Yell debuts Facebook app

The Yell Socialiser, currently in beta mode, allows Facebook members to pick from a range of activity types including “arty stuff”, “pampering”, “eating” or “night clubs”, then select up to five different venues in their chosen area.

These venues are marked on a Multimap map and personalised invites with themed images can then be sent to the user’s Facebook friends. Users can edit and adapt the plan once it is created.

The new Facebook application is Yell’s first move into social networking as part of its strategy to connect with new communities outside of its own platforms.

AKQA was briefed to develop Yell Socialiser based on Yell.com’s search functionality and search engine technologies, to give Facebook users an easy-to-use tool to find ideas for going out with their friends in any UK

location.

Yell’s data team worked to group Yell.com classifications into wider categories allowing, for example, one search for “pampering” to include results from a number of different classifications such as beauty salons, spas and hairdressers.

This feature has been specifically designed to draw from the widest selection of businesses to provide a large choice of entertainment options.

The business listings results on Yell Socialiser provide basic details such as address and telephone number, but where an organisation has bought advertising on Yell.com, more information is provided to facilitate decision making.  Yell hopes to develop the application further based on user feedback.

Matthew Bottomley, head of Yell.com, said: "The internet is increasingly about collaboration and personalisation and, in future, brands will need to share content with other sites to reach a wider user base. Yell.com is delighted to work with Facebook in this way. Encouraging web users to engage with the brand in a fun environment will showcase how useful Yell.com is in everyday life and also inspire people to find something different to do in their spare time."

In addition, Yell.com has launched a new service for UK media planners and buyers to help agencies and brands reach consumers. The service includes a new online portal and dedicated agency team.

The portal www.yell.com/media will demonstrate the effectiveness of advertising across the Yell product portfolio, which includes Yellow Pages directories, Yell.com and Yellow Pages.

A variety of packages spanning print, online and mobile are available with options including sponsored SMS, online banners, PPC keyword ads and classification sponsorship. 

“We think this will become a vital agency resource,” said Jason Smith, head of advertiser development at Yell. “We know that over half of the people who contact a business through a Yell product go on to make a purchase**. Therefore our audience is ‘ready-to-buy’ which offers a huge opportunity for brands.”

The newly created team offers a fully managed service via a single dedicated point of contact, meaning consistency of approach and ease of communication.  They will also offer a range of value-added services including consumer survey TGI, Mosaic profiling, mapping and response analysis.

Yell will be engaging directly with  media agencies over the next few weeks and launching a B2B advertising and promotional campaign created by Proximity London to communicate fully the offer to the media planning and buying community.