Coda beat me to this one.

In this Bizcomm article Ananzi tells us that after the launch of (the SA taxpayers’) new airline, Mango, the word "Mango" was searched for 1942 times last month.

Bizarrely, they then go on to tell us about a banner ad campaign to capitalise on this popularity. Is there a leap of logic I'm missing here?

How does high search frequency amount to a need for banner advertising? Surely something important is being overlooked? I don't know, Search Engine Marketing maybe? You know, that thing where you market to searchers.

Speaking of which, a quick check shows that the flymango.com website doesn’t even rank in the top 10 on Ananzi for a search on its own name!!

Search drives online tourism – that’s a fact, when last did you book a holiday after clicking on a banner? So why don’t Mango care about this?

To quote directly from the Bizcomm article:
"Keyword searches for "mango" and the like have skyrocketed since the beginning on November, making www.flymango.co.za one of the most sought after websites in South Africa. Many online flight booking sites have already created links that redirect the user to flymango.co.za, in order to attract clients to their sites, thereby making full use of search engine optimisation (SEO)."

So it's one of most sought after sites - yet searchers are not getting the result they're after?

The fact that SEO is left up to third-party flight booking websites is an admission that Mango SHOULD be optimising or at the very least, running a PPC campaign.

People often ask me why online marketing doesn’t get this respect it deserves in South Africa? This example shows that it's because too many people in the industry just don't deserve that respect.

What kind of advice is Mango getting from their online marketing agency? Are they too scared to try something different? Or do they just not know any better?

Oh and if you think 1942 searches on the word Mango is a lot… Keyword Discovery tells us that globally, the word Mango was searched for 94,597 times last month and that’s without people knowing about an airline!

And while we're looking at Mango Airlines online marketing, I reckon it's worth noting that the www.mangoairlines.co.za domain is lying dormant. A quick whois check shows it was snapped up at the end of October, which is just about when they launched. Are we to believe they could have forgotten to secure their own brand as a domain name?