Online portal trying out offline advertising? Tactical Yahoo! ?
Now, this is strange. Online portal is trying out offline advertising?
The world’s second largest search engine Yahoo! is (desperately?) promoting it’s portal by giving away coupons for a free cup of coffee at Dunkin’ Donuts to anyone who sets Yahoo.com as their home page this Friday.
AP reports here more
Yahoo executives bill the multimillion dollar campaign as a celebration of several significant improvements to its Web site, including a makeover of the home page, an e-mail upgrade and a service that enables users to tap into their collective knowledge to find answers to tough questions.
“This is a great time for us to talk to our customers and encourage them to visit the new Yahoo.com,” said Allen Olivo, Yahoo’s vice president of global brand marketing. “It’s an invitation to come back to those who haven’t been using us in a while as well as to those who haven’t been using us as frequently as they once did.”
I would say that this means Yahoo! is increasingly pressurized to fend off the aggressive moves from Microsoft and Google to steal the traffic away from Yahoo!.
With search though, Yahoo! has got a long way to catch up with Google and Microsoft Live has just entered the game by coming out of beta.
“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.”
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.Yahoo’s decision to turn to television and radio to protect and expand its Internet turf seems ironic.
“I can’t say if it’s good or bad, but I do know it’s 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 are customers are.”
