In a very smart move Yahoo has identified 100 brands or properties that are very popular with its users and is using that as the basis for creating brand/product focused mini sites that pull together content from all over Yahoo.
Two very prominent social media properties that are getting blended together here are Flickr and Delicious, giving these mini sites a very authentic and dynamic feel. Add that the integration of Yahoo videos and you can see how Yahoo is really leveraging these tools to create something greater than the sum of it’s parts. Weaving the whole thing together is an overarching design and yahoo authored, professionally created content.
I’m sure there are some partnerships that are going on behind the scenes here, so maybe yahoo is getting some kickbacks, I mean what brand wouldn’t want Yahoo to put together a mini portal for their product. The only thing there missing on their Wii portal is a stock tracker where I can find one of those elusive little bastards.
UPDATE:
I tell a lie, they do have a stock tracker on their buyers guide
Tip of the hat
Update:
Some more coverage on AdWeek and Marketing Vox
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[...] Yahoo is now creating mini sites for brands popular among its readers by aggregating content across its properties [...]
[...] I mentioned to Ben that Myspace is charging companies $30k for a page. Nobody seems to know this fact. Today I read that Yahoo is doing something similar. [...]
[...] I believe Yahoo! is starting to think the same way with the above mentioned “Brand Universe”. Check out one of them here. Pretty interesting: Two very prominent social media properties that are getting blended together here are Flickr and Delicious, giving these mini sites a very authentic and dynamic feel. Add that the integration of Yahoo videos and you can see how Yahoo is really leveraging these tools to create something greater than the sum of it’s parts. Weaving the whole thing together is an overarching design and yahoo authored, professionally created content. — blog.experiencecurve.com [...]
[...] The Flickr community has just about rioted over this – you can read the reactions on their forum page. I know Yahoo has been having branding problems, but this really sheds light on how badly tainted their brand has become. (They also just launched Brand Universe site, which seems like an attempt to remix a lot of their user-contributed content into vertical niches (to try to make even more money) – seems like a half-hearted attempt though.) The best alternative to Flickr right now seems to be Zooomr. I haven’t tried Zoomr yet personally, but I’m guessing they’ll get a good percentage of Flickr deserters if this misstep by Yahoo does indeed result in a mass exodus from their service. This reminds me of the time Facebook intruduced their “stalker feed” – there was a lot of noise, but most users still stuck around. Flickr users are definately passionate, so it remains to be seen if their actions will actually reflect their complaints. [...]
[...] example I noted in my Brands on Flickr post, Land Rover Life is the latest example that shows Yahoo!’s Brand Universe strategy hasn’t died after all, but rather they’ve simply changed how they plan to make money [...]