Trash Google, says Yahoo’s new $85-million ad campaign

Internet portal Yahoo Inc is planning to spend up to $85 million on the second phase of its $100 million marketing campaign that will take a swipe at rival Google, as it seeks to revive its growth and reconnect with consumers.

The ad campaign will focus mainly on its array of websites devoted to fantasy sports and news. It also takes a thinly veiled shot at search giant Google Inc in an online video. The website says it will spend $75-85 million on the push, which will promote Yahoo on TV, the web and billboards as a one-stop internet destination.

The slogan for the campaign would be "Your favourite stuff all in one place. Make Yahoo! your homepage."

Last year Yahoo had launched $100 million campaign with the tagline "It's you," focused on personalising the online experience, but it failed to increase traffic to its homepage or improve its share of the search market.

The new ads would try and trash non-Yahoo web destinations such as Facebook and celebrity gossip site Pop Sugar. One billboard features a man showing off his favourite websites. His tie bears the logos of sites such as Yahoo Travel, Yahoo! Finance, Twitter and Flicker.

One of Yahoo's online video ads features an image of Google's homepage without the company's name. In the ad, a voice-over says, "When you look at this homepage nothing looks back at you. You come to this place so you can leave." Then, as colourful scrabble-like tiles adorned with various website logos come together to form women's faces, the voice-over praises Yahoo.