brands and top interactive agencies across vertical markets as
diverse as publishing, financial services, retail, travel, hospitality,
property and entertainment. www.greenlightsearch.com

(1) Greenlight Search scoops IDM award for Best Use of Search Engine
Marketing

(2) More on Greenlight Search on Business Week.

    Krishna Rao
    Press Office
    T: +44(20)3326-6232

Krishna Rao, Press Office, T: +44 (20) 3326 6232, E: krishna.rao at greenlightsearch.com