Comments on: Yahoo Dumps its Brand Universe Social Media Branding Project

By: mike waters

mike waters — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 14:16:41 +0000

interesting read if there are any companies that are looking to have their businesses branded with social media like myspace facebook & twitter you should check this website out its great

post: http://twillooo.com/socialmediabranding.html

By: Geoff Northcott

Geoff Northcott — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 00:05:46 +0000

Hi Loren,

You might be interested to know that it looks like the Brand Universe strategy is back on, with the same basic approach to the content and a totally different approach to monetization:
http://geoffnorthcott.com/blog/2008/07/land-rover-life/

Geoff

By: Egyptian Mau Breeders

Egyptian Mau Breeders — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 23:19:48 +0000

This is a huge mistake on yahoo’s part. I agree that they have some under exposed properties.

By: Cnc Kesim

Cnc Kesim — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 17:31:59 +0000

They have some great social properties and have not leveraged them yet for maximum exposure.

By: Loren Baker, Editor

Loren Baker, Editor — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 22:19:39 +0000

One strategy here may not be the total trashing of the Brand Universe idea, but using its core as a new Groups type format, similar to Facebook when Yahoo finally (after 2 years of waiting) connects its users via social mapping. Then again, maybe not.

I wouldn’t really think that there would be too much money or staff behind these branded mash-ups, and they would be pretty easy to somewhat automate.

Then again, I could be wrong.

Anyway, it is a loss of innovative advertising … but has the recent trend of monetizing the discussion taken away from the direct response of focused search & display advertising?

If Brand Universe takes Yahoo users off tangent of the intended end result of clicking on an advertisement, then yes, that is a diversion to Yahoo’s recent vision.

Yahoo has mastered the mix of search, behavioral and display advertising on and off of Yahoo properties. So it may make some sense to focus that energy that was put into Brand Universe on something that is generating revenue.

By: stephen pitts

stephen pitts — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 21:50:16 +0000

I wonder if this will affect their social space?

They have some great social properties and have not leveraged them yet for maximum exposure.

By: Jeff O'Connor

Jeff O'Connor — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 21:46:56 +0000

This is a mistake on Yahoo’s part – a big one.

It’s terrific that Yahoo! has decided to narrow its focus on search, travel, sports, and entertainment, but tragic that they can’t apply an actual good idea like the Yahoo! Brand Universe to their verticals. Is it such a stretch to take the Brand Universe approach and apply it to these new focus areas?