Babes In Techland - Britney Spears, Anna Kournikova - Brief Article

Brandweek, March 19, 2001 by Kenneth Hein, Todd Wasserman

Yahoo! Nabs Britney; Lycos Sets Anna

Popular search engines Yahoo! and Lycos have tapped young female sex symbols for their latest marketing and public relations efforts as smaller players hit the exits.

Meanwhile, top-rated search engine AskJeeves.com is embarking on a 43-title print campaign aimed at educating consumers about its simplified search capabilities.

Yahoo! kicks off the next leg of its partnership with Pepsi-Cola this week with a sneak peak of a Britney Spears "Joy of Pepsi" spot that airs during the Academy Awards telecast. Consumers can visit pepsi.yahoo.com/britney to view ad outtakes and enter to win Spears' clothes from the ad and other paraphernalia.

Rival Terra Lycos has lured tennis star Anna Kournikova (who ranks as its 32nd most-popular search topic) for a multi-year endorsement deal that covers a $10 million campaign breaking this week and contests. TV spots, via Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos, Boston, break during the NCAA men's basketball Final Four championship on CBS.

The spokesdeals crystallize the differences between the two foes with leader Yahoo! leveraging existing partnerships to survive a downturn in online ad spending, while Lycos plays the role of energized upstart.

Yahoo!, still the No.1 portal per Jupiter/Media Metrix, New York, is now worth less than $10 billion compared to the $134 billion giant it once was. Its stock is down 92% and first-quarter sales will be off by some 40%. CEO Tim Koogle and CMO Anil Singh both stepped down last week. "There will continue to be bad news," warned Murray Gaylord, vp-brand marketing for Yahoo!, Santa Clara, Calif. "The penalty of leadership is we get the big hit and the news stories."

Gaylord said Yahoo! hasn't cut its marketing budget, but added that deals with traditional companies like Pepsi Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Compaq and Ford will be keys to "deliver growth."

Analysts agree. "They're going to get a lot of good pr [from the Spears stunt] and not have to spend a lot of dollars," predicted Jim Nail, senior analyst at Forrester Research, Cambridge, Mass. "These deals will help them a lot through the rough times."

Lycos, the No. 4 portal acquired by Terra Networks of Barcelona for $12.5 billion last year, sees the Kournikova deal as a means to surpass lesser rivals including Excite and AltaVista. "At a time when the industry is upside down, we're moving full speed ahead," said Jim Corboy, svp-marketing "Our money is still on the table."

For AskJeeves, print from Grey Worldwide, San Francisco, will bear the "He's your man" tag and run in titles like Architectural Digest, Elle and Men s Journal.

Testimonial-style ads use such lines as, "Can you believe I get fashion advice from a guy?" Text explains: "When Molly wanted a new look for the fall, she turned to Jeeves. He helped her find the latest trends from hair and makeup to shoes and handbags." Hispanic spots will tout its Spanish site Pregunta.com. Radio and TV ads are being mulled for AskJeesves.com.

Lycos spent $19 million on media between January and November 2000, per CMR.Yahoo! spent $71 million while Jeeves anted $19 million.