• by Masha Geller , April 13, 2003

Yahoo! visitors today will get a little more than their usual homepage. A special mantle will drive visitors to the brand new monthly Yahooligans! Book Club, sponsored by Toyota Sienna as part of the automaker's current "Kids Rule" campaign.

Yahooligans!, Yahoo!'s Web guide for kids, is featuring a monthly celebrity book recommendation. The program kicks off with Tony Hawk's selection, "The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Odd Tales" by Jon Scieszka. Yahooligans! is working with celebrities such as Jamie Lee Curtis, Michelle Kwan, Picabo Street, and Lance Bass, to reach children and motivate them to read.

Sienna is sponsoring the first three months of the Book Club, which company officials say represents a "significant investment in an online media campaign" by Toyota. The advertisement will be featured on the front page mantle of Yahoo! and will be included in the emails kids send to their parents requesting books from their wish list.

Yahooligans! Senior Producer Jason Hovey said this deal is a first of its kind for Yahoo!. "We do have other advertising partnerships, but this is the first literacy-type partnership that we're doing."

He says that the Sienna minivan is obviously geared toward families so it makes perfect sense for them to sponsor the Book Club. "If you think of Yahooligans, it's a kids site, and on the surface it doesn't make sense that Toyota would be interested, but kids are an integral part of any family and it's going to be kids and parents using the site together."

"The Yahooligans! Book Club complements the Sienna launch campaign in helping to communicate with parents through children," said Deborah Meyer, Marketing Communications Manager, Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. "Yahooligans! provides a safe resource parents approve of and a friendly atmosphere kids enjoy."

"Yahooligans is very careful whom we partner with," Hovey adds. "We have a very strong brand with families and teacher. It doesn't do us any good to partner with someone who doesn't have the same goals in mind."