Yahoo is seeking a younger demographic as it looks to shed its outdated image and reliance on an “aging demographic." The internet brand plans to ramp up advertising and marketing to the younger set. 

"Part of it is going to be just visibility again in making ourselves cool, which we got away from for a couple of years," CFO Ken Goldman said at Tuesday’s J.P. Morgan Global Technology, Media and Telecom conference in Boston, according to Reuters. "Cool" includes greater visibility on outdoor billboards and at sporting events to catch the eye of 18- to 34-year-olds and promote new products, which will require a significant ad spend across multiple media.

Since taking the helm last summer (and instating a controversial no work-from-home policy) Marissa Mayer has already launched new versions of Yahoo's web email and Flickr photo sharing service and acquired several small start-ups, setting Yahoo stocks up for a near 70 percent surge. But analysts attribute the rise, at least in part, to stock buybacks and the growing value of Yahoo's Asian portfolio. "I do like the idea of buying back stock," said Goldman. "So I don't necessarily suggest at all that the fact that we've got a little bit more to go on the existing purchase does not mean that we would not go beyond that and buy more."Continue reading...

Indonesia is the fourth most populated country in the world with more than 237 million residents and more than 60 million of those people smoke. But while it seems that the rest of the developed world is doing all it can to cut down on tobacco use, Indonesia is being inundated by tobacco marketers looking to gain a few more patrons before stricter regulations are put into place. 

British American Tobacco sends “coquettish models wearing short white dresses” into cafes and clothes shops to encourage consumers “to buy Dunhill’s new ‘Mild’ cigarettes and sign up to a marketing database,” the Financial Times reports. The same company runs ads on television, something it can't do in many other parts of the globe, including America.Continue reading...

Microsoft's Windows Phone may lag behind Samsung and Apple in the battle for America’s mobile-phone patronage, but the company seems to think that being in the lower spot isn’t always a bad thing.

Its most recent commercial, which debuted on NBC's “Today” show on Monday, features fans of the top two mobile phones attacking one another at a wedding while two folks working at the nuptials enjoy the pleasures of their Nokia Lumia 920 Windows Phones. That sure beats going negative, like it did with its Scroogled ads. 

“We have our own fans, of course,” Microsoft writer and editor Michael Stroh said in a blog post, AllThingsD.com reports. “And while they may be outnumbered (for now), they’re no less proud and routinely urge us to do more to get the word out about Windows Phone … There are choices. iPhone and Android Smartphones aren’t the only—or even best—options out there for all Smartphone buyers.”Continue reading...

PepsiCo continues to ramp up marketing investments for its core brands including Pepsi, Gatorade, Lay's and Quaker. And so while first-quarter earnings showed a drop of 5 percent from a year earlier, the increased advertising outlays may be the harbinger of future top- and bottom-line payoffs from brands that critics say were underexposed for years.

Besides, PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi said this week, the additional marketing investments—which she promised for last year to the tune of an additional half-billion in global expenditures on core brands—are being offset by the fruits of the company's $3-billion productivity program.

"With the productivity we're unlocking, we're able to invest in growth drivers like advertising and new-product launches to simultaneously drive margin improvement," she told analysts on a conference call, according to Advertising Age. But, she cautioned, "Any growth we achieve in one area takes from another area where we compete."Continue reading...

It turns out that CGI babies aren't just winners for E*Trade. Evian has reprised its famous (and viral) dancing bambinos in a new ad, "Baby & Me."

The video is a follow-up to its viral smash hit, "Roller Babies," which was aired in 2009. The brand also released the interactive spot "Baby Inside" in 2011. 

"The babies embody 'Live Young', the evian mantra, and remind us that we are all youthful in our own, unique way,” said Jerome Goure, VP Marketing for Danone in a press release. “Babies are also the ultimate symbol of natural purity, exactly what evian water is.”Continue reading...

In living rooms across the country, consumers are not watching just one screen, nor are they engaging with content in just one way as marketers and brands create increasingly innovative campaigns to keep consumers' eyes and ears on products.

Social media is now the acknowledged ‘elephant in the room’ as consumers increasingly engage in social activities while tuning into more traditional forms of content. According to Nielson's 2012 State of the Media report, nearly 41 percent of tablet owners and 38 percent of smartphone owners use the devices while watching television. 

While some broadcasts like the Oscars and ABC's The Bachelor benefit from such a social tie-in, most brands and advertisers are trying to figure out how to better leverage multiple media channels to build viewership and engagement without losing ground elsewhere. This season, The Bachelor incorporated live Twitter feeds into its broadcast. "I think it is fair to say that the integration of social media into live broadcasting is still in its infancy," Tim Bock, VP of production, alternative series and specials ABC told Mashable. "There are other entities utilizing these technologies on a show by show basis. But we at ABC are looking at the bigger picture of large scale implementation of audience interaction capabilities.”Continue reading...

South Korean rapper Psy has had a whole lot of pressure on him to deliver something that was even a smidgeon as good as his previous effort, “Gangnam Style,” which managed to become YouTube’s most-watched video of all time with more than 1.5 billion views and some interesting dance moves that have been copied by everyone... literally.

To the looks of it, he's been successful. While not everybody loves his new music video “Gentleman”—which features him going around and being anything but (kicking a soccer ball away from a kid, removing a bikini top from a woman not looking to expose herself—the song does feature a catchy little dance move and has broken the record for the most views of a video on YouTube in the first 24 hours—a record that was previously held by teen phenom Justin Bieber.Continue reading...

Social Shopper pioneer Collective Bias has iterated marketing messaging to new heights with a community of 1,400 influencers doing the heavy-lifting for brands.

“We believe that social shopper marketing is the evolution of shopper media, and supplants tired traditional media like FSI’s, retail circulars and digital display advertising,” said John Andrews, co-founder and CEO of Collective Bias. The company, founded in 2009 and headquartered in Arkansas, just received $10.5 million in funding led by Updata Partners to grow its platform where brands such as Tyson, Nestle and Smart & Final pay for their products to be covered by relevant bloggers who push that content across social media. 

Named one of America's Most Promising Companies in 2013 by Forbes, their proprietary Social Fabric community of shopping-centric influencers has an aggregate reach of over 50 million, as the company claims its bloggers have an average reach of 40,000.Continue reading...