Blog xyzt, s.a.

Innovation has been stable in the online and mobile channels.

Despite the tourism sector dos not grow as desired, it has evolved intensely.

 According to EyeForTravel’s managing director, Tim Gunstone, there are six areas where travel companies should focus on:

 1) Online sales and channel management – the companies need to be exploiting this distribution channel and must understand how to sell online and across multiple channels;

2) Social Media – travel companies should embrace social media, but the social media strategy has to be well planned, at the risk of losing credibility in the market;

3) Mobile – companies need to know how to sell over mobile, a channel that offers a host of new opportunities and challenges;

4) Search and online marketing – travel companies must adapt their search strategies to take into account real time and multi-lingual search, as well as more complex search terms;

5) Ancillary and merchandising revenue – if companies have a large customer base, the opportunity to cross-sell products will grow. But they need to take into account the brand’s preservation;

6) Online payments and fraud prevention – online payments and security must adapt to products and target market in the online channel, as it has been changing and enlarging constantly.

 Source: http://www.hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/6_ways_to_drive_more_online_travel_sales_in_2010/

Although trends don’t start and stop on January 1st, there is a definite change from what we had seen in the last year (2009) and what we will see this year (2010). Most of the time, this shift is subtle. It’s a perfection or re-interpretation of a currently hot trend, a new esthetic or a way too look at old designs and give them a new twist. As designers master the skills of design aesthetic, web design continues to push forward to what’s next or what needs to be fully discovered and experienced.

“With the new CSS3 and HTML5, designers and developers are trying to utilize the new features to create impressive designs. Sketchy and large background styles are fading out. Serif fonts and texturized background will be popular. Thanks to CSS3, we are going to see a lot of rounded corners, RGBA transparency, and drop shadows. With the rise of smart phones, mobile web design is going to pick up this year.”

@: www.webdesignerwall.com

Let´s know see some of the trends to 2010:

Big Headings

Big headings in header (as part of design interface) will gain more popularity in 2010, giving the top of the web-pages more importance.

Example: www.blackestate.co.nz

Serif Fonts

Most of the web sites that we see today were designed in either “Verdana, Arial or Tahoma” (sans-serif fonts), but that is going to change in this new decade. Serif fonts will get more attention. Not to difficult our reading but to bring new context to word’s and their true meaning, used very often in titles, phrases our citations.

Example: www.legistyles.com

Texturized Background

The big background trend is going to be gradually out-of-date and be replaced with subtle and texturized (particularly the light noise) background, that confers to the web-page elegance and also less visual noise.

Example: www.siblingrivalrywine.ca

Minimalism

This trend comes and goes every once in a while but it seems that during the 2010 minimalism is going to be one of the more prominent trends regarding the web design.

Elegance and simplicity is one of the trends that are more appreciated in web designs.

Example: www.informationarchitects.jp

Text Shadow

Lots of web sites are using text shadow to add more depth to text, and give highlight to certain menus or buttons.

Example: www.adiirockstar.com

Mobile Design

With the release of iPhone in 2007, web designers face a new challenge. With the increase of the users and the numbers of smart phones that support full CSS and Javascript, mobile design is definitely going to be the future of web design.

Lots of companyes are allready offering a mobile version of their web site.

Example: www.nclud.com

This information was gathered in many blogs, here are some of them and also related articles:

www.designtutorials4u.com

www.webdesignledger.com

www.webtoolkit4.me

www.uxpassion.com

www.siteinspire.net

In 2010, consumers expect to increase their consumption of luxury hospitality, travel and gourmet cuisine.

The “Vila Joya Hotel Luxury Survey” study shows that 86% of respondents are willing to spend the same or more in luxury hotel products this year compared to 2009.

One objective of this study was to identify the factors that most influence the consumer regarding the consumption of luxury and the price they are willing to pay. The first place is occupied by the Service provided, followed by Quality.

The food and the relaxing experience are crucial in choosing a luxury hotel. Nowadays, the consumption of “gourmet dining” and SPA experiences appears at the top of consumer preferences.

Most respondents also revealed that the budget available for luxury goods and services is approximately 15% of their annual income.

The preferred brands: Ritz at hospitality and Moët & Chandon in the food & beverage sector.

The study included respondents living in Portugal, United Kingdom, Ireland and other countries such as Spain, Denmark and India.

It was conducted by “Hotel Vila Joya” in partnership with ILM consultant.

Source: Journal Publituris February 2010

Web Analytics

New tools, features and functions, as well as new software progressions had been taken place in web analysis world and have been keeping marketers closer to the user behavior.

The social media and mobile channels continue to grow and marketers need to know deeply the consumer actions.

We think marketers should be aware of these developments and understand how they can maximize their analytic tools.

Here, we present you some priorities marketers should follow in 2010.

Everything is measurable

Adobe’s acquisition of Omniture (a leading analysis provider) made possible a more comprehensive view of user behavior.

The combination of the two companies will increase the value Adobe delivers to customers. For designers, developers, and online marketers, an integrated workflow — with optimization capabilities embedded in the creation tools — will streamline the creation and delivery of relevant content and applications. This optimization will enable advertisers and advertising agencies, publishers, and e-tailers to realize greater ROI from their digital media investments and improve their end users’ experiences.

Free Tools

Google Analytics’ free tools are extremely important for marketing tasks.

These solutions permit marketers to customize what is being tracked and how dashboards display analytics reports.

Multichannel analysis

Marketers should plan multichannel campaigns. It will be crucial to conceive cross-channel behavior and identify patterns.

The next stage integration

The trend of social media analysis will help to implement strategic marketing campaigns to promote a social marketing mix. In 2010, marketers need to see social media as a marketing channel that contributes to the revenue results. Once again, web analytics needs to be considered!

Mobile devices

Measuring and analyzing mobile devices users, it is ponderous that marketers find new ways to use this medium. They need to connect with mobile users so they can expand relationships through a several number of different platforms.

Analysis to live by

The analysis will be the most important work of a web analytics professional. Along the way, marketers should be able to bring the data together, considering analytics from the beginning of a campaign and making persistent optimizations.

full article at: http://www.imediaconnection.com

Social Media

Marketers agree that social media is one of the most helpful tools to make e-mail campaigns prosper with more objective, successful and important e-mails.

Social media allows the sharing of opinions, that will extend the reach of those “socialized” e-mails campaigns, by letting people do the sharing with others who they feel will be interested in receiving emails.

Social media websites grant “word of mouth” to succeed and enhance SEO results with no extra efforts!

Building an e-mail list, getting names and e-mail addresses can be easier by starting with social media, like Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. Answers to questions about how often do people want to receive e-mails or how often do they have time to dedicate themselves to e-mails can provide marketers useful information on frequency and timing of e-mails sends.

See the article below and think about it!

Pepsi recently became one of the first companies to pull its Super Bowl ad spend and redirect it to social media.  Breaking a 23-year tradition, Pepsi instead will invest in a social media campaign called the “Pepsi Refresh Project.”  The project will enable people to start communities for charity projects that need funding.  People get involved by suggesting and voting to determine which projects get funded by Pepsi.

Reading news like this, it’s easy to think that social media is choking off all marketing efforts.  Truth is, for email marketers, social media is one of the most useful tools available to make campaigns bloom with more targeted, relevant and successful emails.

full article at: http://www.mediapost.com