Internet marketing news - Yahoo! plans TV campaign to restore online profile

Internet giant Yahoo! is to launch a TV advertising campaign, according to Marketing magazine, following a dip in its internet marketing revenues.

Yahoo! Europe's senior marketing director, James Tipple, announced a £9million expenditure plan for its branding strategy, with discussions beginning this summer with advertising agencies. Tipple said the company intends to "get back to where it should be and smack people in the face".

Recent redesigns at Yahoo! were described by Rich Riley, head of Yahoo Europe, as part of an ambitious plan for the site to be the "centrepoint of people's lives".

The decision to pursue the TV advertising route appears to ignore the advice offered by the recent Fortune Brainstorm: TECH conference in the USA, where the cost-effectiveness of using online marketing techniques was shown to inspire more confidence in advertising professionals than the more traditional media, including TV, radio and press. The conference also found that technological advances, such as social networking, mean that targeted techniques like search engine optimisation may be the optimal marketing decision for the near future.

Yahoo's second-quarter revenues showed a drop of approximately 15 percent in internet marketing income from display adverts and sponsored search results.