Yahoo! and Bebo sign exclusive advertising deal

by Hayley Pinkerfield, Revolution UK 12-Sep-07, 10:50

LONDON - Yahoo! has signed an exclusive deal with Bebo to sell the majority of Bebo's display advertising in the UK and Ireland, reaching an estimated 11.6 million users.

The agreement covers the areas of display advertising, search including Yahoo! Answers and a branded toolbar.

This is Yahoo!'s first agreement of its kind with a social networking site, which it claims will offer its advertisers much-improved marketing opportunities, especially in the 13-24 year-old age group.

Yahoo! Answers, the knowledge-sharing community, will be integrated into Bebo's web site, allowing users to ask and answer questions posed by other users within the Bebo community and beyond. The service currently has a global audience of 84 million people and 250 million available answers.

Joanna Shields, president, international at Bebo said: "The partnership with Yahoo! enables us to focus on custom sponsorship campaigns and groundbreaking original productions with the knowledge that our display advertising is handled by a partner that guarantees the highest quality ad for each user interaction. Yahoo!'s scale, experienced sales force, advertiser relationships and industry leading online advertising capabilities will allow us to do just that."

"This exclusive partnership is the next step of our ongoing strategy to build the largest and most effective online advertising network. Bebo joins our existing partners, Eurosport and Vodafone as part of that ad network, which also includes the BlueLithium publisher network and advanced targeting tools, and the Right Media ad exchange," said Toby Coppel, managing director, Yahoo! Europe.

Yahoo! and Bebo will begin to roll out the new initiatives during the 4th quarter of this year. Yahoo!'s previous search deal with Bebo, struck in May, is extended under this new agreement.