Yahoo Building A Universe?

Yahoo! is building a new kind of online social environment. The company is leveraging properties like Flickr and Del.icio.us in an effort to build “passion brands” to build more revenue.

by Kristina Knight

The so-called “brand universes” are areas on Yahoo! networks dedicated to fans. Games, movies, books and other products are free game on the networks. If that sounds a little bit like MySpace or YouTube, it is. But, there is one exception: the Yahoo! “universes” aren’t asking for ad revenue to build the sites. Instead, they are targeting brands people are passionate about and are building from there. The first to roll out is wii.yahoo.com, a site dedicated to Nintendo’s new Wii gaming system.

According to Vince Broady, head of entertainment, games and youth for Yahoo said (via AdWeek), “It doesn’t replicate the fan sites. It augments them.”

The sites are designed to appeal to the 13-34 demographic by tapping into portals like Flickr and Del.icio.us.

What do marketers stand to gain from such sites? A continual evolution of their product. Dedicated sites such as these, can keep the buzz over a movie going between the theatrical run and the DVD release or can keep gamers interested in further evolutions of their favorite games.

Tags: 13-34 age group, brand management, branding, flickr, Yahoo

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Gary Bourgeault (thealphamarke

If they are targeting the younger demographic, this could be a really good move for them, as all the studies are showing that MySpace and YouTube are increasingly catering to an older user.
It would be interesting to see Yahoo! come and pull the rug out from under Google in this one; as far as the younger user goes.

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