Web search firm’s new ad campaign will be its largest in two years; follows makeover to its home page.
As its rivals create a bigger buzz on the Internet, Yahoo Inc. is hitting television, radio, cinema and online advertising to remind people that its Web site remains on the cutting edge of technology and culture, the internet media company said in a statement.
The advertising blitz, scheduled to begin soon, marks the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company’s biggest marketing push in two years, said Allen Olivo, Yahoo’s vice president of global brand marketing.
Yahoo executives bill the multimillion dollar campaign as a celebration of several significant improvements Yahoo has made to its heavily visited home page and other services — from its e-mail program to Yahoo Answers — that enables users to tap into their collective knowledge to find answers to tough questions, a new service that taps the wisdom of other Yahoo users.
The advertising, which will be featured on TV, radio, online and in movie theaters, takes a humorous look at life with — and without — the benefits of Yahoo services.
As an added promotional gift, Yahoo will offer coupons for a free cup of coffee at Dunkin’ Donuts to anyone who sets Yahoo.com as their home page.
"This is a great time for us to talk to our customers and encourage them to visit the new Yahoo.com," said Olivo. "It is an invitation to come back to those who have not been using us in a while as well as to those who have not been using us as frequently as they once did."
Besides buying TV and radio time, world’s most popular Web site also will be spreading its messages in movie theaters across the United States.
"We look at them (TV and radio) as exclamation marks to the online marketing, rather than the main marketing," Olivo said in an interview.
The campaign features ads created by Yahoo users from several film schools.
New ads will run in major U.S. markets on radio, in 21,000 cinemas and on online sites in the coming months. Television and radio ads will only run in the United States, Olivo said. Other elements of the campaign will be localized to run in 14 international markets.
"Yahoo is probably feeling some erosion of its brand," said Brad Scott, director of digital branding for San Francisco consulting firm Landor Associates. "They probably want to build some awareness again."
But the push also reflects the mounting pressure on Yahoo as it struggles to catch up to Google Inc. in the lucrative online search market. Yahoo is also battling perceptions that startups such as MySpace.com have become hipper places to hang out.
But Yahoo’s search engine lags Google’s, both for processing requests and distributing ads that will produce revenue-generating clicks — problems that have depressed the company’s stock. Yahoo shares ended last week at $29.32, marking a 25 percent decline since the end of last year.
Meanwhile, old standbys like Microsoft Corp. and Time Warner Inc.’s AOL are spending heavily to lure traffic away from Yahoo.
Yahoo claims 412 million users. Last month it attracted nearly 107 million unique U.S. visitors, more than any other online destination, according to Nielsen/NetRatings.
The U.S. television spots, which were produced with Soho Square and OgilvyOne Worldwide, begin on prime-time TV on Thursday, September 21. They will air on professional baseball games, MTV and late-night comedy shows.
The commercials include a nostalgic nod to the company’s signature “Do You Yahoo?” tagline and accompanying Yahoo!!!! Yodel; which the 12-year-old company created in 1996.
To make things worse, Google has become synonymous with looking things up on the Internet without having to spend on expensive TV and radio ads.
"Instead of worrying about branding, Google is able to spend time and money on building better algorithms to help people find information and data," said Regis McKenna, who helped steer the marketing campaigns of high-tech Apple Computer Inc. and Intel Corp.
Google spends heavily to promote its search engine, but it generally eschews traditional advertising channels.
“Google is a very media savvy company,” Scott said. “They realize a prime spot on a computer or a Web site can be just as critical as a 30-second spot on prime-time television.”
The Mountain View, Calif.-based company announced in May that it would bundle some of its software on Dell Inc.’s personal computers so Google would not have to rely on users downloading its software from the Internet. Financial terms were not disclosed, but analysts estimated that Google could pay up to $1 billion for a three-year deal.
While Google has been winning the search showdown, News Corp.’s youthful MySpace.com has been threatening to dethrone Yahoo as the most viewed site.
Yahoo’s decision to turn to television and radio to protect and expand its Internet turf seems ironic.
“I cannot say if it is good or bad, but I do know it is not the wave of the future,” McKenna said.
Yahoo’s Olivo defended the strategy, saying: “We live in a multimedia world and we want to be wherever our customers are.”