Maher Bird wins Yahoo UK and Ireland trade business

Yahoo! has awarded its UK and Ireland trade marketing account to Maher Bird Associates following a seven-way pitch.

The other agencies on the shortlist were Soul, Vallance Carruthers Coleman Priest, Proximity London, KLP Euro RSCG, Joshua and Wunderman (MW July 17).

The trade marketing account is a new area for Yahoo!, which has given Maher Bird a brief to promote the benefits of interactive advertising to businesses. Maher Bird will work as an extension of the sales and marketing teams at Yahoo! to target key disciplines within media and advertising agencies, client organisations and principal stakeholders.

“We believe that having both a differentiated and relevant trade positioning is key to building the online advertising share,” says Yahoo! UK marketing director Yonca Dervisoglu, who oversaw the pitch. “Trade marketing is an integral part of our communications strategy. A dedicated agency focusing on this area is one of the many steps we are taking to ensure that we help to establish the internet as the sixth media.”

Yahoo! continues to work with HHCL/Red Cell and Euro RSCG Black Rocket on a project basis. Manning Gottlieb OMD will continue to handle media planning and buying for Yahoo!.

Yahoo! acquired commercial search service Overture last month for $1.6bn (&£1bn). Together the two companies offer a number of integrated marketing solutions, including branding, paid placement, graphical ads, text links, multimedia and contextual advertising.