Yahoo Inc. is putting its name on Overture Services, an online advertising pioneer that it bought for $1.7 billion 17 months ago.
The Sunnyvale, CA, company said yesterday that it will rebrand Overture as Yahoo Search Marketing Solutions in the United States and most international markets. Yahoo also announced the launch of a network that gives developers access to Web service application programming interfaces to Yahoo Search products and Overture's API programs.
“Unifying all of our search marketing and related products under one banner and one common approach reflects our commitment to integrate and simplify online advertising, allowing businesses of all sizes to take advantage of the Yahoo search marketing solutions that best fit their marketing goals,” said Ted Meisel, senior vice president at Yahoo Inc.
In addition, Yahoo will debut an Advertising Solutions Center in the United States next quarter so businesses can plan and buy Yahoo Search Marketing products and customized creative media.
“It's the first of many steps we'll be taking this year to make things easier for advertisers,” Yahoo spokesman Guade Paez said. “We're allowing advertisers now to come to Yahoo and find their search marketing products in one place. As additional search marketing products are developed and launched, they will fall under this fold.”
Yahoo and Overture's new joint services include:
· Sponsored Search listings, Yahoo's flagship search advertising product.
· Content Match, Yahoo's contextual advertising listings.
· Local Match, Yahoo's local sponsored search offering.
· Site Match Self Service and Site Match Xchange, search URL submission products.
· Yahoo's shopping URL submission program, Yahoo Product Submit.
· Search Optimizer.
· Marketing Console, which lets advertisers track campaign performance across multiple online channels.
Costs for search engine marketing services will stay the same, Paez said, but the advertisers' interface will change. Advertisers currently buy and manage search marketing features on Overture's home page. With Overture's rebranding next quarter, all search marketing products will be on Yahoo's site in its Advertising Solutions Center.
Overture formally changes its brand in the United States early next quarter. Most of Overture's international markets will be rebranded later, but Japan and South Korea will keep the Overture brand.
Christine Blank covers online marketing and advertising, including e-mail marketing and paid search, for DM News and DMNews.com. To keep up with the latest developments in these areas, subscribe to our daily and weekly e-mail newsletters by visiting www.dmnews.com/newsletters
