Yahoo is on a new advertising and marketing kick and will be buying more TV and radio time as well as spreading its messages in movie theaters across the United States. As an added promotional gift, Yahoo will offer coupons for a free cup of coffee at Dunkin’ Donuts to anyone who sets Yahoo.com as their home page this Friday.

Yahoo executives bill the multimillion dollar campaign as a celebration of several significant improvements to its Web site, including a makeover of the home page, an e-mail upgrade and a service that enables users to tap into their collective knowledge to find answers to tough questions.

“This is a great time for us to talk to our customers and encourage them to visit the new Yahoo.com,” said Allen Olivo, Yahoo’s vice president of global brand marketing. “It’s an invitation to come back to those who haven’t been using us in a while as well as to those who haven’t been using us as frequently as they once did.”

But the push also reflects the mounting pressure on Yahoo as it struggles to catch up to Google Inc. in the lucrative online search market. Yahoo is also battling perceptions that startups such as MySpace.com have become hipper places to hang out. IT Business Net

Yahoo is on a new advertising and marketing kick and will be buying more TV and radio time as well as spreading its messages in movie theaters across the United States. As an added promotional gift, Yahoo will offer coupons for a free cup of coffee at Dunkin’ Donuts to anyone who sets Yahoo.com as their home page this Friday.

Yahoo executives bill the multimillion dollar campaign as a celebration of several significant improvements to its Web site, including a makeover of the home page, an e-mail upgrade and a service that enables users to tap into their collective knowledge to find answers to tough questions.

“This is a great time for us to talk to our customers and encourage them to visit the new Yahoo.com,” said Allen Olivo, Yahoo’s vice president of global brand marketing. “It’s an invitation to come back to those who haven’t been using us in a while as well as to those who haven’t been using us as frequently as they once did.”

But the push also reflects the mounting pressure on Yahoo as it struggles to catch up to Google Inc. in the lucrative online search market. Yahoo is also battling perceptions that startups such as MySpace.com have become hipper places to hang out. IT Business Net