Yahoo will launch a new brand marketing campaign this week, according to a lengthy report in Media Daily News. It’s the first major effort by the new CMO, Cammie Dunaway. The theme is “Yahoo is the life engine” and it features a number of “minor celebrities” like former CA governor Gray Davis.
Perhaps the most charming of the initial group is a spot featuring former California Gov. Gray Davis paired with a junior high school student who uses Yahoo! mail to convince her schoolmates to elect her as eighth-grade treasurer. With “Hail to the Chief” playing in the background, Davis introduces himself and says he’s using Yahoo! to look for an agent, suggesting that if a former actor can be governor, maybe a “former governor can be an actor,” although he doesn’t think “action/adventure” would be his genre. The spot closes with Yahoo! as a “Job engine, mail engine, life engine.” The creative strategy presents the audience with two different demographics, each using Yahoo! to achieve a task or to enrich a passion.
In other news, Yahoo and its Overture subsidiary won some new business last week, including stealing CNN’s search biz from Google, and adding a deal with the WSJ and renewing and extending its deal with ESPN. Release in extended entry.
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Overture Extends and Expands Search Agreements with CNN.com and ESPN.com, Signs New Deal with The Wall Street Journal Online
Company Adds Three New Content Match⎪ Agreements and Provides Yahoo! Search Results to CNN.com
PASADENA, Calif., April 5, 2004 – Overture Services, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) and provider of essential online marketing services, today announced that it has extended its existing agreement with CNN.com and has expanded it to include additional Overture and Yahoo! products. In addition, the company announced that it has signed a new distribution agreement with the Wall Street Journal Online (WSJ.com) and that it has extended and enhanced its existing agreement with ESPN.com. All three deals are multi-year agreements.
“Today, CNN.com, ESPN.com and The Wall Street Journal Online – three of the world’s leading online brands – are confirming their commitment to search through their relationship with Overture,” said Bill Demas, senior vice president and general manager, Overture’s Partner Business and Solutions Group. “Our comprehensive suite of sponsored search, Content Match and Yahoo! Search products enables us to offer partners the customized search solutions that meet their individual needs.”
As part of its enhanced agreement with CNN.com, Overture will replace CNN.com’s existing Web search listings with results generated by Yahoo!’s Search Technology. In addition, Overture will begin to provide Content Match, its contextual advertising product, to multiple CNN sites and has extended its term of service as CNN.com’s exclusive sponsored search provider.
“We’re delighted to expand our relationship with Overture. CNN.com has consistently been the number one online news publishing site. Overture’s strategy for creating a premium marketplace for contextual links fits perfectly with our goal of aggregating and serving a highly desirable audience,” said David Payne, senior vice president and general manager, CNN.com. “In creating this new marketplace and in providing search result functionality, Overture and CNN.com are able to jointly leverage and monetize our valuable audience and tremendous traffic numbers.”
Under the terms of its new distribution agreement with WSJ.com, Overture will deliver Content Match results to WSJ.com’s more than 689,000 online subscribers worldwide. In addition, Overture will provide sponsored search results to users of the WSJ.com’s site search.
“We are very pleased to partner with Overture to add their sponsored search and Content Match capabilities to our site,” said Randy Kilgore, vice president of advertising, The Wall Street Journal Online. “We selected Overture because of its flexibility, support and integrated solutions, and look forward to working with them to provide our subscribers the most up-to-date, relevant information possible.”
With ESPN.com, Overture has renewed and extended its existing sponsored search agreement to include Content Match. The enhanced relationship offers users a more robust keyword search, ESPN.com site search and comprehensive Web search experience.
“We are excited to extend our relationship with Overture to add its contextual listings to ESPN.com, which will provide even more relevant information across our site,” said John Kosner, senior vice president and general manager, ESPN.com. “Having multiple search products with our content allows us to offer far more customized information to our users.”
“These partnerships will greatly benefit advertisers and users alike. By establishing and deepening relationships with leading publishers like CNN.com, ESPN.com and WSJ.com, Overture can now provide advertisers even more ways to connect with customers,” said Demas.
About Overture
Overture Services, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Yahoo! Inc., offers essential marketing services for companies doing business online. The company’s search-based products and tools help businesses connect with highly motivated customers. Overture is based in Pasadena, Calif. with U.S. offices in New York, Chicago and San Mateo, CA. The headquarters for Overture’s non-U.S. business is in Ireland, with offices across Europe, Asia, and Australia. For more information about Overture, visit www.overture.com. Overture is a service mark of Overture Services, Inc.