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HHCL & Partners has secured the multi-million pound creative

account for Yahoo! as the internet company gears up for a major

marketing push.

The agency’s task will now be to maintain the internet company’s

position as the UK’s most visited website.

HHCL’s campaign, which is due to break in the next few months, will

focus heavily on the diversified services that Yahoo! offers users and

move away from the idea that it is merely an internet search engine

tool.

The drive to promote Yahoo!’s services follows the appointment of

Martina King as the managing director of Yahoo! for the UK and Ireland.

King was drafted in last year with a brief to increase brand awareness

at the internet company.

Emma Serednyj, the new-business director at HHCL, said: ’We have a

matched competitive agenda with the team at Yahoo!, with collaboration

and fresh thinking at the core of both companies.’

Catherine Taylor, Yahoo!’s marketing director for the UK and Ireland,

added: ’We want to continue to develop Yahoo! in the UK and Ireland,

making it the leading local and global brand.

’The campaign will communicate with people in terms of the array of

products and services that we have to offer. It won’t just be a generic

branding campaign. Yahoo! is so much more than a search engine now and

that’s what we need to let our audience know.’

The site faces stiff competition from other internet service providers

which have previously spent a great deal more on advertising than

Yahoo!. Rivals such as Lycos, Freeserve and America Online each spend

around pounds 12 million on above-the-line advertising in the UK.

Yahoo! plans to push its adspend of pounds 1 million up to a similar

figure.

Its last advertising was created in the US by Black Rocket and, despite

its relative lack of marketing activity, Yahoo!’s tagline, ’Do you

Yahoo!?’, has been successful in gaining the brand some recognition.

RPM3 was appointed to the UK business in March last year but never

created any significant advertising for the brand. The account was

previously handled by Publicis across Europe.

Yahoo! recently announced that it has made a profit on European sales

generated in the fourth quarter of 1999. Revenues for the first quarter

of 2000 were up by 120 per cent on last year at dollars 228.4 million.

About 70 per cent of Yahoo!’s revenue comes from advertising and the

remainder from other e-commerce ventures.