Still don’t believe in the economic crisis so much. But yes this is a total commercial clean up. Is that bad? I guess not.

Further more I see indeed less spending at the moment. A lot of houses for sale etc. But is this temporary or a real trend? If it is one thing we learned from the whole crisis then it is that we are really bad in predictions. So if they now predict downturn..Maybe it is just a matter of a longer time to conversion after all.

In digital marketing I hear a lot about less investments. There seems to be a big opportunity for affiliate marketing because of the performance based model. Display ads and branding seem to have a hard time, but companies are used to these “reach”model for ages and they learned to never skip too much marketing budget in bad times. So they will think twice and spend a little less I guess.

For cleaning up however it is now time for analytics. While we are all waiting for new investments it is a good time to look at how effective our webpresence is in engaging, converting etc. In my opinion there is a lot to gain here.  Most companies where to busy spending in the past, now it is time to look at costs and ROI.

This is totally in line with the overall commercial clean up.

What is going on in Swiss minds this week. Looking at the rising searches this week.

-Ski Worldcup.  (ski wm, and Lara gut)

-Google latitude (see where your friends are)

-Floricienta (see also picture)

- and of course Valentinstag.

It is again time for a restyle.

Banners and advertising are getting visually very attractive. However most websites stay behind.

If your customer clicks on your well animated banner and comes on your website, be careful the two match. Due two the use of flash in advertising your landing page or company website  is becoming a sort of disappointment.

Most websites are still built around text. This is changing fast. The web is getting more visual. We are able to send out and consume more pictures, video’s etc.

For Brands this is a very welcome change. With the combination of image and text your message can get out stronger. The only thing is don’t stay behind. Avoid the risk of looking poor.

If your banners look better than your website you know it is time for a change. You could either change your banners or change your website.

I would chose the latter.

Google is doing an experiment on mapping searches for “flu” and so probably mapping where there is a flu outbreak in real life. (correlation between flu-searches and real flu)

Check Google Flu Trends (thanks to hyped.nl)

Interesting relation between search and real-life issue’s. Marketing and Brand managers must actively  spot such trends because following a trend is much easier than creating one.

Start following Google Zeitgeist

Check out the rising searches for Switzerland for the last 30 days.