Old management, new bottle

I’m part of the new management. Of the Internet, I mean. That’s what Yahoo! India has been telling me over the past couple of weeks. And yes, it even used newspapers to inform me. Nothing says “we’re Net-savvy” like a couple of print ads, see?

It’s not a smart ad, of course. It doesn’t really say anything — what sort of management? what sort of product mix? what does this really mean? will non-techies understand? Then again, there’s an adequately pretty woman taking up 70% of the ad space, so it must be a good one. That’s what advertising companies in India are paid for, aren’t they — to use a celebrity, or a pretty face when faced with smaller budgets, and tack on copy that means very, very little to anyone?

And so, there you have it: Huge jacket ads in The Times Of India, Mint, The Hindustan Times, DNA. A massive out-of-home campaign too: Huge hoardings on crowded flyovers across the country, all informing us about the ‘new management’ of the Internet. Millions of us are, presumably, so excited that we can’t wait to get home and take control. We can change the Google logo, perhaps. Or figure out who really logs on to Indiatimes.com. Or see if we can categorise the 17009932 sites put up by the TV18 Group.

But, no. No massive changes in the way we engage with data. The usual ‘open and social’ elements are in place, obviously, and Yahoo! Messenger gets a couple of bells & whistles. Woohoo! But is this it? The new management?

To be fair, some things make a little sense. There’s a certain amount of thought put into how eyeballs can be kept within the ‘Yahoo! zone’ for just a while longer. It’s what all major portals are doing too, only they haven’t printed their newspaper jacket ads just yet. So, more eyeballs mean better traffic, better ROI for advertisers, and more stuff for users without too much searching. Makes sense. Still can’t see where the management thing comes in though. Things may get better when more partners sign up. Until then, it all looks like the ‘old management’ to me.

According to the management at Yahoo! India — they’re part of the ‘new management’ of the Internet too, of course — the print campaign was meant to achieve what MBA interns call ‘disruptive visibility’, and what veteran marketers call, simply, ‘visibility’.

We noticed. Now what?