YPG: Ties With 411 Key for Hello Yellow

Canada’s Yellow Pages Group is going full steam ahead with Hello Yellow, its ad-sponsored directory assistance service available at 310-YELO (9356). But the service probably wouldn’t have gotten anywhere without teaming up with local 411 services, according to VP of Marketing Jean-Pascal Lion, who was speaking at Kelsey’s ILM conference in Philadelphia.

Getting the critical mass and frequency required for sponsored directory assistance is critical to its success. “It is required to create value for the advertisers,” said Lion. Consequently, YPG has teamed with Call Genie and Telus to provide its service to 411 callers.

Lion also provided some valuable data on what callers are looking for. Twenty-two percent are category specific, 18 percent want the phone number, and 16.5 percent want to be connected. The interest in traditional “copy points” data is more interesting. Fifteen percent want “addresses,” 9 percent want “promotions” info, 6.4 percent want “directions,” 5.8 percent want “hours,” 3.9 percent want “Website” URLs, and 3.2 percent want “credentials” info.