Yahoo! rides in on the American radio waves

According to an article I read on the net recently, Yahoo! have been keeping busy by getting some extra exposure on radio channels in the United States, appearing as an attempt to up their game against Google. Their added features have created a new possibility of competition in the search engine industry. Yahoo!`s proactive approach carries the slight potential of disrupting Google`s comfortable spot at the top of this industry. The more exposure Yahoo! gets, the higher the chances are that some of our clients will be asking to make sure they are in the top 10, not only of Google, but Yahoo! too.

In today`s advertising scene, radio and the internet are finding a middle ground, to some degree. Internet companies are extending their advertising to radio stations, as such in the case of Yahoo! However, it seems that radio is lacking the insight into realising what fruitful opportunities are being missed by not fully utilising the internet`s advertising benefits to expose the positives of radio advertising in addition to other forms of advertising.

Some believe that Yahoo!`s radio advert, which is being aired in the San Francisco Bay area, might not fall upon the right ears, being that the number of US radio listeners is not as large as it used to be. This was before the days of reading a variety of viewpoints on fresh, local and international, news on the internet and easily downloading the latest tunes online for your Ipod.

When considering the improvements in technology over the last ten years, I tend to want to agree with reviewers who believe that the radio ad is not going to have the desired effect that Yahoo! is hoping for. Google is a tough competitor and won`t be giving up that easily. So has it been a waste for Yahoo! to attempt to convert loyal Google users through a radio advert? I believe so.

In order to convince internet users to give Yahoo! search the first chance in finding what information or visuals the user is looking for, Yahoo! will need to do a lot more that advertising on the radio. Their game plan may be to expose their product to a market that is still discovering the opportunities that the internet holds and are aiming their conviction at the “newbies”. But is that really the market they are targeting?

Being in today`s business world, where there are so many companies offering the same product, I would recommend that companies spice things up a bit and try to get in on a slice of their competitor`s pie in order to increase their own number of consumers, increasing their brand awareness and, ultimately, ROI. However, going about it in the right way is vital to any company who wants to defend their brand`s reputation and secure their consumers` loyalty. What fun would the world be without a little competition?