UK Local Search: Yell Ad Campaign, welovelocal

UK directory and local search provider Yell (publisher of the print yellow pages) has launched a new ad campaign across various media, touting Yell.com, the publisher’s online local search portal. The campaign also apparently involves GPS-enabled buses that adjust ad messaging according to bus location (in London). The bus stops themselves feature touch-screen displays that allow people to conduct local searches on Yell.com and show local businesses within walking distance of the stop.

Yell also has a new competitor in welovelocal.com, a recently launched UK (London) local search destination that takes its cue, partly, from U.S.-based sites that emphasize community, like Yelp. Here’s an example search result for Indian restaurants in London.

Also positioning itself as a marketing and CRM platform of sorts, welovelocal notifies business owners when reviews about their business are posted and allows them to comment on reviews. It also says that listings are optimized to appear in search results.

Postscript: I’ve been informed that the GPS buses and touch screens were used in the previous Yell campaign (still provocative) and this one will use digital advertising in the London Underground.

Related Topics: Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines


About The Author: is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land. He writes a personal blog Screenwerk, about SoLoMo issues and connecting the dots between online and offline. He also posts at Internet2Go, which is focused on the mobile Internet. Follow him @gsterling.

Connect with the author via: Email | Twitter | Google+ | LinkedIn


SMX - Search Marketing Expo

SearchCap:

Get all the top search stories emailed daily!  

Like This Story? Please Share!

Other ways to share:

Like Our Site? Follow Us!

Subscribe to Our Feed! Join our LinkedIn Group Check out our Tumblr! See us on Pinterest Get Search Engine Land on your mobile device!
 

Read before commenting! We welcome constructive comments and allow any that meet our common sense criteria. This means being respectful and polite to others. It means providing helpful information that contributes to a story or discussion. It means leaving links only that substantially add further to a discussion. Comments using foul language, being disrespectful to others or otherwise violating what we believe are common sense standards of discussion will be deleted. You can read more about our comments policy here.
  • http://robert.norum@opportunitas.com RobN

    welovelocal.com looks like an interesting idea, although it does seem to mimicking the already established touchlocal.com, which has been around for a couple of years, and has already overtaken Thomson as the number two player in traffic terms to Yell.com. Having had a good rootle around the welovelocal.com, it would also appear to be populated pretty much entirely by their own staff, which suggests that this more of beta site than a live one.

  • http://www.welovelocal.com Dan

    There is clearly similarities between us and touch local, however our feature set is far broader than theirs particularly with respect to our social functions.

    Rather than being able to simply review, our users are able to connect with friends, maintain a profile, and see the reviews that their friends have written. Furthermore we have adopted a number of high technologies such as OpenID and microformats, and have already integrated our service into the Facebook platform.

    As for our reviews, well, we only launched 4 days ago, and our staff seem to have caught a reviewing bug.

  • Mr C

    Interesting article, but I would like to point out to RobN that touchlocal.com is not even close to ThomsonLocal.com on traffic, let alone overtaken it.

    I would agree that welovelocal.com does appear to be a beta site though

Get Our News, Everywhere!

 
  • Advertise With Us
 

Click to watch SMX conference video

Join us at an upcoming SMX event:

North America

EMEA

APAC

Search Engine Land produces SMX, the Search Marketing Expo conference series. SMX events deliver the most comprehensive educational and networking experiences - whether you're just starting in search marketing or you're a seasoned expert.

SMX Site » | SMX Difference » | SMX News »



 

Search Engine Land Periodic Table of SEO Ranking Factors

Get Your Copy
Read The Full SEO Guide