In anticipation of its relaunch early next year, YellowPages.com has hired Omnicom's GSD&M to create a branding campaign. YellowPages.com executives plan to meet with the ad agency next week in
GSD&M's Austin offices to begin planning the initiative.
YellowPages.com, jointly owned by BellSouth and SBC Communications, plans to consolidate its three existing Web
entities--SMARTpages.com, RealPages.com and YellowPages.com--into one site in early 2006, at which point they'll be "looking for awareness," according to Mary Jane Thornburg, YellowPages.com's
director of marketing.
"We don't know a lot at this point, other than the fact that we're going to have to work fast," Thornburg added.
Mary Lynn Marinucci, GSD&M's account director for the
YellowPages.com partnership, also said that details of the campaign were still up in the air. "We'll be using a mix of both on- and offline media to get the message out in what might be the most
competitive category around right now," Marinucci said.
The site will be up against Google and Yahoo!, each of which has been making aggressive inroads into local search. GSD&M has worked with
SBC Communications in the past, as well as Wal-Mart Stores and MasterCard, the PGA Tour and Norwegian Cruise Line.