Five Ways Advertisers Can Save Time

Yahoo! Search Marketing Desktop simplifies multiple campaign management

If you’re an advertiser running more than one campaign, you will probably welcome the new Yahoo! Search Marketing Desktop, a free offline tool that lets you spend less time on the tactical details of campaign management, and more on increasing your return-on-investment.

With Yahoo! Search Marketing Desktop, it now takes just a few clicks to modify multiple campaigns, ad groups, keywords and ads at the same time. And if you get carried away, you can even undo selected changes with no harm done.

For more, visit the Yahoo! Search Marketing Blog.

Video: Carol Bartz on Science, Art and Scale

 “No one can do this as well as we can.”

In an informal conversation at the 4A’s conference, Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz says that only Yahoo! can offer everything advertisers need for successful digital advertising: science, art and scale.

Science, Art and Scale

Carol Bartz: What Yahoo! offers advertisers

Yahoo! can bring advertisers a combination of strengths that no one else can, Yahoo! CEO  Carol Bartz said in a keynote speech at the 4A’s Transformation 2010 conference today, because only Yahoo! offers them three things: science, art and scale.

Carol, speaking to the advertising industry group in San Francisco, said, “We want Yahoo! to be the partner you turn to for answers and solutions, and most importantly—when you want results.” By providing science, art and scale, Yahoo can help advertisers and agencies master online advertising.

Science
“Science is incredibly important,” Carol said. “Without it, we’re all flying blind.” She said it’s even more important because the Internet is moving so fast that it’s creating chaos for advertisers. In order to help advertisers sort through that information, Yahoo! can advertisers better insights, better data, and better targeting. “This means less wasted impressions and a better ability to reach your audience,” Carol said. (more…)

Case Study: Buying Time

How Sitewire used the Yahoo! Search Marketing Desktop Tool to cut its workload

Sitewire, a digital media agency whose clients include the Darden Restaurant Group, which runs Olive Garden, Red Lobster, and other popular restaurant chains, wanted to ease its search marketing workload. The company expressed its concern to Yahoo! and became one of the first Sponsored Search clients to try the beta version of the new Yahoo! Search Marketing Desktop, an application that allows users to easily and cost effectively create and manage Yahoo! Search Marketing campaigns.

Learn how the company saved time and effort over at the Yahoo! Search Marketing blog.

Changing the Creative Canvas on Yahoo!

Your creative palette at Yahoo! just got a whole lot better

If you know me, you know that I’m not the tallest person around. I’m 5’6” (and a half!) and I like my height…but even I’ll admit that there are times when I wouldn’t mind being a bit taller.

The online advertising canvas is similar. You can do great things online now, but chances are if you’re in advertising, you wouldn’t mind a little more room to get creative, and more space to grab your customers’ attention. That’s why we’re rolling out several new display advertising options to give you a larger canvas for your creativity.

Built for telling stories
You may recognize some of these new formats – they were introduced by the Online Publisher’s Association (OPA) last year. We believe we are one of the first, if not the first, portals to adopt more than one of these formats. Why are we adopting them? Because advertising is about telling stories, and these formats allow brand advertisers to do just that.  We want to promote innovation, creativity, and imagination in online advertising.

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Demystifying Mobile, Part I

Four questions to ask before getting into everywhere advertising

In this, the first of a three part series, Paul Cushman, Director of Mobile Sales Strategy at Yahoo! explores some basic questions that advertisers should ask themselves before diving into the mobile marketing space.

In my role as Yahoo’s director of mobile sales strategy, I’ve met many clients confused by mobile advertising. But just because it’s mobile doesn’t mean that the laws of advertising have changed.  In fact, mobile advertising today follows much the same pattern and rules as traditional and Internet marketing. Below are four simple rules that I tell our mobile advertisers when considering and creating campaigns in the mobile channel.

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Sponsored Search Features Webinar

Please join us Feb. 4, 2009 for this informative Sponsored Search webinar

Many of you have both Display and Sponsored Search campaigns. For our Sponsored Search customers, we’re offering a free webinar that explores two important features of Sponsored Search: Network Distribution, which allows you to target marketing campaigns to the entire Yahoo! Network, and Import Campaigns, which lets you import your Google AdWords campaign data into your Yahoo! Search Marketing account. For more detail on both these features, visit the Yahoo! Search Marketing blog. Or, to register, click on the link below.

When: Thursday, Feb. 4, 2009, 11 A.M., Pacific Time
Where: The Internet—go here to register. Note that  you will need the password you created when you registered for Sponsored Search. Don’t already have a Sponsored Search account? Click here.
Why: Because it’s great stuff to know for improving your campaigns and results through Sponsored Search

Ad News and Views from Around the Web

Ad man Othmer gets mad; selling the Super Bowl; digital ad budgets to increase; TBWA\Chiat\Day’s doggie dentures ad, and more

A trip through “Adland”
Former Young and Rubicam creative James P. Othmer has a new memoir out, “Adland: Searching for the Meaning of Life on a Branded Planet.” In it, he describes his trials and tribulations in the business. In this AdWeek Q&A, he talks about the many ethical dilemmas faced by ad folks today, as well as other hot topics and ripping yarns. Check out Amazon.com’s promo vid for more.

Selling the Super Bowl
This Sunday is arguably the biggest sporting event of the year, Super Bowl XLIV. Advertisers, according to AdWeek, have shelled out nearly $3 million each for 30-second spots during the big game. “The game is the only significant TV showcase for commercials left in today’s media-fractured environment, and advertisers are frantically putting the final touches on their plays for the day,” writes Eleftheria Parpi. How are they are building buzz around their creative? Hint: the initials are S.M., and we don’t mean the naughty kind.

We’ve got good news and bad news
Remember those old good news/bad news jokes? (Like, the good news: the captain aboard a Viking ship doubles rations for the guys on the oars. The bad news: he wants to go water skiing.) Well, the good news for digital marketers is that two-thirds of marketing execs in a recent CMO.com/Society of Digital Agencies survey say they’ll up their digital budgets in the face of current economic conditions. The bad news? Those conditions still suck.

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Goin’ Mobile with Yahoo! Mobile

Hit your customers where they live with Yahoo! mobile advertising options

You’ve heard the hit song by The Who:

I’m goin’ home
And when I wanna go home
I’m goin’ mobile
Well, I’m gonna find a home
And we’ll see how it feels
Goin’ mobile
Keep me movin’

Back in the early 1970s, goin’ mobile usually meant being out of touch except by pay phone or postcard. If you wanted to take “home” with you, you had to buy an RV, or be a tortoise. The neat thing about goin’ mobile today is that you can take home with you, right in the palm of your hand. That’s a boon for users—and for advertisers who want to touch potential customers at home, wherever that happens to be at the moment.

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New Year, Original Content

Yahoo! and Electus’ Ben Silverman announce new content, ad delivery concept

Three words: Content, content, content.

Over the past decade, cable TV has experienced tremendous growth because of its ability to develop programming for very specific audiences, telling the stories that those audiences love to hear. At the same time, it has provided opportunities for advertisers to reach their core audiences, telling the stories that advertisers need to tell. 

Like cable, online today is poised to do just the same, and more. Yet, despite the targeted programming capabilities available, online publishers and advertisers have yet to take full advantage of the medium in terms of content development. That’s where today’s announcement comes in.

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