ComCorp, Inc. Articles

Web Ads Gains Up Despite Decline in Advertising Spending

Despite the fact that by the second quarter of 2007, total advertising expenses experienced a 0.3% loss, recent reports by TNS Media Intelligence show that online advertising continue to push further its market gains by a whopping 17.7% which means that despite the fact that many businesses spend less for advertising, most of them are shifting to Internet marketing strategies to sell their products and services. Internet spending which has a 17.7% share amounts to total profits of $5.52 billon as compared to the advertising expenditures through consumer magazines which has a 6.9% share, 3.6% for outdoor advertising and 2.8% for cable television.

“Still the Internet continues to take in a larger share of the pie, even as the total pie is shrinking,” said Jon Swallen, senior vice president for research at TNS Media Intelligence. “The Internet’s slice of that pie is getting larger primarily at the expense of newspapers, and to a lesser extent television.” The same report shows that other advertising categories which used to dominate the advertising industry are now experiencing its worst decline such as the newspaper which has been reduced to a mere 5.7% share, radio with its 2.7% and the 2.6% broadcast television. This clearly indicates a growing shift not only in today’s marketing strategies but also among the prevailing attitude of today’s buying public who are increasingly turning to the Internet for their shopping needs.

The newspaper industry which used to dominate the advertising industry has already been offset by online advertising but even the Internet ads posted on newspaper websites still fall short of the expected advertising growth rate as compared to the incremental revenue from Internet advertising in other websites and fail to cover the income lost with the decline of print advertising. For every dollar spent for a print ad, an online ad would only cost around 70 to 80 cents and the newspaper company would still have to cover the remaining 20 to 30 cents with every advertisement that decides to move online.

The recent decline in overall advertising expenditures could also have been brought about by the economic weakness being experienced today with the slow increase in retail sales, rising unemployment and waning consumer confidence. With the slow economic gains, most companies are tightening their advertising budgets. “The cutback in advertising is being led from the top of the market by big blue chip companies, manifesting itself in fewer brands being supported with ad money. It indicates a retrenchment,” Swallen said.

But there is no foreseeable end to the Internet’s lead in the advertising industry. Online advertising is indubitably the most effective way to advertise and sell your services and products. Unlike other advertising strategies, Internet technology is able to cope up with speeding changes in today’s business markets making it a truly dynamic way to reach out to customers and effectively increase business profits. What used to be advertised on paper and ink can now be more effectively done electronically but at a far lesser cost with today’s growing borderless World Wide Web.

Surveys Show Online Ads Growing Faster This Year

Online ads may be the biggest threat for print ads this year. This was put into light by a survey conducted by the Interactive Advertising Bureau or IAB and the PricewaterhouseCoopers or PWC, two of today’s respected marketing research firms.

The survey reveals an impressive 26.4 percent growth of online ad revenue on the first half of this year at about 10 billion dollars over the same period last year. Ad spending trends, on the other hand, were traced by the research organizations, Nielsen and TNS Media Intelligence, both of which noted a slower growth rate than what the IAB and PWC reported, referring to ad revenues of last year’s first half to reach only a 37-percentage hold on revenues.

There are varying interpretations regarding this contradicting survey results from all four media research firms. On one side, there are some members of the investment community believing that such growth is alarming. On the other side, there are the experts, the IAB in particular, who reads the numbers as a sign of maturity.

Some investors think of the growth as something to worry about and experts gives the reason why: growth rates are getting harder to maintain. This, as online ad revenue continues to grow statistically according to the actual dollars spent. Both of the years 2006 and 2007 have seen the downward “pull” of the ad revenue “push”, taking marketers to a dive of 2.1 billion dollars into the medium on the first two quarters of the previous year.

This year’s survey shows no difference, say experts. The distribution of revenues across display, channels, and search has not changed so far. While search spending has reached 41 percent of revenues, 40 percent was the achievement of the first half of last year. In other words, the search leaped to 4.1 billion dollars.

Statistics show an increase of 2.4 billion dollars on display advertising, which is 31 percent of the entire ad expenditures in the first six months of 2006. The year 2007 saw a 1 point difference at 32 percent.

Further, classified ads surge to 100 million to 1.7 million dollars, thus, leaving the first and second quarters of the year with only 17 percent—a low result when placed alongside the same period of the previous year at 20 percent. It also seems that not even the regulatory changes and mortgage crisis could keep lead generation from growing from 7 to 8 percent of all internet ad revenue.

The IAB/PWC survey also revealed ad revenues were now, more than ever, centered on top ad sellers. As for the top ad revenue-earning sites, they got the 70 percent chunk of the total ad spend, a one percent difference from last year’s 71 percent over the same period. The top 50, on the other hands, manage to account for 91 percent of all reported online ad revenues.

Throughout the surveys, consumer advertisers dominated 54 percent of the overall ad revenues. Pegged at 5.4 billion dollars, that percentage is considered higher compared to its 3.9 billion worth of spending in 2006. Retail led the rankings among consumer ads at 47 percent of all ad revenues followed by the automotive, travel, and entertainment industries at 21, 13, and 9 percent respectively.

Surveys Point to Web 2.0 Potentials for Internet Businesses

Web 2.0 may be a step further for internet businesses when well conceptualized and used. This was suggested recently in a research conducted by Avenue A/ Razorfish, a web design firm specializing on interactive services.

In their latest study entitled, Digital Design Outlook, Web 2.0 is starting to dominate the mainstream of internet services today where it finds its way into majority of online web users. The study clearly delineates that there is more to banner ads and well-conceptualized websites than most advertisers and publishing companies think.

Interactivity seems to attract the bulk of intent users these days. RSS feeds and websites that enables comments on products and services are just two features that distinguish web 2.0 websites from other websites. This explains why in the survey, most online publishers are shown to have adopted the interactive features available through web 2.0.

According to the Razorfish survey, 41 percent of web consumers write their own blogs while 59 percent customize their own homepages. Blogging, even creating your own website, among others, are just two of the things that have led internet users to prefer the more interactive of websites than their “drier” counterparts.

The study continues to validate the benefits of web 2.0 to today’s web entrepreneurs across industries. The media and entertainment industry, for instance, has benefited from the interactive features of web 2.0. The study shows a sharp 67 percent of web consumers logging in to YouTube just to watch a video even as 70 percent of respondents read blogs regularly.

It was also disclosed in the study that 85 percent of internet users watch a movie preview online before watching the film at a movie house. Fifty-eight percent of Ipod owners and movie lovers are also revealed in the study to have downloaded from iTunes or ordered films from Netflix/Blockbuster. The boob tube has also found its match with the web 2.0 upsurge, as 71 percent of web consumers have watched at least one TV show online.

The catch for retail websites is that while customer preferences for web 2.0 features escalate to levels one cannot just dismiss, retail websites must do more than just posting non-interactive advertorial appeals. Moreover, 54 percent of web consumers begin product search at general search engines in contrast with the 30 percent of users starting at e-commerce sites.

As the presence of web 2.0 in cyberspace becomes even more felt than in the past decade, online companies are now feeling more pressured than ever to meet consumer demands. The urgency seems to rise everyday as another survey indicates.

Earlier this year, Booz Allen Hamilton in the United Kingdom concluded in a survey that the web 2.0 phenomenon has over 41 percent of internet users in the U.K hooked up with it. As an interactive and participatory electronic medium, it has held customers to web 2.0-rich websites like Flickr, YouTube, and MySpace, where web visitors are allowed to exchange information and ideas with other visitors as well.

If there is one thing that web 2.0 promises, it is that both businesses and consumers can benefit from it: for website owners, it means more customers; for consumers, it means freedom to innovate and exchange information in the interactivities of cyberspace.

Social Networking Surge in Canada Shows Bright Future for Online Advertisers

Four out of ten Canadians have clicked on an online social networking website, with half of them visit the website almost daily and spend five-and-a-half hours on an average each week to socialize online. This startling figure reveals a promising future for the online advertising industry as this market of social networking users which spend time on websites such as Facebook and Windows Free Spaces are likely to go into online shopping and respond to advertising via the Internet according to a study entitled “Online Socialization, Social Networking and Online Communities” conducted by Ipsos Reid, a reach organization based in Vancouver, Canada.

The study showed that nearly 37% of adult Internet users in Canada have visited an online social community with 29% actually having a personal profile in at least one such website. “Online social networks and communities appear to have hit the Internet with the momentum of a runaway locomotive,” concluded the study.

“This is a staggering result given that these sites didn’t exist four years ago. Facebook launched in early 2004, as did MSN Spaces,” said Scott Patton, senior research manager for Ipsos in Winnipeg, Canada. “Visitors to these sites are more apt to respond to a marketing message and make a purchase or compare products online.”

In a survey done among 1,000 Canadian respondents on the phone and 1,103 more respondents online, Ipsos figured out that 65% of persons who frequent social networking websites click on an online advertisement. These numbers present a good opportunity for the online marketing industries to establish partnerships with these social networking websites. “The challenge for the managers and developers of online social networks and communities will be to generate enough positive interest to keep up the momentum they have experienced so far,” says Patton.

According to Payton, online businesses and website developers could more successfully develop new ways to expand their contact with current users which will eventually entice them to spend more time online on the Internet and convince them to use their own social networking website. “Given the differences in online behavior between users and non-users - plus the sheer number of hours spent online by people visiting social network sites - the opportunities cannot be ignored from a marketing perspective.” Patton explains, “It’s not hard to imagine the possibilities that online social networks represent for marketing. The challenge is to decide which online social network to partner with when targeting customers.”

The same study revealed that Facebook is currently the most popular social network in Canada with over two-thirds of Internet users who have an online social network have one profile on Facebook. Each Canadian Facebook user spends an average 5.9 hours weekly.

The number of social networking websites continues to increase despite having slowed down from its initial growth. But the fact does not seem to bother online businesses who believe that while that the services that social networking feature may change, it however should not be considered as a mere fad. “People said that about computers when they first came out,” Patton said. “The Internet is here to stay. The more we become this big global community, the more this kind of network will be important.”

Online Shopping Goes Mobile

Now online shopping goes mobile. With steady increase of people turning to the Internet to do their shopping comes another innovation from mobile service provider Sprint Nextel Corporation. Developed in collaboration with mShopper.com, Mobile Shopper is a mobile portal intended to enable shoppers to purchase seven million products from 30 reputable and popular online retailers including Wal-Mart, shoes.com and bluefly.com.

Using the wireless broadband infrastructure of one of the most popular and largest telecommunications company in the United States today, users can access and use Mobile Shopper without having to pay for extra subscription fees. This first feature of this kind in the US will result in a big opportunity for Sprint to increase its data usage as well as expand its user base. Unlike other existing mobile Internet services offered by hand-held mobile companies, Mobile Shopper will simply earn from the Internet fees that are charged on mobile online users while revenues from online advertising will help maintain the mobile shopping features.

Mobile Shopper is set to revolutionize mainstream online shopping by enabling customers to shop for virtually anything from clothing to appliances by using their hand-held mobile phones. Aside from an attempt to boost its revenues, mobile online shopping hopes to widen the mobile phone user base by pushing them to use their cellular phones for data services such as Internet surfing and video and music downloads. Online shopping has long been a mainstay in the World Wide Web however mobile commerce has yet to push the slow adoption of online shopping into Web-surfing using mobile phones.

With faster wireless data speeds and better user friendly handsets could help expand the mobile shopping market using a mobile commerce adaptation of mainstream online shopping. Internet marketing analyst Alan Goode of Jupiter Research believes that with the launching of Mobile Shopper, the market for mobile online shopping in North America alone could reach $505 million by 2008 and increase to $1.9 million in 2010.

By encouraging customers to use their mobile phones for uses other than talking, mobile industry revenues are likely to increase exponentially considering the convenience and ease that it is set to provide as compared to mainstream online shopping with people becoming more comfortable shopping using their mobile phones. This will also increase the investments that online advertisers will make in the mobile industry.

When using Mobile Shopper, users can conveniently search for a particular product at the lowest price or browse for products by retailer or category. Once the particular product is selected, customers can email product details to themselves for future reference, forward it to a friend or buy the product directly using their cellular phone.

To make mobile online shopping even more convenient, customers can create a Mobile Shopper account using their mobile phone or on a computer by clicking on www.sprint.com/mobileshopper where they will be asked to provide their shipping address as well as credit card information with a secure PIN. Using their Mobile Shopper account, users can easily make a purchase by simply selecting a product and entering their phone number and PIN without having to key in account information. Purchases made through Mobile Shopper will be reflected on the customer’s credit cart statement similar to online purchases made through the Internet.

MySpace Mobile Goes “Free”

California-based Fox Interactive Media recently announced in a press briefing that the company which owns and operates social networking giant MySpace plans to introduce ad-supported version of MySpace for free on mobile phone networks. With this new development, it will be possible for users to log into their MySpace accounts using their mobile phones and to find friends, comment on pictures, update their mood, update blogs, post bulletins and receive messages. Although it is possible for paying wireless subscribers of mobile services AT&T Inc., and Helio to click on the MySpace website and check out its features, now logging into MySpace and using its features would be available for free.

Aside from the social networking website, other Fox-owned websites that would also be available for free through mobile services include RottenTomatoes.com, IGN.com, and FoxSports.com. Millennial Media would provide the mobile advertising technology. “We believe ultimately that people will access the Internet on mobile phones. We want to support that behavior as best we can. The more we can replicate what’s going on online the better” says John Smelzer, Fox Interactive Senior Vice President.

Launched in 2003, MySpace is the most popular social networking website nowadays which allows users from all over the world to create a network of friends and a personal profile which feature blogs, groups, photos and videos. It is currently the 6th most popular English-language website and also among frequently visited website of any language. In the United States, it is the 3rd most popular website, topping the list of social networking sites. Its popularity has influenced much of contemporary popular culture, especially in many English-speaking countries.

Mobile versions of the said social networking website was first introduced in early 2006 through US mobile phone service provider Helio, allowing users to log into MySpace content through their mobile phone. Through MySpace Mobile, paying subscribers can access their MySpace account and use features like editing user profile and messaging and viewing the profiles of other members. In an attempted to widen its mobile coverage, UIEvolution and MySpace collaborated on the creation of an updated mobile version of MySpace which was later introduced to other mobile phone providers such as AT&T, Vodafone and Rogers Wireless.

Aside from offering mobile versions, the social networking website continues to expand its user base by introducing different regional versions in early 2006 which allow MySpace users to access the social networking website through an alternative regional variation with automated content oriented to the regional locality. For example, when using MySpace UK, users would automatically see other UK users when clicking on “Cool New People” as well as get ready information on UK-based events and adverts. Aside from its global US and UK versions, alternative regional versions of MySpace are currently available in Australia, Canada, France, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Latin America, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Spain. It is also available in languages other than English such as Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese and Dutch. In early 2007, the newest regional version, MySpace China was introduced.

More Web Consumers Trust Recommendation From Other Consumers

Word of mouth is still the best form of advertising. The forces unleashed by new media technologies seem to have never changed the truth behind this age-old wisdom dating back to the times when human culture was largely oral.

This was proven lately by a survey conducted by the Nielsen Media Research, a leader in research providing the most credible information on the media trends today. The survey shows that internet users trust recommendations from other consumers more than they do any other form of advertising such as mobile text ads, which were found to be the least popular.

With over 24, 486 respondents in 447 countries, seventy-eight percent of consumers express trust in traditional forms of advertising over mobile or search ads. In overall ranking, traditional media advertisements were followed newspaper ads ranked second at 63 percent. All above 50 percent were television, magazine, and radio ads.

A very good review of products and services from former customers also shows to be the basis of most new customers’ decisions. The survey says that 61 percent of internet users say they trust customer opinions on review sites. Branded websites shared a different public with 60 percent of consumers admitting trust to consumer reviews. On permission-based emails, 49 percent of consumer-respondents say they trust information found in permission-based emails.

As for other types of advertising, search engine ads appear to fare less at 34 percent, while banner ads are at a 26 percent range followed by mobile ads as the lowest at 18 percent. For text message ads, this only means one thing: upgrade the advertising medium by transforming it according to customer needs and wants.

Nielsen’s findings this year reveal nothing new. The Word of Mouth Marketing Association, also known as WOMMA, in one of their researches, has also found 80 percent of U.S. customers saying they trust in peer reviews more than they do other types of advertisements. This is approximately eight out of ten U.S. consumers using product reviews as a basis for their spending.

It also found a significant seventy-five percent of U.S. shoppers saying that it is “extremely” or “very important” to use customer reviews before a purchase. Another significant finding, likewise, points to 85 percent of consumers preferring peer reviews over expert reviews—a reflection of how product reviews posted on websites can be a useful tool in achieving excellent sales and new customers.

The WOMMA survey provides a peek into the “why” behind the findings of Nielsen by disclosing that 44 percent of U.S. shoppers admitting customer reviews as a useful feature of website over other features such as product comparison, product navigation, and privacy information at 15 percent, 12 percent, and 11 percent respectively.

The other side of the Atlantic sings in tune to what U.S. consumers say in the surveys. The WOMMA survey bares that half of U.K. shoppers say review information and customer ratings as important in a website.

The Nielsen survey results seem to be true not only to the internet marketing industries but to other industries as well, particularly the travel industry. Forrester Research reports that a third of American travelers read reviews by other travelers when looking for hotel and accommodations information. The research further showed that customers who purchase travel packages online would change plans based on comments made by fellow travelers.

For those in the internet marketing business, these survey results only suggest one thing: use word of mouth strategies in internet advertising and put the old saying, “word of mouth is the best form of advertising” to the test.

Microsoft Office Live Has another Added Feature

Users of Microsoft Office Live can now sign up for three services from online training to full service campaign management. With its new search engine marketing (SEM) feature, customers can now benefit from the suite of services available. As a joint project of The Search Agency, which is an SEM company based in Santa Monica, and Microsoft Office, the Microsoft Office Live Small Business is now available for subscribers.

Microsoft Office Live Small Business is a proof that no matter how small your business is, it always pays to have the best that technology could offer. Designed for small business with less than ten employees, this addition to Microsoft Live’s previous web services includes dedicated information technology resources.

Louise Rasho, senior manager of marketing communications, discloses that the added feature is intended to meet the diverse needs of present entrepreneurs. He describes this diversity by pointing out the different approaches of businesses ranging from do-it-yourself to simply grabbing any available knowledge there is on the subject.

Still, he continues, “there are folks in the middle” who need consultations to be available for them to help them through the process of knowing technology. The good news is that Microsoft has already those services available through the Office Live Small Business edition.

An example of this would be the adManager service where subscribers can buy and manage PPC ads from Microsoft Windows Live Search and Ask.com Sponsored Listings. Consumers who want a hands-off approach could also make most of Microsoft’s Website Pros for more effective handling of full-service search needs and Web development.

The Search Agency’s new services are sure to be an appropriate fix to the diverse needs of user from all type of small businesses. TSA Learn, the first service, is made up of three online training modules each of which teaches the basics of search engine optimization (SEO) and SEM. Aside from that, users are also taught adManager essentials, which can lead to better planning, creation, and management of campaigns.

As David Hughes, chief executive officer of The Search Agency says business owners who go through that learning process will be familiar with the tricks of the trade. TSA Launch is the second service rendered by the Office Live Small Business edition.

TSA Launch is a selection of one-off with SEO and SEM services as much as The Search Agency provides about 20 services to subscribers of Office Live Small Business. Through this service, users can access a list of possible keywords for use in their search campaign and for consideration. These keywords can be used for greater optimization during crucial campaign periods.

TSA Grow is the third service offered to the Microsoft Office Live Small Business subscriber. As a full-service option, The Search Agency controls all the search marketing activities for the user. Those familiar with TSA’s Direct Service would be quick to note its similarities wit this service. A service apt for businesses that release 5,000 dollars a month on searches, its price is derived from a percentage of ads spending plus monthly fee for those under stated agreements.

With Microsoft Office Live Small Business, an effective online marketing presence that can pave the way to a higher productivity levels is now possible. The good news is that someone would always be on your side to go through the learning process. And while basic packages come without a cost, services add up with monthly subscription rates of 19.95 to 39.9 dollars. A deal that is worth a try for small businesses.

Microsoft Buys Jellyfish.Com

Internet giant Microsoft continues to grow bigger and bigger. In an attempt to keep its hold on the online advertising industry despite serious threats from Google to outrank Microsoft, the company is not letting up on attempt to expand and diversify its online services. Just recently, the company has bought Jellyfish.com, a website that enables users to compare prices of products from different online retailers and is popular for its deals with Best Buy and Target Ad as well as other large online retailers.

These online retailers which partner with Jellyfish.com pay a certain fee for the promotion of its products and in exchange, it refunds part of its revenues to customer which makes the transaction through the website. The same website also has an online auction feature which continues to lower the prices of certain products until they are out of stock. Although the deal to buy Jellyfish.com was closed on September 27, 2007, Microsoft waited until October 2 to announce the deal but it has yet to disclose the financial details of the transaction. In an interview with Business Week, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer explained that the about 25% of the company’s revenue would be coming from advertising within the next four to ten years to give all media and advertising outfits enough time to go online.

This recent expansion move is an attempt by Microsoft to gain some of the audience and advertisers that are fixated on Google, its main rival that claims more than half of online searchers and over a quarter of online advertising revenues. Using its already bulky resources, Microsoft has recently bought aQuantitive, one of its biggest buy in the online advertising market. However, despite all these efforts, online advertising accounts for a mere fractional 5% of the $51.1 billion revenues that Microsoft earned last fiscal year.

With the recent purchase of Jellyfish.com, the auction and rebate features of the website would eventually be integrated into the MSN online properties website. Brian Weigand, founder of Jellyfish said in Business Week, “They are investing heavily in shopping and e-commerce.” Before selling Jellyfish.com, Weigand created and sold NameProtect and BizFilings adding that he will be staying with this new partnership, “I’m going to give being an entrepreneur within a big company a shot. Microsoft is trying to become more entrepreneurial.”

Aside from its rebate and commission to refund features being offered by Jellyfish.com, the website also has a daily auction called Smack Shopping. In a smack or a group of Jellyfish users, prices of certain products can be lowered until the stock runs out. This feature alone allowed the website to gain $5 million in annual profits.

But the recent purchase of Jellyfish.com is not the last attempt by Microsoft to buy more other companies that would help solidify its advantage over other competitors. By building up its online advertising services, the said Internet giant will maintain its grip on the growing online market and remaining at the top of the class.

Internet Marketing Goes Green

With worldwide issues such as global warming dominating world conferences in every country, Internet marketing is also heading to the same direction.

This year, green marketing seems to be the major byword in Internet advertising campaigns. As countries, environmentalist groups, and concerned sectors talk about environmental problems, digital media coverage of such issues seem to heighten the need to articulate such views even in ads.

Also called eco-marketing, green marketing is not really something new. One instance of this is GE’s famous Ecomagination effort, Philips “A Simple Switch” campaign and Michelin’s “A Greener World.” Others may follow their trails as well: there is Organic Valley, Method, Seventh Generation, to name a few.

John Rooks, president of Dwell Creative, an agency that specializes in organizing campaigns based on social issues, said online media appeals to their clients are issue-based, the latest being a transition from demographic to psychographic marketing. “If we have a client that is interested in land conservation, we can pinpoint the psychographic that cares about that issue,” he adds.

With a balanced combination of around 30 percent government contracts and 30 percent non-profits add to that profit-driven businesses looking for grassroots-style, cause-oriented marketing strategies, Dwell Creative is beginning to look into the prospects of online advertising campaigns.

As building relationships with clients are crucial for a company’s growth, Dwell looks into creating opportunities for dialogue rather than one-way broadcast ads. Rooks believes that this will give way for great possibilities for the web user participating in seeking a “greener” market media. This would later make way for consolidations in online green market media.

Discovery Communications’ purchase of TreeHugger.com and Gaiam.com’s acquisition of Lime Media and Zaadz, both of which are eco-lifestyles media firms, are two recent developments in these areas. The move for going online by most companies may come from the fact that a lot of media users are online rather than the television. “Online offers that (dialogue opportunities about brands) to a much greater degree than other media,” said Rooks.

With TreeHugger.com having visitors reaching up to 2 million in June of this year, the website provides a great venue for massive Internet campaigns.

President of TreeHugger.com, Ken Rother hits the point better when he said, “When a large organization has made a conscious decision to have a greener footprint or greener products, that’s a good way (online) to tell the audience, because the audience may not be available in other media.”

He adds that it takes trusts to establish a sustained dialogue between client and Internet user, believing that advertising must have “similar conceptual values to the content.”

The idealizations of the green media movement have also tapped into websites like Yahoo, Newsweek, and the Washington Post. Just recently, Yahoo introduced Yahoo Green, a campaign that carried the message for consumers to change their electric lights to Energy Star CFL Bulbs.

Other environmental-themed ads include Tom’s, a toothpaste manufacturer and Hewlett-Packard, a respected in computer products and essentials. Going beyond selling, Yahoo spokesperson, Dina Freeman said that there is not one person responsible for selling green on the sales team. “The entire sales team is tasked to meet clients’ standards,” she adds.