So confident is Yahoo.ca that advertisers will embrace its newly redesigned home page that it more than doubled its ad sales force in anticipation of last week’s launch. The company’s investment will likely pay off if other advertisers are as enthusiastic about the extensive makeover as Best Buy Canada’s Vancouver-based online marketing manager Jeff Veldhuizen. ‘I like the new version of Yahoo’s home page at least 100% better than what was offered before, particularly because it gives the advertiser exclusivity on the page,’ he says. ‘This new approach will lend itself very well to us, especially when we want to do a branding campaign versus direct response. We definitely plan to use (this venue) more in the future than we’ve done in the past.’

What did Yahoo do to attract such approval? ‘First of all,’ Yahoo Canada’s Toronto-based VP sales Mark Updegrove told Media in Canada, ‘advertisers will get more value because the page is so much more attractive to consumers – more streamlined and content-rich. But more specifically, advertisers now have greater prominence because there’s now only one ad on the page. Also, the spot is now more customizable for advertisers in terms of creative flexibility and the use of rich media as well as the wider variety of sizes of ad.’

Updegrove adds that Yahoo.ca is already in the process of hiring a team of additional sales people to sell its new search product, which will roll out in October.