While Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) executives are preparing to discuss the company’s partnership with Nokia (NYSE: NOK) at a Monday morning press conference, other parts of the organization are also looking to outside alliances to extend its reach into local advertising. In a conversation with paidContent, Lem Lloyd, Yahoo’s VP of channel sales, said the company would be working with direct marketer Valassis on attracting local telcos to the online ad space, as these companies still tend to focus on affiliate TV stations and direct mail.
Yahoo’s targeting of telcos comes after a few months of aiming its local ad services at fast food franchises (in a sign of Yahoo’s attempts to woo these companies, it uses the preferred marketing jargon of “quick serve restaurants.”)
“All media companies are putting a focus on local ad spend, which still remains largely untapped,” Lloyd said. “Local represents half of all the $250 billion marketing spend in the U.S., but only a fraction is online. There are a lot of reasons these companies aren’t spending online. For one thing, many local ad buys are bought on a regional basis, as opposed to the more audience-targeted online ad sales structure. But mostly, it’s because companies haven’t put the time in to talk to all the various franchisee groups.”
As it seeks to reach out local marketers, Yahoo is partnering with companies like Valassis, which provides direct mail services to many telco companies. Yahoo believes it will open the door to moving more of that money online.
The partnership with a direct mail company also represents an evolution of the model behind the Yahoo Newspaper Consortium. As newspapers opened a lot of doors to Yahoo across local ad markets, the same is true of direct mail providers like Valassis. Also, in much the same way that Yahoo has provided ad sales training to newspapers through the Consortium, the company will also work with direct marketers to expand the digital possibilities there as well.
While Yahoo is looking to do more partnerships, it also has been cutting some ties to others. Over the past few months, Yahoo has parted ways with a handful of newspapers in the 800-member Consortium, as some members haven’t responded well to the company’s ad sales guidance.
Lloyd declined to discuss the specific issues there, or identify which members have left the fold, saying it was less than a dozen papers among hundreds. “We’re very selective on who we work with on a reseller basis,” he said. “One of our strategies is to have relationships that allow us to better go after specific industries. We simply want to focus on partners who put the same commitment into local ad sales as we do. It would be easy sign reseller agreements and brag about the numbers of partners. But we’re interested in quality, not quantity when it comes to who we work with.”
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Yahoo Beefs up B2B Marketing Team to Present Consistent Message
Yahoo's top business-to-business marketing exec has rounded out her team. After just a few months with the firm, Mollie Spilman, SVP of global b-to-b marketing, has hired former Tremor, Viacom, and Cisco marketing and research execs to help present a more consistent message to agencies, publishers, developers, and other non-consumer Yahoo customers.
Shane Steele, former VP marketing at video network Tremor Media, will start with Yahoo later this month as VP global b-to-b marketing communications and operations, and will report to Spilman. Spilman came on board in January as part of a marketing department restructuring devised by Yahoo CMO Elisa Steele. Shane Steele will be responsible for Yahoo outreach to industry through its advertiser and publisher portals, blogs, and other operations. She'll also head up an industry-aimed ad campaign set to break in June, according to Spilman.
Newly-hired senior director of b-to-b insights marketing, Lauren Weinberg, hails from Viacom, where she handled research for digital sales at the media firm. Reporting to Shane Steele, Weinberg is tasked with presenting a more comprehensive story to the market from an audience and consumer research and data perspective. She'll work alongside Yahoo research teams including its ad insights group, which is part of the sales division.
The goal, said Spilman, is to bring "more consistency to the message of all the work we do...it seemed schizophrenic to the market." She explained that currently some clients "have a hard time navigating" Yahoo's proprietary research, and "don't even know who to call to dive deeper."
Tanya Andrade, previously with Cisco, started today as Yahoo's new executive director of events, and will guide the company's business-aimed events team of around 30 people. "The volume and sophistication of the events could probably turn up a notch," said Spilman.
Spilman said her hiring spree is "done," adding, "I really felt like I wanted to bring some fresh perspective and fresh ideas into the company."
By Kate Kaye
Shane Steele, former VP marketing at video network Tremor Media, will start with Yahoo later this month as VP global b-to-b marketing communications and operations, and will report to Spilman. Spilman came on board in January as part of a marketing department restructuring devised by Yahoo CMO Elisa Steele. Shane Steele will be responsible for Yahoo outreach to industry through its advertiser and publisher portals, blogs, and other operations. She'll also head up an industry-aimed ad campaign set to break in June, according to Spilman.
Newly-hired senior director of b-to-b insights marketing, Lauren Weinberg, hails from Viacom, where she handled research for digital sales at the media firm. Reporting to Shane Steele, Weinberg is tasked with presenting a more comprehensive story to the market from an audience and consumer research and data perspective. She'll work alongside Yahoo research teams including its ad insights group, which is part of the sales division.
The goal, said Spilman, is to bring "more consistency to the message of all the work we do...it seemed schizophrenic to the market." She explained that currently some clients "have a hard time navigating" Yahoo's proprietary research, and "don't even know who to call to dive deeper."
Tanya Andrade, previously with Cisco, started today as Yahoo's new executive director of events, and will guide the company's business-aimed events team of around 30 people. "The volume and sophistication of the events could probably turn up a notch," said Spilman.
Spilman said her hiring spree is "done," adding, "I really felt like I wanted to bring some fresh perspective and fresh ideas into the company."
By Kate Kaye
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Yahoo Ad Campaign Zings Google
Yahoo posted a sneak peek of several creative pieces that will become part of the next phase of the company's "It's You!" marketing campaign. This second phase begins May 18, and will run through the year. The ads will appear online, on billboards, airplanes, television and radio. While the campaign aims to highlight Yahoo's products and services and what they mean to consumers, a video on Yahoo's site sets the tone.
That tone takes a blatant jab at Google. The video begins with the narrator explaining "There's a theory about homepages. They should get you where you want to go. You don't stop or linger. There's nothing to look at but a box and a button."
The video implies that Google's cold blank homepage isn't inviting, and as soon as you arrive it hustles you out the door. The narrator says when you look at this homepage nothing looks back at you. Yahoo's homepage, on the other hand, becomes the center of your online life by getting to know you. It contains the news and sports you want to read about, as well as items you're searching for on eBay and connections to friends on Facebook and Twitter. It's a network, homepage, search engine, as well as everything you're into.
Still, analysts and industry insiders remain skeptical that Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz can turn Yahoo around. Jascha Kaykas-Wolff, vice president of marketing at Webtrends, and former Yahoo employee, says companies that go on the offensive from a marketing rather than a product perspective signal that they're in trouble. It would be interesting to know if the creative minds at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, the agency responsible for the ad, see it that way.
Yahoo's challenge isn't about growing the brand, but rather the content and innovations they introduce into their network, says Kaykas-Wolff, who spent three and a half years at Yahoo. "The reality is, they're being beat in two different areas that are massively important," he says. "Those two areas are algorithmic search and semantic search."
Kaykas-Wolff believes Yahoo conceded algorithmic search to Google, and semantic search to Facebook. He called it a "curious time" for Yahoo because the company's challenge isn't just to stop the decline of the business -- but find ways to grow it. It you start going on the attack from a marketing perspective you start grasping at straws, he says.
Google's search share rose about 2% to 71.40% of all U.S. searches in April 2010, while the No. 2 search engine, Yahoo, declined about 1% to 14.96%, according to Experian Hitwise. Bing and Ask received 9.43% and 2.18%, respectively. The remaining 78 search engines measured accounted for 2.03% of U.S. searches.
Advertisers would likely agree with Piper Jaffray Analyst Gene Munster, who believes Yahoo's strength remains in display ads, rather than search. "While the focus of investors around Yahoo's last earnings report mainly centered around the impact of Microsoft beginning to make payments to Yahoo in accordance with the search transition, we believe the most important part of Yahoo's business is the display segment," he wrote in a research note published Wednesday. "Display grew 20% year on year in Q1, ahead of our 12% estimate."
It's unclear whether the Sunnyvale, Calif., company can pull off a turnaround, though most folks hope for the best. It's also not clear if Yahoo's campaign will have or has had any impact.
That tone takes a blatant jab at Google. The video begins with the narrator explaining "There's a theory about homepages. They should get you where you want to go. You don't stop or linger. There's nothing to look at but a box and a button."
The video implies that Google's cold blank homepage isn't inviting, and as soon as you arrive it hustles you out the door. The narrator says when you look at this homepage nothing looks back at you. Yahoo's homepage, on the other hand, becomes the center of your online life by getting to know you. It contains the news and sports you want to read about, as well as items you're searching for on eBay and connections to friends on Facebook and Twitter. It's a network, homepage, search engine, as well as everything you're into.
Still, analysts and industry insiders remain skeptical that Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz can turn Yahoo around. Jascha Kaykas-Wolff, vice president of marketing at Webtrends, and former Yahoo employee, says companies that go on the offensive from a marketing rather than a product perspective signal that they're in trouble. It would be interesting to know if the creative minds at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, the agency responsible for the ad, see it that way.
Yahoo's challenge isn't about growing the brand, but rather the content and innovations they introduce into their network, says Kaykas-Wolff, who spent three and a half years at Yahoo. "The reality is, they're being beat in two different areas that are massively important," he says. "Those two areas are algorithmic search and semantic search."
Kaykas-Wolff believes Yahoo conceded algorithmic search to Google, and semantic search to Facebook. He called it a "curious time" for Yahoo because the company's challenge isn't just to stop the decline of the business -- but find ways to grow it. It you start going on the attack from a marketing perspective you start grasping at straws, he says.
Google's search share rose about 2% to 71.40% of all U.S. searches in April 2010, while the No. 2 search engine, Yahoo, declined about 1% to 14.96%, according to Experian Hitwise. Bing and Ask received 9.43% and 2.18%, respectively. The remaining 78 search engines measured accounted for 2.03% of U.S. searches.
Advertisers would likely agree with Piper Jaffray Analyst Gene Munster, who believes Yahoo's strength remains in display ads, rather than search. "While the focus of investors around Yahoo's last earnings report mainly centered around the impact of Microsoft beginning to make payments to Yahoo in accordance with the search transition, we believe the most important part of Yahoo's business is the display segment," he wrote in a research note published Wednesday. "Display grew 20% year on year in Q1, ahead of our 12% estimate."
It's unclear whether the Sunnyvale, Calif., company can pull off a turnaround, though most folks hope for the best. It's also not clear if Yahoo's campaign will have or has had any impact.
Yahoo Gains Search Market Share -- But Do New Features Cloud Picture?
Wall Street analysts aren't convinced data from comScore's U.S. April 2010 report tell the whole picture of gains in search market share for Yahoo -- up from 16.9% in the prior month, to 17.7%. This marks a continual sequential rise in search engine market share gains for the company that some marketers wrote off long ago.
Analyst don't doubt comScore reported the numbers correctly, but digging a little deeper, some attribute the uptick to various new features that could be falsely raising the numbers. But perhaps comScore and Yahoo should more closely define a search as the industry continues to change.
Broadpoint Amtech analyst Ben Schachter believes the slideshow feature on Yahoo News inflated Yahoo's results. As people scroll through images in the slideshow, they generate a search for each picture. ComScore tracks those searches. Schachter writes that backing out of the queries gives Yahoo about a 16.9% search market share in the U.S., which would make its share flat, compared with March.
Similar to Schachter, Barclays Capital analyst Douglas Anmuth points to Yahoo features -- such as the slideshow -- that recently boosted query numbers counted by comScore. That's regardless of the fact that during the first quarter earnings call with analysts, Yahoo management indicated search share had bottomed and execs expected a rebound in the second quarter.
Anmuth tells us in a research note that April comScore data backs up Yahoo exec's assertions. And while he believes these features boost query numbers, Yahoo has made progress in building search deeper into verticals and providing more search-related links across the site. Anmuth, however, "would prefer to see share gains come more from higher quality searches that could have a greater direct impact on revenue."
Despite the good but cloudy search data, Anmuth likes Yahoo shares based on display strength, margin expansion, Asian assets, and attractive valuation.
J.P. Morgan analyst Imran Khan attributes the increase to a new interface that ties content with relevant searches. He describes the navigation as more likely to occur during a series of searches, which are counted by comScore and contribute to search share. Yahoo also benefited from better data collection at Yahoo Finance, he wrote.
Khan believes "significant user interface changes cloud the picture" that prevents you from comparing the numbers from this month to last. He tells investors not to become too optimistic and explains additional months of data under the new method could help clarify search results.
Analyst don't doubt comScore reported the numbers correctly, but digging a little deeper, some attribute the uptick to various new features that could be falsely raising the numbers. But perhaps comScore and Yahoo should more closely define a search as the industry continues to change.
Broadpoint Amtech analyst Ben Schachter believes the slideshow feature on Yahoo News inflated Yahoo's results. As people scroll through images in the slideshow, they generate a search for each picture. ComScore tracks those searches. Schachter writes that backing out of the queries gives Yahoo about a 16.9% search market share in the U.S., which would make its share flat, compared with March.
Similar to Schachter, Barclays Capital analyst Douglas Anmuth points to Yahoo features -- such as the slideshow -- that recently boosted query numbers counted by comScore. That's regardless of the fact that during the first quarter earnings call with analysts, Yahoo management indicated search share had bottomed and execs expected a rebound in the second quarter.
Anmuth tells us in a research note that April comScore data backs up Yahoo exec's assertions. And while he believes these features boost query numbers, Yahoo has made progress in building search deeper into verticals and providing more search-related links across the site. Anmuth, however, "would prefer to see share gains come more from higher quality searches that could have a greater direct impact on revenue."
Despite the good but cloudy search data, Anmuth likes Yahoo shares based on display strength, margin expansion, Asian assets, and attractive valuation.
J.P. Morgan analyst Imran Khan attributes the increase to a new interface that ties content with relevant searches. He describes the navigation as more likely to occur during a series of searches, which are counted by comScore and contribute to search share. Yahoo also benefited from better data collection at Yahoo Finance, he wrote.
Khan believes "significant user interface changes cloud the picture" that prevents you from comparing the numbers from this month to last. He tells investors not to become too optimistic and explains additional months of data under the new method could help clarify search results.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)