Yahoo Snags Ad Serving Deals With CBS, Wal-Mart And Havas
New York – Perfectly tuned to suit President Sue Decker’s keynote at the Advertising 2.0 conference in New York, and despite talks were still on with Microsoft Corp., Yahoo Inc. on Wednesday trumpeted three new major advertising deals, but it failed to appease critic Carl Icahn who called its board’s moves “deceitful.”
In a nutshell, Yahoo President Sue Decker touted the advertising deals with three major clients: CBS, Wal-Mart, and Havas Digital, all while launching Yahoo! Circular, an online retail marketing program inspired by newspaper circulars.
Yahoo’s Decker unveiled the joint ventures with Wal-Mart Stores and others as Icahn, a billionaire activist investor, stepped up pressure on Yahoo over its rebuff of Microsoft’s $47.5 billion buyout offer.
Decker maintains that the world of display advertising is on the verge of a “renaissance.” Yahoo’s improved focus in this area mirrors recent acquisitions of DoubleClick and aQuantive by Google and Microsoft.
She continued that some form of deal with Microsoft could still come about, sending Yahoo shares up 2.7 percent for the day, despite Icahn’s later blistering, targeting CEO Jerry Yang’s leadership at Yahoo and trying to force a Microsoft acquisition agreement.
“The company is effectively in a fight for its life and that can provide a lot of motivation to get things done and show progress,” said analyst Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group.
And now back to the sweep of announcements:
Under the multi-year advertising deal just sealed, Yahoo will provide ad-serving, and inventory management to power ad pricing, targeting, delivery and reporting for Walmart.com.
Walmart.com will also use Yahoo’s tools to monitor ad performance and will ultimately join the AMP ad management platform set to launch later this year.
The deal would enable Walmart to leverage on Yahoo’s advertising platform to present new offers to online customers, while Yahoo becomes the exclusive portal to resell Walmart’s display inventory.
Todd Teresi, senior vice president of the Yahoo! Publisher Network said that the deal will build Yahoo’s strategy to be the partner choice for leading brands which would engage more customers with compelling offers online.
“By combining Walmart.com’s leading position as a multi-channel retailer with our industry-leading display advertising sales and ad management technology and sales force, we will be able to provide advertisers with the easiest, most effective way to deliver targeted, relevant marketing messages to Walmart.com shoppers.”
“Another deal with Havas Digital marks Yahoo!’s second such arrangement and will work with Yahoo globally on AMP.”
The multiyear agreement calls for Havas Digital, the interactive arm of Havas Media, and Yahoo! to develop a trading platform for Havas shops that will link in with Yahoo!’s Right Media Exchange, which matches buyers and sellers of Web inventory.
Under the agreement Havas Digital will work with Yahoo!’s Right Media Exchange business, which it acquired in July 2007, to develop a proprietary media trading platform based on Yahoo! technology.
To better serve their customers and extend its advertising platform, Havas Digital plans to be an early adopter of AMP! from Yahoo! which significantly simplifies the process of buying and selling ads online. AMP! from Yahoo! is due to roll out beginning with members of the Newspaper Consortium in Q3 2008.
The concept is to create a more efficient system that allows web publishers to sell inventory in real time while conversely allowing advertisers to bid for it in real time.
“By deepening our strategic media relationship with Yahoo!, Havas Digital will develop an innovative trading platform that can apply the insights in Artemis to the benefit of our clients. The combined capabilities will allow Havas Digital clients to execute highly segmented media buys on a mass scale,” said Don Epperson, chief executive officer of Havas Digital. “Yahoo!’s Right Media Exchange is clearly driving the exchange revolution and we are delighted to be a global agency partner.”
This important relationship will also include a partnership between Yahoo! and Havas Digital’s Centers of Excellence to build a global outsourcing practice, based in India and Brazil, for digital advertising leveraging the Right Media Exchange.
The partnership also mirrors that of the deal struck last month between rival marketing services group WPP and Yahoo!, which will work with GroupM, digital marketing company 24/7 Real Media and WPP Digital.
“Yahoo! is proud to partner with Havas Digital in driving online marketing leadership,” said Hilary Schneider, EVP of Global Partner Solutions for Yahoo! “The innovation happening at Havas Digital, combined with our technology solutions, will help them to achieve a new level of insights and performance for their clients. Havas Digital is a forward looking agency that we are pleased to be working with at multiple levels.”
“A third partnership involves Yahoo to distribute CBS Corp. content, like clips from TV shows, as part of a comprehensive plan by the media company to add new outlets for its TV programs.”
As part of the deal Yahoo would join the CBS the broadcasting company with the largest online audience. Hence, the web company has gained access to the content library of CBS Audience Network, which already includes major outlets like Google Inc.’s YouTube, Time Warner Inc.’s AOL and Microsoft Corp.’s MSN, as well as sites like Joost, Veoh, and Bebo, besides it will add the programs and TV shows to its offer, along with the ones of similar networks like NBC or Fox.
As part of the agreement, Yahoo will stream CBS’s shows for free, and will support the costs of doing this from advertising related practices. The Audience Network offers short-form clips from CBS, CSTV and Showtime, and before the inclusion of Yahoo reached nearly 90 percent of the Web.
The move made by CBS is aimed at offering its online available content in as many places as possible, something that comes against the philosophies of other networks that prefer more control over the places their shows are streamed online.
Decker also disclosed in her keynote at Advertising 2.0 that the company has launched a newspaper marketing program called Yahoo Circular, in which retailers can take advantage of user interest to target them with personalized newspaper circulars.
But in an interview with CNBC, Decker defended the company’s move as a way to discourage employees from leaving amid the uncertainty surrounding the Microsoft bid and thus protect the Web portal’s valuable asset.
“Yahoo annual meeting will be held Aug. 1 in San Jose.”