There has been a lot of talk about going beyond the banner in online advertising this year—and our Top Ten ads for 2010 show that not only are we moving beyond the banner, we’re also leaving behind the constraints of the Web page itself.
In our team’s picks for the best ads on Yahoo! this year, ads exploded from their niche on the side of the page. Bugs walked on to the Yahoo! front page, and the pages themselves folded, tore and crumpled. Banners turned into magazines and catalogs where people could buy stuff.
Entertainment ads made the best use of our canvas this year, but more traditional brands did great stuff, too.
Below are our top ten ads for 2010, in no particular order. (They’re all first place in awesomeness, though.)
Alice in Wonderland
This is the ad Carol Bartz mentions when she talks about the potential of advertising on the Web, and for good reason: People liked how the page opened up and pulled them down the rabbit hole so much that lots of them clicked on the ad four or five times. Is it advertisement or entertainment?
Nissan Qashqai
My wife literally gasped when I played this ad for her. The Nissan crossover dodging paintballs on the front page of Yahoo! France is cool enough. But press the play button marked “Voir la Suite” and the car seems to leap out of two-dimensional space, the front page transforms into something out of “Inception,” and the Qashqai zooms between buildings that used to be columns of text. My French is rusty, but I’m guessing “Voir la Suite” stands for “Blow your mind.”
Discovery: LIFE
Discovery wanted an online campaign as epic as its new series LIFE, and it got it with a front-page ad that had customizable wallpaper, video footage from the series, and a green bug that scurries around the “back” of the home page and into the ad. The results? People who saw the ads were 28% more likely to see the series than those who didn’t.
Drew Brees in Dove Men+Care
Not everyone loves Drew, but you had to love the way the Yahoo! Sports page opened like a shower curtain to see the New Orleans Saints quarterback singing the William Tell Overture (OK, the Lone Ranger theme in our house) at the top of his lungs. And other people loved it, too—the ad won the IAB Mixx Bronze Award for Rich Media Execution.
You Again
Not surprisingly, the new “mosaic” ad format we created for omg seems tailor-made for movies, and You Again is one of the best examples of it. Flashbulb pops replace celebrity photos with images from the ad. When the actresses tear pictures of each other in half, the ad tears itself in half, too. If that’s not enough, there’s a great faux behind-the-scenes catfight where Sigourney Weaver taunts Kristen Bell by saying “Avatar!”
Toyota Avalon
How do you reintroduce your luxury car model online? It helps to have a well-groomed man walk across the Yahoo! News page and invite viewers behind a curtain to look at it. Toyota piqued curiosity for its redesigned Avalon by showing that luxury awaited—if they only pulled the golden cord. In another example of great branding, Avalon also helped launch our new video series, Who Knew?
Discovery Shark Week
Discovery’s ad for Shark Week may have taken advantage the visual space of our Log-in Page ads just a little too well, judging by a handful of user complaints about the image of a soaked geek with shark teeth. But it also showed the cult appeal of Shark Week, and the lengths to which its fans will go to watch it.
TRON
TRON just managed to zip in before the end of the year—and we mean that literally. When the famous TRON lightcycle zooms out of the video screen on Yahoo! Movies and everything goes neon blue, you know you’re in the world of TRON. For another bonus, check out our video about the TRONification of Yahoo! Search.
Macy’s Memorial Day Circular
Advertising isn’t always for flash—sometimes, just sometimes, you want to sell stuff, too. Macy’s used our new pullover ad format in Yahoo! Mail to create a Web version of its Memorial Day circular that customers could flip through and use to order the items they wanted. And our Smart Ads technology helped serve up custom versions of the ads to people based on location, demographics and interest. The result was an ad that kept users around and engaged for a lot longer than a normal display ad.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1
I’ve always had a thing for movie storybooks, which is why I loved the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 ad that seemed to have everything, including a book that lets you flip through images from the film. If they’d one of those when Star Wars came out, I could have saved my parents $4.95.
Are there any other ads that you liked this year? Let us know in the comments. And if you want to try something like this yourself, contact us. See you on the Top Ten in 2011!
By Jeff Sweat
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Friday, December 10, 2010
Yahoo Makes Aggressive Pitch For TV Dollars, Releases New Mobile Units
Yahoo plans to release research Thursday supporting why traditional media buyers might want to pull time on broadcast TV to allocate budgets to mobile advertising. Supporting consumer behavior, the data accompanies the rollout of three rich media formats: Yahoo Mobile Screen Takeover, Yahoo Mobile Customized Expandable Ads, and iPad Tap to Video Ads.
Traditional advertisers who remove one or two TV ads from their mix will not notice any difference on the performance of that campaign if they allocate those funds toward mobile to find new audiences, according to Paul Cushman, senior director of mobile sales strategy at Yahoo. "A creative director who says he can't do anything with mobile is last year's story," he says. "HTML5 will become the major driver for scale and engagement within mobile. The ability for it to provide an app-like experience is significant and should not be underestimated."
Cushman, a mobile evangelist, says brands continue to waste ad dollars. The numbers revealing this trend sit behind Yahoo's firewall in mail and Front-Page data, Yahoo's "crown jewel," of which third-party companies can't gain access. The critical data suggests that consumers reach for their mobile devices while watching TV during a commercial break.
Yahoo supports between 49 million and 50 million unique mobile Internet users monthly. Commercial breaks during live TV events drive mobile Internet use, according to Cushman. Yahoo's analysis of consumer activity across the company's network found a correlation between TV commercial breaks and spikes in mobile Internet use. During commercials that ran with the 2010 Academy Awards, traffic and engagement on the Yahoo Mobile site increased on average 12%. Browser activity rose 125% on Yahoo News. Users consumed 39% more content on Yahoo Front Page, search rose 13%, and users checked and sent email 6% more.
Similarly, for the 2010 World Cup, traffic and engagement on the Yahoo Mobile site rose on average of 10% during commercials. Browsing activity rose 57% on Yahoo News, 24% more users consumed content on Yahoo Front Page, and search activity rose 12% on Yahoo Search.
Yahoo has offered the expandable ad format for more than a year, but customized the offering and began designing the other two formats during the past year to create a package for advertisers. Consumers are becoming more comfortable with mobile ads. Research from Yahoo Mobile and Nielsen suggests that the immediacy and portability of the mobile phone drives conversions. When consumers use their mobile phone to do research, about half the time they plan to make a purchase.
Yahoo isn't the only ad tech company capitalizing on mobile. Google also touted Wednesday high returns on investments for mobile ads on Google's network. Dai Pham, who supports Google mobile ads product marketing, writes in a blog post that Roy's restaurant managed to achieve click-though rates 539% higher on mobile than on desktop by investing in mobile-specific campaigns and hyperlocal advertising.
By Laurie Sullivan
Traditional advertisers who remove one or two TV ads from their mix will not notice any difference on the performance of that campaign if they allocate those funds toward mobile to find new audiences, according to Paul Cushman, senior director of mobile sales strategy at Yahoo. "A creative director who says he can't do anything with mobile is last year's story," he says. "HTML5 will become the major driver for scale and engagement within mobile. The ability for it to provide an app-like experience is significant and should not be underestimated."
Cushman, a mobile evangelist, says brands continue to waste ad dollars. The numbers revealing this trend sit behind Yahoo's firewall in mail and Front-Page data, Yahoo's "crown jewel," of which third-party companies can't gain access. The critical data suggests that consumers reach for their mobile devices while watching TV during a commercial break.
Yahoo supports between 49 million and 50 million unique mobile Internet users monthly. Commercial breaks during live TV events drive mobile Internet use, according to Cushman. Yahoo's analysis of consumer activity across the company's network found a correlation between TV commercial breaks and spikes in mobile Internet use. During commercials that ran with the 2010 Academy Awards, traffic and engagement on the Yahoo Mobile site increased on average 12%. Browser activity rose 125% on Yahoo News. Users consumed 39% more content on Yahoo Front Page, search rose 13%, and users checked and sent email 6% more.
Similarly, for the 2010 World Cup, traffic and engagement on the Yahoo Mobile site rose on average of 10% during commercials. Browsing activity rose 57% on Yahoo News, 24% more users consumed content on Yahoo Front Page, and search activity rose 12% on Yahoo Search.
Yahoo has offered the expandable ad format for more than a year, but customized the offering and began designing the other two formats during the past year to create a package for advertisers. Consumers are becoming more comfortable with mobile ads. Research from Yahoo Mobile and Nielsen suggests that the immediacy and portability of the mobile phone drives conversions. When consumers use their mobile phone to do research, about half the time they plan to make a purchase.
Yahoo isn't the only ad tech company capitalizing on mobile. Google also touted Wednesday high returns on investments for mobile ads on Google's network. Dai Pham, who supports Google mobile ads product marketing, writes in a blog post that Roy's restaurant managed to achieve click-though rates 539% higher on mobile than on desktop by investing in mobile-specific campaigns and hyperlocal advertising.
By Laurie Sullivan
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Right Media Introduces Audience Sharing on the Exchange
Audience-based buying has emerged as an efficient and effective way for buyers to engage consumers in today’s fragmented display market. At the Right Media Forum today, we announced the rollout of our latest capability, Audience Sharing. This feature enables more efficient audience-based buying on the Right Media Exchange (RMX), while providing customers with a more relevant online experience.
Audience Sharing enables buyers and sellers to share, manage and monetize audiences at scale, further reinforcing our position as the leading display advertising exchange that is shaping the marketplace. Audience Sharing provides sellers or segment owners, including data providers AlmondNet Data Division, BlueKai and eXelate, control and transparency when sharing their segments in our marketplace. Buyers or segment users can target audiences from multiple data providers, and Right Media’s platform takes into account user overlap and attributes data according to recency.
For audience-planning, participants see the potential size of the audiences before they buy, reducing the inefficiencies of the learn-as-you-go model. In the Right Media platform, Audience Sharing is accessible to segment owners through the Audience tab and seamlessly integrated into the segment users’ experience.
Trust and privacy are of utmost importance to Right Media and Yahoo!
Right Media is a neutral technology provider for our clients. We understand that some users may not want information collected via cookies used to show them relevant advertising, therefore we support our customers’ efforts to respect this. Before the end of this year, we expect Right Media to be able to support Clear Ad Notice for participating exchange members who offer and respect consumer opt-outs. If a consumer opts out from an RMX member who participates in Clear Ad Notice, the consumer should not be included in Audience Sharing.
Additionally, Right Media continues to prohibit our clients from sending personally identifiable information (PII) to us, and we do not collect PII about consumers during the ad delivery process. We require our clients to post a privacy policy that complies with applicable laws, rules and regulations, as well as offer consumers an opt-out that would extend to the Audience Sharing feature.
Right Media Delivers
Right Media delivers the capabilities needed to better connect with consumers online. Moreover, we believe that all members of the online advertising ecosystem will benefit from their adoption: from the consumers who have a more enriched online experience to website publishers who are better able to monetize their available ad space.
Audience Sharing enables buyers and sellers to share, manage and monetize audiences at scale, further reinforcing our position as the leading display advertising exchange that is shaping the marketplace. Audience Sharing provides sellers or segment owners, including data providers AlmondNet Data Division, BlueKai and eXelate, control and transparency when sharing their segments in our marketplace. Buyers or segment users can target audiences from multiple data providers, and Right Media’s platform takes into account user overlap and attributes data according to recency.
For audience-planning, participants see the potential size of the audiences before they buy, reducing the inefficiencies of the learn-as-you-go model. In the Right Media platform, Audience Sharing is accessible to segment owners through the Audience tab and seamlessly integrated into the segment users’ experience.
Trust and privacy are of utmost importance to Right Media and Yahoo!
Right Media is a neutral technology provider for our clients. We understand that some users may not want information collected via cookies used to show them relevant advertising, therefore we support our customers’ efforts to respect this. Before the end of this year, we expect Right Media to be able to support Clear Ad Notice for participating exchange members who offer and respect consumer opt-outs. If a consumer opts out from an RMX member who participates in Clear Ad Notice, the consumer should not be included in Audience Sharing.
Additionally, Right Media continues to prohibit our clients from sending personally identifiable information (PII) to us, and we do not collect PII about consumers during the ad delivery process. We require our clients to post a privacy policy that complies with applicable laws, rules and regulations, as well as offer consumers an opt-out that would extend to the Audience Sharing feature.
Right Media Delivers
Right Media delivers the capabilities needed to better connect with consumers online. Moreover, we believe that all members of the online advertising ecosystem will benefit from their adoption: from the consumers who have a more enriched online experience to website publishers who are better able to monetize their available ad space.
Yahoo's move to add Personalized Retargeting and rebrand its three-year-old Ad Network into Yahoo Network Plus integrates technology from the acquisition of Dapper the Sunnyvale, Calif. company announced in October.
The "Plus" in the name points to the available targeting data, access to ad inventory, and services. Aside from Personalized Retargeting, Yahoo offers behavioral, geographic, demographic, site, weather, search retargeting and a bunch more.
Admitting that Yahoo has failed to market the reach and scope of Yahoo's ad display network, David Zinman, vice president and general manager for display advertising at Yahoo North America, told MediaPost that Yahoo's strong portal brand and collection of content sites doesn't convey much more. "When we surveyed our advertisers, few were aware we're also an ad network," says Zinman. "We wanted to highlight our capabilities as an ad network."
Retargeting generally produces the best results for display in terms of return on investment for cost per lead or cost per conversion. Personalized Retargeting combines with search retargeting to reach consumers showing interest in specific keywords while searching the Web, but not necessarily landing on the marketer's site.
Retargeting platforms identify consumers, finds them on other sites, and serves up similar ads. Many times dynamic ad creation customizes what Web searchers see based on specific products on an advertiser's site. Retargeting generally produces the best results for display in terms of return on investment for cost per lead or cost per conversion.
Personalized retargeting, when customized, delivers "significantly greater lift," Zinman says. He says one client continues to see a 97% increase overall. "That's not a fluke," he says. "Most clients are doubling performance, compared with standard retargeting."
It also changes the pricing model, expanding the ability for advertisers to buy retargeting based on performance pricing, rather than CPM. This means expanding pricing based on a cost-per click (CPC) or a cost-per-acquisition (CPA) model. The performance pricing model, a takeoff from search, drives better returns both for advertisers and Yahoo.
Zinman calls personalized retargeting a niche that will grow during the next couple of years. "Personalized retargeting is not yet offered by Microsoft, Google or AOL," he says. "If you know a solution like this offers better performance, you kind of expect the bigger players to be involved."
by Laurie Sullivan
The "Plus" in the name points to the available targeting data, access to ad inventory, and services. Aside from Personalized Retargeting, Yahoo offers behavioral, geographic, demographic, site, weather, search retargeting and a bunch more.
Admitting that Yahoo has failed to market the reach and scope of Yahoo's ad display network, David Zinman, vice president and general manager for display advertising at Yahoo North America, told MediaPost that Yahoo's strong portal brand and collection of content sites doesn't convey much more. "When we surveyed our advertisers, few were aware we're also an ad network," says Zinman. "We wanted to highlight our capabilities as an ad network."
Retargeting generally produces the best results for display in terms of return on investment for cost per lead or cost per conversion. Personalized Retargeting combines with search retargeting to reach consumers showing interest in specific keywords while searching the Web, but not necessarily landing on the marketer's site.
Retargeting platforms identify consumers, finds them on other sites, and serves up similar ads. Many times dynamic ad creation customizes what Web searchers see based on specific products on an advertiser's site. Retargeting generally produces the best results for display in terms of return on investment for cost per lead or cost per conversion.
Personalized retargeting, when customized, delivers "significantly greater lift," Zinman says. He says one client continues to see a 97% increase overall. "That's not a fluke," he says. "Most clients are doubling performance, compared with standard retargeting."
It also changes the pricing model, expanding the ability for advertisers to buy retargeting based on performance pricing, rather than CPM. This means expanding pricing based on a cost-per click (CPC) or a cost-per-acquisition (CPA) model. The performance pricing model, a takeoff from search, drives better returns both for advertisers and Yahoo.
Zinman calls personalized retargeting a niche that will grow during the next couple of years. "Personalized retargeting is not yet offered by Microsoft, Google or AOL," he says. "If you know a solution like this offers better performance, you kind of expect the bigger players to be involved."
by Laurie Sullivan
Monday, November 1, 2010
Yahoo! rewrites the rules of retargeting, again
Yahoo! is no slouch when it comes to retargeting. After all, when it comes to breakthrough solutions like search retargeting, we invented it. Search retargeting allows advertisers to pinpoint users with display ads based on their search activities.
Let’s say a user has searched “Spider Man,” indicating a strong intent to buy tickets to the latest “Spider Man” film, a Halloween costume, or a figurine based on the film. As an advertiser, you can then target that user across our newly rebranded ad network, Yahoo! Network Plus to help make the sale.
The user gets what they want, the advertiser closes the deal. Everyone’s happy, right? But wait, it gets better.
With our new “Personalized Retargeting,” we can help you tap the potential of interested consumers who visit your website by retargeting them across the Web with personalized creative. It can help you turn prospects into customers at an even higher rate than standard retargeting—and you’ll only pay for clicks or conversions.
Long story short: You can bring back those who have clicked away from your site to engage with you again, encourage them to perform the actions you want, and we will charge you only on a cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-action basis (CPA). One of our travel clients was able to see a 97% overall lift in revenue—and a 104% increase in conversion rates.
Retarget with more reach on Yahoo! Network Plus
It’s a lot easier to target a narrow segment of users at scale when you reach massive numbers of them in the first place. Our Yahoo! Network Plus ad network, which combines Yahoo! sites with some of the top publishers on the Web, can reach 86% of the consumers on the Web, the largest reach and page views among any network, according to September’s comScore ad network report.
And, yes, this has to do with our recent acquisition of Dapper. We already delivered the largest, most engaged audience on the Web. With Dapper, that audience gets even larger, with campaigns traversing the Internet and bringing in-house ad technology that powers your campaigns.
With Yahoo! Personalized Retargeting, you’ll now have greater control over your campaigns with performance pricing and leading dynamic creative technologies from Dapper. And as with all user targeting initiatives at Yahoo!, we also reinforce the trust we’ve built with users by putting control in their hands with tools like Ad Interest Manager. On Yahoo! Network Plus, advertisers benefit from this environment of trust through more engaged users and more relevant experiences.
In short, Personalized Retargeting with Yahoo! Network Plus gives advertisers more reach through the biggest network, more scale through access to data to augment site retargeting audiences, and more confidence with the highest quality environments and with industry leading consumer trust initiatives.
Let’s say a user has searched “Spider Man,” indicating a strong intent to buy tickets to the latest “Spider Man” film, a Halloween costume, or a figurine based on the film. As an advertiser, you can then target that user across our newly rebranded ad network, Yahoo! Network Plus to help make the sale.
The user gets what they want, the advertiser closes the deal. Everyone’s happy, right? But wait, it gets better.
With our new “Personalized Retargeting,” we can help you tap the potential of interested consumers who visit your website by retargeting them across the Web with personalized creative. It can help you turn prospects into customers at an even higher rate than standard retargeting—and you’ll only pay for clicks or conversions.
Long story short: You can bring back those who have clicked away from your site to engage with you again, encourage them to perform the actions you want, and we will charge you only on a cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-action basis (CPA). One of our travel clients was able to see a 97% overall lift in revenue—and a 104% increase in conversion rates.
Retarget with more reach on Yahoo! Network Plus
It’s a lot easier to target a narrow segment of users at scale when you reach massive numbers of them in the first place. Our Yahoo! Network Plus ad network, which combines Yahoo! sites with some of the top publishers on the Web, can reach 86% of the consumers on the Web, the largest reach and page views among any network, according to September’s comScore ad network report.
And, yes, this has to do with our recent acquisition of Dapper. We already delivered the largest, most engaged audience on the Web. With Dapper, that audience gets even larger, with campaigns traversing the Internet and bringing in-house ad technology that powers your campaigns.
With Yahoo! Personalized Retargeting, you’ll now have greater control over your campaigns with performance pricing and leading dynamic creative technologies from Dapper. And as with all user targeting initiatives at Yahoo!, we also reinforce the trust we’ve built with users by putting control in their hands with tools like Ad Interest Manager. On Yahoo! Network Plus, advertisers benefit from this environment of trust through more engaged users and more relevant experiences.
In short, Personalized Retargeting with Yahoo! Network Plus gives advertisers more reach through the biggest network, more scale through access to data to augment site retargeting audiences, and more confidence with the highest quality environments and with industry leading consumer trust initiatives.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Yahoo Confirms Levinsohn Hiring
Confirming earlier reports, Yahoo Wednesday named ex-News Corp. digital exec Ross Levinsohn as executive vice president of the Americas region. Levinsohn replaces Hilary Schneider in that key role, giving him responsibility for the company's media group, advertising sales and partnerships.
He will report directly to CEO Carol Bartz, but will be based in Yahoo's Santa Monica office rather than its Silicon Valley headquarters, according to the All Things Digital blog, which first reported Levinsohn's hiring. He previously served as the president of News Corp.'s Fox Interactive Media, where oversaw the unit's day-to-day business and was instrumental in its purchase of MySpace in 2005.
Levinsohn has also held management posts at early Internet portal AltaVista, CBS SportsLine and HBO. Prior to joining Yahoo, he was co-founder and managing director of Fuse Capital, an investment firm focused on digital media and communications companies.
"I am confident that Ross's strategic vision, in addition to his deep industry experience, will allow us to solidify our position as the largest digital media, content and communications business around the globe," said Bartz in a statement. The beleaguered Web portal will count on Levinsohn to help revitalize and expand its content offerings and boost its lackluster financial performance.
But it isn't the first time that Yahoo has turned to a high-profile media figure to help turn things around. The company in 2001 hired former Warner Bros. chairman and co-CEO Terry Semel as CEO and in 2004 brought on ex-ABC Entertainment Group Chairman Lloyd Braun to run the Yahoo Media Group.
Levinsohn's predecessor, Schneider, left Yahoo earlier this month in a high-level management shuffle that also saw the departures of former media group head Jimmy Pitaro and David Ko, who led Yahoo's mobile and audience units. Pitaro left to co-head Disney's interactive group while Ko went to lead the mobile business social game company Zynga.
by Mark Walsh
He will report directly to CEO Carol Bartz, but will be based in Yahoo's Santa Monica office rather than its Silicon Valley headquarters, according to the All Things Digital blog, which first reported Levinsohn's hiring. He previously served as the president of News Corp.'s Fox Interactive Media, where oversaw the unit's day-to-day business and was instrumental in its purchase of MySpace in 2005.
Levinsohn has also held management posts at early Internet portal AltaVista, CBS SportsLine and HBO. Prior to joining Yahoo, he was co-founder and managing director of Fuse Capital, an investment firm focused on digital media and communications companies.
"I am confident that Ross's strategic vision, in addition to his deep industry experience, will allow us to solidify our position as the largest digital media, content and communications business around the globe," said Bartz in a statement. The beleaguered Web portal will count on Levinsohn to help revitalize and expand its content offerings and boost its lackluster financial performance.
But it isn't the first time that Yahoo has turned to a high-profile media figure to help turn things around. The company in 2001 hired former Warner Bros. chairman and co-CEO Terry Semel as CEO and in 2004 brought on ex-ABC Entertainment Group Chairman Lloyd Braun to run the Yahoo Media Group.
Levinsohn's predecessor, Schneider, left Yahoo earlier this month in a high-level management shuffle that also saw the departures of former media group head Jimmy Pitaro and David Ko, who led Yahoo's mobile and audience units. Pitaro left to co-head Disney's interactive group while Ko went to lead the mobile business social game company Zynga.
by Mark Walsh
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Yahoo Revenue Falls Short Of Expectations
Weaker-than-expected revenue growth for Yahoo in the third quarter will not ease the pressure on CEO Carol Bartz to deliver improved results nearly two years after she was brought on to reverse the Web portal's sagging fortunes.
A reduced fourth-quarter revenue outlook from Yahoo won't help, either. Yahoo is projecting fourth-quarter revenue of $1.125 billion to $1.225 billion, falling below the analysts' forecast of $126 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.
For the third quarter, Yahoo posted a profit of $396.1 million, or 29 cents a share -- more than double the 13 cents it reported a year ago. But its earnings got a 13-cent boost from the sale of its HotJobs classified site during the quarter. Analysts had expected profit of 15 cents a quarter.
Net revenue was $1.12 billion compared to $1.13 billion a year ago, and came in slightly below analysts' forecast of $1.13 billion. Yahoo's stagnant results and internal turmoil have led to a series of takeover and other rumors in recent weeks.
The Wall Street Journal earlier this month reported that AOL and several private equity firms were exploring making a bid to buy Yahoo in an effort to merge the two struggling Internet brands. Speculation has also arisen that if Bartz doesn't improve the company's performance soon, the Yahoo board may consider replacing her.
A Dow Jones report Monday, however, indicated that the board is committed to Bartz for the remaining two years of her four-year contract. In relation to the takeover rumors, Bartz declined to comment on the matter during Yahoo's third-quarter conference call Tuesday. "We like our strategy, we like our progress, and that's what we're focused on," she said.
Despite a 7% year-over-year drop in search ad revenue to $331 million, Bartz and Yahoo CFO Tim Morse emphasized that the implementation of its 2009 search partnership with Microsoft was on schedule and would begin to boost revenue growth next year.
Yahoo last month completed transitioning to Bing-powered natural search results in the U.S. and Canada and would do the same for paid results by the end of October. Bartz said 97% of premium accounts have switched to Microsoft's AdCenter and the company is more than halfway through shifting its search queries to AdCenter. "By Q2 next year, we expect the [search] marketplace to be fully tuned," she said.
In the meantime, the process of integrating search systems with Microsoft isn't helping Yahoo's top line, and starting next quarter Microsoft will take its 12% revenue share under the deal. Morse said that will amount to about $30 million in the fourth quarter.
Yahoo's core display business fared better, with revenue up 17% to $465 million from a year ago and roughly flat from the second quarter. Premium display revenue was up 20% and spending was up in seven of 10 industry categories Yahoo tracks, with retail and technology especially strong and telecom notably weak.
Asked during the Q&A session with analysts about growing competition from Google in display, Bartz responded that Yahoo had a unique offering in its ability to deliver targeted, high-profile campaigns for large brand advertisers. "We're running very fast -- we're not going to give up this leadership in display very easily," she said.
Discussing a 4% drop in page views in the quarter, the Yahoo CEO did not directly explain the decline, but stressed the company was focused on upgrading its platforms for popular services like mail and news over the last year to facilitate increased user engagement. An outage of the Yahoo home page last week, however, did nothing to enhance the company's reputation for technical prowess.
Bartz also did not directly address a recent spate of high-level executive departures reminiscent of the management turmoil when she was hired, in part to quell after taking over from then-CEO Jerry Yang.
Hilary Schneider, the company's U.S. ad sales chief; David Ko, who led the mobile and local businesses; and Yahoo Media head Jimmy Pitaro have all exited in the last few weeks. Last spring, Yahoo hired former Microsoft executive Blake Irving as its chief product officer to bolster its content and ad offerings.
But in an apparent reference to the management changes, Bartz said: "Some people leave, some get promoted, and some good new people arrive. The most important thing is making sure the right person is in the right job at the right time."
That's something Yahoo's board is reportedly scrutinizing more closely when it comes to Bartz herself. But once Yahoo's search pact with Microsoft is fully up and running, and display continues steady growth, "we've got a completely new company here," she assured. Yahoo's shares were up 1% to $15.65 in after-hours trading Tuesday.
by Mark Walsh,
A reduced fourth-quarter revenue outlook from Yahoo won't help, either. Yahoo is projecting fourth-quarter revenue of $1.125 billion to $1.225 billion, falling below the analysts' forecast of $126 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.
For the third quarter, Yahoo posted a profit of $396.1 million, or 29 cents a share -- more than double the 13 cents it reported a year ago. But its earnings got a 13-cent boost from the sale of its HotJobs classified site during the quarter. Analysts had expected profit of 15 cents a quarter.
Net revenue was $1.12 billion compared to $1.13 billion a year ago, and came in slightly below analysts' forecast of $1.13 billion. Yahoo's stagnant results and internal turmoil have led to a series of takeover and other rumors in recent weeks.
The Wall Street Journal earlier this month reported that AOL and several private equity firms were exploring making a bid to buy Yahoo in an effort to merge the two struggling Internet brands. Speculation has also arisen that if Bartz doesn't improve the company's performance soon, the Yahoo board may consider replacing her.
A Dow Jones report Monday, however, indicated that the board is committed to Bartz for the remaining two years of her four-year contract. In relation to the takeover rumors, Bartz declined to comment on the matter during Yahoo's third-quarter conference call Tuesday. "We like our strategy, we like our progress, and that's what we're focused on," she said.
Despite a 7% year-over-year drop in search ad revenue to $331 million, Bartz and Yahoo CFO Tim Morse emphasized that the implementation of its 2009 search partnership with Microsoft was on schedule and would begin to boost revenue growth next year.
Yahoo last month completed transitioning to Bing-powered natural search results in the U.S. and Canada and would do the same for paid results by the end of October. Bartz said 97% of premium accounts have switched to Microsoft's AdCenter and the company is more than halfway through shifting its search queries to AdCenter. "By Q2 next year, we expect the [search] marketplace to be fully tuned," she said.
In the meantime, the process of integrating search systems with Microsoft isn't helping Yahoo's top line, and starting next quarter Microsoft will take its 12% revenue share under the deal. Morse said that will amount to about $30 million in the fourth quarter.
Yahoo's core display business fared better, with revenue up 17% to $465 million from a year ago and roughly flat from the second quarter. Premium display revenue was up 20% and spending was up in seven of 10 industry categories Yahoo tracks, with retail and technology especially strong and telecom notably weak.
Asked during the Q&A session with analysts about growing competition from Google in display, Bartz responded that Yahoo had a unique offering in its ability to deliver targeted, high-profile campaigns for large brand advertisers. "We're running very fast -- we're not going to give up this leadership in display very easily," she said.
Discussing a 4% drop in page views in the quarter, the Yahoo CEO did not directly explain the decline, but stressed the company was focused on upgrading its platforms for popular services like mail and news over the last year to facilitate increased user engagement. An outage of the Yahoo home page last week, however, did nothing to enhance the company's reputation for technical prowess.
Bartz also did not directly address a recent spate of high-level executive departures reminiscent of the management turmoil when she was hired, in part to quell after taking over from then-CEO Jerry Yang.
Hilary Schneider, the company's U.S. ad sales chief; David Ko, who led the mobile and local businesses; and Yahoo Media head Jimmy Pitaro have all exited in the last few weeks. Last spring, Yahoo hired former Microsoft executive Blake Irving as its chief product officer to bolster its content and ad offerings.
But in an apparent reference to the management changes, Bartz said: "Some people leave, some get promoted, and some good new people arrive. The most important thing is making sure the right person is in the right job at the right time."
That's something Yahoo's board is reportedly scrutinizing more closely when it comes to Bartz herself. But once Yahoo's search pact with Microsoft is fully up and running, and display continues steady growth, "we've got a completely new company here," she assured. Yahoo's shares were up 1% to $15.65 in after-hours trading Tuesday.
by Mark Walsh,
Monday, October 18, 2010
Yahoo Advertising Blog Switches To FeedBlitz
The Yahoo Advertising Blog has switched from FeedBurner to FeedBlitz for new email subscriptions. To have a client like Yahoo! is great, but for everyone who isn't (yet) a public megacorporation take a look at how they're aggressively growing their list. As well as the email icon on the right, above the fold, in the subscriptions area, they also have house "ads" below each post asking the reader to subscribe. Simple text, clear call to action, big fat button. Awesome!
The blog carries good commentary beyond Yahoo's own services, so if you're a social media marketer, PR maven or online advertiser it's well worth following.
Sign Up Now
The blog carries good commentary beyond Yahoo's own services, so if you're a social media marketer, PR maven or online advertiser it's well worth following.
Sign Up Now
Thursday, October 14, 2010
AOL Bid For Yahoo Explored
AOL Inc. and several private-equity firms are exploring making an offer to buy Yahoo Inc., according to people familiar with the matter, devising a bold plan to marry two big Internet brands facing steep challenges.
Silver Lake Partners and Blackstone Group LP are among the firms that have expressed interest in teaming up with AOL to buy Yahoo or trying to take it private on their own, these people said. They added that at least two or three other firms could be interested in participating if a formal buyout proposal is drawn up.
The people familiar with the matter cautioned that these discussions—involving private-equity firms, AOL executives and financial advisers—are preliminary and don't yet involve Yahoo. The conversations may not lead to an approach given the complexities in structuring a proposal, the people said.
Spokeswomen for Yahoo and AOL declined to comment.
AOL, which spun off from Time Warner Inc. in late 2009, currently has a market capitalization of $2.68 billion, far smaller than Yahoo's $20.56 billion market value.
Shares of Yahoo jumped 13% to $17.23 in after-hours trading Wednesday, after rising 5.7% to $15.25 at 4 p.m. on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The stock traded 49.6 million shares in the regular session, compared with an average of 17 million shares a day so far this month. It was one of the best-performing tech stocks of the day.
One of the scenarios under discussion among the buyout firms is a complex deal in which China's Alibaba Group would buy back Yahoo's roughly 40% stake in Alibaba, the people said.
Some of Yahoo's other assets would also be sold off to interested media or technology companies, and the remaining company would be of a much smaller valuation that private-equity firms could get financing for, one of the people said.
Another scenario involves AOL combining its operations with Yahoo in a reverse merger after Yahoo disposes of the Alibaba stake, the people said. It is unclear if the resulting entity would be listed publicly.
Alibaba Chief Executive Jack Ma has expressed interest in repurchasing Yahoo's stake in his company, which analysts value at about $10 billion. A big chunk of Yahoo's current market value comes from its Alibaba stake.
Separately, AOL Chief Executive Tim Armstrong has also talked privately about the idea that Yahoo could buy AOL, according to a person familiar with the matter. Another person familiar with the matter said private-equity firms may also look to partner with media companies to buy Yahoo.
A combined Yahoo-AOL would have greater scale to compete in online advertising against industry juggernaut Google Inc. While both companies draw huge amounts of users, their advertising businesses have struggled as they've faced competition from a range of websites. The scenarios being discussed are similar to ones financial firms have discussed before. Yahoo and AOL discussed a merger in 2008, as Yahoo weighed a $45 billion takeover offer from Microsoft Corp. Microsoft eventually pulled its bid.
While private-equity firms have long contemplated a deal for Yahoo, talks have heated up in recent weeks as several senior Yahoo employees have left the company, intensifying pressure on Yahoo Chief Executive Carol Bartz to prove she can turn the company around, the people familiar with the matter said.
Ms. Bartz has improved Yahoo's profitability by cutting costs, but revenue hasn't grown much and the company faces other problems. The Internet pioneer, for example, has shown fewer benefits than competitors from a broad recovery in display advertising—an area where it faces increasing competition from Google and Facebook Inc.
The company, which reports third-quarter earnings next week, claims that more than 600 million people use its home page, email service or other sites every month. But the number of Yahoo pages viewed by its users, known as "user engagement," began shrinking in the second quarter. Yahoo also has seen a drop in the value of advertising against content that Yahoo pulls from other sources.
Ms. Bartz said in a recent interview she needed more time to pull off a turnaround.
By JESSICA E. VASCELLARO And ANUPREETA DAS
—Amir Efrati contributed to this article.
Silver Lake Partners and Blackstone Group LP are among the firms that have expressed interest in teaming up with AOL to buy Yahoo or trying to take it private on their own, these people said. They added that at least two or three other firms could be interested in participating if a formal buyout proposal is drawn up.
The people familiar with the matter cautioned that these discussions—involving private-equity firms, AOL executives and financial advisers—are preliminary and don't yet involve Yahoo. The conversations may not lead to an approach given the complexities in structuring a proposal, the people said.
Spokeswomen for Yahoo and AOL declined to comment.
AOL, which spun off from Time Warner Inc. in late 2009, currently has a market capitalization of $2.68 billion, far smaller than Yahoo's $20.56 billion market value.
Shares of Yahoo jumped 13% to $17.23 in after-hours trading Wednesday, after rising 5.7% to $15.25 at 4 p.m. on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The stock traded 49.6 million shares in the regular session, compared with an average of 17 million shares a day so far this month. It was one of the best-performing tech stocks of the day.
One of the scenarios under discussion among the buyout firms is a complex deal in which China's Alibaba Group would buy back Yahoo's roughly 40% stake in Alibaba, the people said.
Some of Yahoo's other assets would also be sold off to interested media or technology companies, and the remaining company would be of a much smaller valuation that private-equity firms could get financing for, one of the people said.
Another scenario involves AOL combining its operations with Yahoo in a reverse merger after Yahoo disposes of the Alibaba stake, the people said. It is unclear if the resulting entity would be listed publicly.
Alibaba Chief Executive Jack Ma has expressed interest in repurchasing Yahoo's stake in his company, which analysts value at about $10 billion. A big chunk of Yahoo's current market value comes from its Alibaba stake.
Separately, AOL Chief Executive Tim Armstrong has also talked privately about the idea that Yahoo could buy AOL, according to a person familiar with the matter. Another person familiar with the matter said private-equity firms may also look to partner with media companies to buy Yahoo.
A combined Yahoo-AOL would have greater scale to compete in online advertising against industry juggernaut Google Inc. While both companies draw huge amounts of users, their advertising businesses have struggled as they've faced competition from a range of websites. The scenarios being discussed are similar to ones financial firms have discussed before. Yahoo and AOL discussed a merger in 2008, as Yahoo weighed a $45 billion takeover offer from Microsoft Corp. Microsoft eventually pulled its bid.
While private-equity firms have long contemplated a deal for Yahoo, talks have heated up in recent weeks as several senior Yahoo employees have left the company, intensifying pressure on Yahoo Chief Executive Carol Bartz to prove she can turn the company around, the people familiar with the matter said.
Ms. Bartz has improved Yahoo's profitability by cutting costs, but revenue hasn't grown much and the company faces other problems. The Internet pioneer, for example, has shown fewer benefits than competitors from a broad recovery in display advertising—an area where it faces increasing competition from Google and Facebook Inc.
The company, which reports third-quarter earnings next week, claims that more than 600 million people use its home page, email service or other sites every month. But the number of Yahoo pages viewed by its users, known as "user engagement," began shrinking in the second quarter. Yahoo also has seen a drop in the value of advertising against content that Yahoo pulls from other sources.
Ms. Bartz said in a recent interview she needed more time to pull off a turnaround.
By JESSICA E. VASCELLARO And ANUPREETA DAS
—Amir Efrati contributed to this article.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Yahoo Snaps Up Ad Firm Dapper
Yahoo said Tuesday it acquired ad technology firm Dapper to bolster its core display advertising business. The company's technology allows marketers to assemble display ad creative on the fly -- and, it says, show the right ad or offer to the right audience at the right time. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Yahoo has already been working with Dapper under a program the Web portal launched last year to partner with outside ad technology providers to bolster its Smart Ads platform and to extend the customized display ad format to mobile phones.
"Yahoo currently partners with Dapper, along with others in this space, and owning this technology will help the company deliver innovative solutions to an even broader range of advertisers and integrate dynamic ad serving into key Yahoo properties," read the company's statement about the acquisition, expected to close by year's end.
Dapper's solution promises to let marketers use creative elements pulled from their own Web site, product inventory data, or database of marketing offers to automatically tailor display ads according to each impression delivered. The company also helps marketers buy display ad impressions on exchanges via real-time bidding.
Online weather service Weather Underground, among others, has used Dapper to generate dynamic ads with creative drawn from advertisers' product catalogs, Web sites and inventory systems. A fashion retailer, for instance, could then associate each item in its catalog with a particular weather condition so a user would see only apparel suitable to the local climate.
The San Francisco-based startup, which had raised $3 million in venture funding since 2006, hired ex-Efficient Frontier CEO James Beriker as chief executive. Beriker was quoted applauding the deal in the Yahoo statement, but the company did not indicate what role he would play following the acquisition or whether Dapper would be maintained as a separate brand.
For Yahoo, the acquisition amounts to playing to its traditional strength in display advertising rather than expansion into a new area. Yahoo increased profit 50% in the second quarter, but revenue grew only slightly as the company saw little gain from the gradual recovery in display advertising. While display ad revenue was up 19% in the second quarter, it fell short of the 20% growth rate in the first quarter.
In a research note, RBC Capital Markets analyst Ross Sandler said the Dapper deal makes sense for Yahoo, especially in light of Google's widening push into display advertising through properties like YouTube, DoubleClick, the Adx display ad exchange, and Teracent. "The deal should eventually help Yahoo offer advertisers better tools and technologies, and ultimately, to increase the value of its own un-sold display inventory through better ad targeting," he wrote.
Dapper competes with Teracent, which Google acquired in November 2009, as well as ad companies like Tumri and Adready, which Yahoo has also partnered with.
Yahoo has also continued to suffer from executive turnover, with U.S. operations head Hilary Schneider, U.S. audience chief David Ko, and vice president of media Jimmy Pitaro all exiting the company in the last week. The company will report third-quarter earnings Oct. 19.
By Mark Walsh
Yahoo has already been working with Dapper under a program the Web portal launched last year to partner with outside ad technology providers to bolster its Smart Ads platform and to extend the customized display ad format to mobile phones.
"Yahoo currently partners with Dapper, along with others in this space, and owning this technology will help the company deliver innovative solutions to an even broader range of advertisers and integrate dynamic ad serving into key Yahoo properties," read the company's statement about the acquisition, expected to close by year's end.
Dapper's solution promises to let marketers use creative elements pulled from their own Web site, product inventory data, or database of marketing offers to automatically tailor display ads according to each impression delivered. The company also helps marketers buy display ad impressions on exchanges via real-time bidding.
Online weather service Weather Underground, among others, has used Dapper to generate dynamic ads with creative drawn from advertisers' product catalogs, Web sites and inventory systems. A fashion retailer, for instance, could then associate each item in its catalog with a particular weather condition so a user would see only apparel suitable to the local climate.
The San Francisco-based startup, which had raised $3 million in venture funding since 2006, hired ex-Efficient Frontier CEO James Beriker as chief executive. Beriker was quoted applauding the deal in the Yahoo statement, but the company did not indicate what role he would play following the acquisition or whether Dapper would be maintained as a separate brand.
For Yahoo, the acquisition amounts to playing to its traditional strength in display advertising rather than expansion into a new area. Yahoo increased profit 50% in the second quarter, but revenue grew only slightly as the company saw little gain from the gradual recovery in display advertising. While display ad revenue was up 19% in the second quarter, it fell short of the 20% growth rate in the first quarter.
In a research note, RBC Capital Markets analyst Ross Sandler said the Dapper deal makes sense for Yahoo, especially in light of Google's widening push into display advertising through properties like YouTube, DoubleClick, the Adx display ad exchange, and Teracent. "The deal should eventually help Yahoo offer advertisers better tools and technologies, and ultimately, to increase the value of its own un-sold display inventory through better ad targeting," he wrote.
Dapper competes with Teracent, which Google acquired in November 2009, as well as ad companies like Tumri and Adready, which Yahoo has also partnered with.
Yahoo has also continued to suffer from executive turnover, with U.S. operations head Hilary Schneider, U.S. audience chief David Ko, and vice president of media Jimmy Pitaro all exiting the company in the last week. The company will report third-quarter earnings Oct. 19.
By Mark Walsh
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