With social media playing a more important role in consumer communications than in the past, the inbox is now defined more broadly. It is no longer just for checking messages in one portal, but finding different kinds of messages from various places on the Web.
After Yahoo made the inbox more social and MySpace made it more deliverable by adopting an SMTP approach, the inbox is now wherever the consumer goes to get his or her messages. So Yahoo’s new ad units fit perfectly into this equation.
As part of a major brand overhaul, Yahoo Mail now features a new banner ad unit, called “tandem ads,” to run within the Yahoo Mail platform. The unit will launch November 18, and it will continue the trend of messaging wherever a consumer is on the Web. The units also include the capability for animation, floating rich media and video, so they can help to bypass some of the issues of getting video into the inbox.
Before this ad unit becomes available, Yahoo is inviting marketers to participate in a digital ad contest for nonprofit work. The company is working with the Ad Council on the “Create for a cause” effort, where advertising agencies can submit their best and most creative nonprofit digital campaigns for a chance to win free media. The winner will receive 75 million impressions on Yahoo and be the first campaign to run in the new format.
