Sharing My Views on Yahoo’s Ad Campaign with BusinessWeek

BusinessWeek asked me to share my thoughts on Yahoo’s new $100 million marketing campaign. Here’s what I told them:

Other critics wonder whether Yahoo’s money would be better spent on product improvements. “They’re really trying to package up what’s already there,” says Andy Beal, editor of the Web site Marketing Pilgrim.

Beal doesn’t think the ads are likely to win new customers. “I would argue that consumers have already made a decision: They are aware of what Yahoo has to offer, and they’ve decided there are better alternatives for their time,” Beal says. The company might have been better off taking a cue from Microsoft, Beal says.

Before launching its own ad campaign for Bing, on which Microsoft is reportedly spending $80 million to $100 million, the company poured money into developing the search engine. “Bing is spending $100 million to launch a very compelling alternative to Google. [Yahoo is spending] $100 million to jog somebody’s memory,” he says.