Yahoo7 has officially launched its new socially-driven lifestyle and entertainment destination, Be, revealing its fourth personality, Gina Liano of The Real Housewives of Melbourne, at a launch event last night. Gina joins Scott Gooding, Maz Compton and Ash Pollard as the site’s signature content personalities.
Yahoo7 is pioneering the integration of social media, personalities, editorial and owned utilities to create a unique market offering. Audiences can look forward to editorial and video content from each personality, including the following videos at launch:
- Gina Liano, television personality: Gina will host a series of ‘Judge Gina’ and ‘Ask Gina’ videos, including ‘when is it not ok to wear active wear?’;
- Maz Compton, 2DayFM radio personality: Maz will be interviewing a range of celebrities including Alex Perry and The Veronicas;
- Ash Pollard, ex-My Kitchen Rules contestant and television personality: Taking to the Kitchen, Ash will be showcasing quick and easy 30 minute meals, including her famous peanut butter balls; and
- Scott Gooding, ex-My Kitchen Rules contestant and fitness and health expert: Scott will share his most delicious celebrity smoothie recipes and provide weekly fitness guides.
Yahoo7’s director of product and audience, Caroline Casey told B&T during the event that the platform will be personality-driven and socially-driven content. “It’s a unique platform, it’s got all of these great personalities who are plugged in to different social. It’s authentic, inspirational, it’s very positive which is unique. There’s a lot of web propositions for this demographic and this space, but a lot of them aren’t that positive they can be snarky or more serious it’s not about the inspiration and entertainment.
Casey said Be will use different social media platforms “for what they’re really good for”; Instagram for the visuals and fashion, Facebook for its Live component and Tumblr (a part of the Yahoo family) because of the demographic reach. “We really want to leverage each platform for what they’re good at, as well leveraging personalities and bloggers who actually live within those spaces. We’re looking at where our audiences are and genuinely come up with a product and an opportunity that uses that.
“What we found was we over-indexed our target audience which is 18-54 year-old around personality and celebrity, people actually want to read about celebrity opinions they find it authentic, exciting and engaging. There’s a space there that nobody else has really tapped into, so we identified key personalities that have an interest in this area that would be really authentic and engage with our audience.”
The new destination, launched at the David Jones’ Ballroom in Sydney, positions Yahoo7’s market leading lifestyle and entertainment content under a unified masthead. The lavish event reflected the interactive and personalised nature of the Be website with a full size greenhouse featuring bespoke cocktails from Rogue Society Gin, Tito’s Handmade Vodka and Fever-Tree mixers, a Möet and Chandon bath tub and a sushi pop up from Saké restaurant.
Be leverages Yahoo7’s unique partnerships and utilities, like Polyvore, delivering a fresh and premium platform. The destination includes Yahoo7’s most popular lifestyle verticals: entertainment, travel, fashion, beauty and food. For advertising partners, Be offers an entirely new medium to engage and target audiences. *Yahoo7 Be Research. June 2016
