Yahoo! has announced the relaunch of its advertising network - rebranded as Yahoo! Network. The Guardian reports that the search engine has signed up several new partners and claims to give advertisers access to 80% of users in the UK and Ireland. The network serves 29 million unique users per month across search, display and mobile sites and therefore gives advertisers the opportunity to reach a wide audience across several channels. Mark Rabe, Vice President and Managing Director of Sales at Yahoo! UK & Ireland described the network as offering one point of contact for multi-platform campaigns, with the option of running ads on specific sites, or across multiple sites within the Yahoo! network.New partnerships for the Yahoo! network include display ads on social networking site Bebo, portals for Eurosport and BT, and display publishing deals with FT.com, Channel Five and Loot. Mobile ads will also appear across the 5 major UK networks - O2, Orange, Vodafone, T-Mobile and 3.
Rabe explained that Yahoo! aims to improve the value of adverts for both the user and advertisers.
"We take privacy very seriously and were one of the first to have a policy in the mid to late 90s. We put user experience ahead of commercial value....That said, serving up ads that are so relevant they are beneficial can add real value to the consumer, and we are working out how to give the user and the advertiser a good experience."
Rabe also explained that he is confident that despite the threat of an economic downturn in the UK, online advertising looks set to stay strong - welcome news to many involved in the industry.
""In the UK, digital accounts for about 20% of the total marketing budget, whereas in most of the world it's an afterthought".
"This industry is probably better poised to weather an economic downturn - if it happens and turns out to be prolonged. So far we've done a good job of proving the efficacy of online ads".
Yahoo! will be hoping that the strength of its advertising network is able to impact on the disappointing stock prices the search engine suffered recently.
