Yahoo! poised to offer web-TV ads

by Fiona Ramsay, marketingmagazine.co.uk 07-Apr-09, 15:20

LONDON - Yahoo! expects to be able to offer targeted advertising on web-connected TVs within the next two years.

Yahoo! TV Widgets, which include Flickr, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Weather and Yahoo!
Finance and third-party content from YouTube and eBay, are being launched on Samsung TVs in the UK this month. These are expected to be followed by internet-connected Sony and LG sets.

Yahoo! says 500,000 of the web-connected TVs will be distributed to UK retailers this year. It expects to be able to target viewers with web-content widgets based on what they are watching by 2011.

Yahoo! will test early ad campaigns on the sets this year, offering six-month campaigns to brands from this summer. For example, retailers could use a catalogue widget offering coupons and information.

It is also developing brand opportunities for mobile, including promotions based on mobile search queries. It launched a Yahoo! Mobile homepage last week, bringing together search, news, social networks and email. Its roll-out is being backed by a mobile ad campaign, created by Inside Mobile, intended to drive users to the site.

Yahoo!'s head of mobile advertising, Charles Sword, confirmed that the company would be launching new brand advertising on its mobile homepage. 'We can extend the ad concepts we have been using on the PC to mobile,' he said. 'The new homepage encourages personalisation, and in those areas we can showcase content supported by a brand.'

Sword said Nissan's online sponsorship of a snow report during skiing season was an
example of brand activity that could migrate to mobile.