CTOs are having the most interesting conversations at legacy media companies – or at least, that would be the conclusion of a stimulating dialog that took place last week at Leading in Local: SMB Digital Marketing between BIA/Kelsey’s Charles Laughlin, Warren Kay, YP CTO Darren Clark and YPG CTO Paul Ryan. Why? That’s where the reality of sales force transformation takes place.

Clark said that Digital started as YP’s “guest house.” Digital accounted for 1/6 of revenues just five years ago. But now, “the guest house is (about to) get bigger than the main house.” He noted that the company is providing three main digital products. Presence, Performance and Leads. They’re all focused on how we send people relationships, not just leads. We need to get them to connect and build and manage their lists.

Another huge issue is productivity. “How do you get someone to be two or three times more productive?” said Clark. The answer is to manage channels and decision support systems. In fact, the company still plays a vital role for the simple reason that most SMBs aren’t really ready for Do It Yourself. “We have a role to play, and capabilities,” he said.

YPG’s Ryan similarly noted that YPG is about to cross the line where digital accounts for the majority of revenues. “We can’t just make it as a reselling channel,” he said.

The traction in digital has caused the company to rethink it as more of a “strategic advantage” instead of simply erasing all the information every year and starting anew “We are the listing providers in Canada for Google, Yahoo and others,” he said. “We know about these businesses.”

It has been something of an uphill battle, however. “The pace of change really hasn’t been there,” notes Ryan, who has been with YPG for about a year. To change the culture, YPG has been launching products every two weeks. “That is the DNA we need in this space in order to compete with well-funded startups. “We are not just screwing around. We believe we can win.”

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— The ability to set and change the user location easily.

— A design that allows different types of search — quick find, browse and compare, and discover things you weren’t aware you were looking for.

— A structure built around three broad categories — Eat (restaurants, gourmet shops), Play (golf courses, local events) and Live (veterinarians and carpet cleaners).

— A visually engaging approach, that incorporates vivid images, breezy copy and content feeds (including news and weather feeds from fwix) to promote the discovery aspect of the search experience.

We had a chance to chat with Greg Issacs, VP of YP.com, who walked us through the thinking behind the new site. Issacs said the site is an evolving process, with new features to be added every two weeks, bringing in more content, social elements and so on. Prior to the redesign, AT&T rolled out vertical integrations in events (Zvents), restaurants (OpenTable) and travel (hotels.com). These elements are featured prominently on the new site, and Issacs says others are in store.

Find and browse have long been part of Yellow Pages. “Discover” has not. A big part of the rationale for the new site is to cross that threshold of engagement, where consumers turn to a site more frequently because it offers more than just a utilitarian function like finding a local plumber whenever you happen to need one. Last month, my colleague Matt Booth wrote a paper that outlined just how stubborn and consistent frequency metrics are. Citing comscore data, we found that the major IYPs all have similar figures for average minutes per visit (range is generally 1.5 to 3 minutes) and visits per month (range is from 1 to 2 visits). Breaking out of these ranges has proven very challenging.

Issacs asserts that for YP.com to reach the next level, it will have to overcome this hurdle. “To be successful, a site needs all three legs of the stool.” He says AT&T will judge the new sites success in a variety of ways. Some of the KPIs they’ll use are the number of new users they attract each month, and how often these users return — that critical frequency metric. He told us that AT&T would consider it a win if YP.com can increase these metrics by two or three times.

AT&T will ignite a wide ranging promotional campaign this month (including traditional, digital and social media) to promote the new site and the new YP.com brand (no more Yellowpages.com).

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AT&T has unveiled a new version of its Yellowpages.com online directory, complete with a new name (YP.com); a new algorithmic approach to search; updated maps; and a set of vertical integrations with leading partners in cars, hotels, events and movies.

AT&T Interactive GM Greg Isaacs told us in a briefing today that the site was redone to focus on “what really makes consumers tick at a local level.” The four verticals featured on the site today are just a beginning, Isaacs said. More vertical experiences will be added in the coming months.

Aside from the obvious improvements in the site’s content and performance, there is a significant branding story here. AT&T’s predecessor companies (SBC and BellSouth) spent a pretty penny (about US$100 million) to acquire the Yellowpages.com URL back in 2004.

Today, AT&T made it clear that the term “Yellow Pages” doesn’t really fit with what the company wants to be now and in the future, particularly with its online and mobile portfolio.

This decision is consistent with the broader industry trend away from explicit references to Yellow Pages in favor of brands that can absorb other meanings. Think Dex One, Sensis, Truvo, ZipLocal, Eniro and so on. Not much “Yellow” or “Pages” in any of these brands. Granted, some of these are corporate rather than consumer facing brands, but all were unveiled at least in part to distance their owners from the Yellow Pages heritage.

Isaacs said AT&T research showed that YP.com evokes the Yellow Pages heritage without weighing the brand down with the limitations the term conveys — namely, that it’s a traditional print medium that is used more for getting your carpets cleaned than planning a romantic getaway.

We asked Isaacs if AT&T was prepared to invest sufficiently to build the YP.com brand and differentiate it from other local search and Yellow Pages sites. He told us a comprehensive marketing plan was in the works but said he couldn’t offer more detail.

A big emphasis of today’s briefing was on the shift to algorithmic search and the vertical integrations. On the search side, results are now driven by proximity and popularity (clicks and reviews) compared with the more traditional Yellow Pages model that pushed paid advertisers over relevance. The new site also offers neighborhood search, which Isaacs said will be refined and improved over time.

In addition, the site features new Bing maps that include traffic info and roll-over driving directions. YP.com also now offers both businesses and consumers the opportunity to amend listings (subject to validation). For example, if a consumer sees a listing for a restaurant she knows has closed down, she can note this on the listing, and subject to confirmation, it will be removed. A business can add content to its listing in the same manner.

The vertical integrations add a serious transactional capability, all while remaining inside the YP.com domain. For example, restaurants that are OpenTable.com clients have the “reserve a table” capability built into the listing so a consumer can book a table within YP.com using OpenTable. AT&T has done similar integrations with Vast.com (to search for new and used cars), Hotels.com for travel and Zvents for events. The whole idea, according to Isaacs, is to create a seamless user experience.

Is the new site revolutionary? Maybe not. But it is a well-executed leap forward. SuperMedia similarly has upgraded its site with the consumer experience placed front and center. The big challenge for AT&T will be to make the new brand resonate with consumers as a place to go for movies, cars, hotels, places to eat and so on. That will take both resources and creativity, so we’re anxious to learn more about the company’s marketing plan for YP.com.

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AT&T online directories unit Yellowpages.com grew 12.7 percent in Q4, compared with Q3 growth of 20.7 percent. Total online revenues for the year were US$884 million, which accounts for about 18 percent of total Advertising Solutions revenues. This puts AT&T at the high end of North American publishers in terms of share of revenues from online.

Margins took a hit in 2009, not a surprise given the grim economic environment. BIA/Kelsey calculates the Advertising Solutions 2009 margin at 39.2 percent, compared with 45.5 percent in 2008.

One avenue that AT&T will pursue this year to shore up its position online — increasingly critical to restoring the business to growth — is the launch of social media site Buzz.com, currently in invitation-only “alpha” phase.

This article from Forbes yesterday outlines the new product — widely reported to be in the works for some time. Yellowpages.com President David Krantz is interviewed in the piece. While the site draws immediate comparisons to newly flush Yelp, there are some key differences, notably the choice of a “favorites” option over the use of full user-generated reviews.

Buzz.com will be a critical test case for how traditional directory publishers (a label AT&T Ad Solutions no doubt will increasingly resist) can pivot their approach to business into social media. Other directory publishers actively involved in social media include Eniro, European Directories and Truvo.

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