Life at Yahoo!
Yahoo!'s Journey to the South Pole
Posted: 23rd of January, 2013
By Thomas Bink
Yahoo! Canada was with her every for every step of the
journey. How It All Began It all started with a tip from a Yahoo! freelance video
producer who knew about Ross’s planned expedition, which was being set up by
the Test Your Limits organization. The group wanted to raise awareness for heart
failure research in return for exclusive content about their trek to the bottom
of the planet. After meeting Ross and reading some of her previous blog
posts, I knew this could be a unique series where the content was the real attraction.
We felt people would be drawn in by the drama of the expedition and develop an
affinity for Yahoo! as well as the cause. Making It Happen The solution was simple – the Yahoo! Canada team would put
together a page to host Ross’s daily posts and photographs and provide a link
for interested users to get more information on the cause. Ross, the only woman
on the expedition, would send her posts and photos through a time-restricted
satellite phone to a shared dropbox every day, regardless of the conditions. Prior to her departure on January 1, Ross, who is also one
of Canada’s top cardiologists, did a number of candid video interviews at the
Yahoo! Canada offices about the dangers of her trek, her medical preparations
and what she would miss most during the journey. And after Ross arrived in
Antarctica, we set up a way for visitors to the site to ask her questions about
the voyage, which she would answer in her blog posts. Getting the interaction between Ross and our visitors was
really critical, so we set up a Yahoo! e-mail address – AskDrRoss@yahoo.ca. It
was great that our users in Saskatchewan or Alberta could engage someone who
was struggling against snowstorms and frigid temperatures at the bottom of the
Earth thousands of miles away using our products. The Results Hundreds of questions were submitted and by the time Ross
reached the Pole, our site had garnered hundreds of thousands of page views. The
traffic was nice, but the real goal was to raise the profile of our brand in
Canada and to show off some of the great things we’re doing at Yahoo! now and
going forward (in addition to helping a great cause!). We really have an
opportunity at Yahoo! to do things differently than traditional media in
Canada. And it was totally worth it just to see Yahoo! at the South
Pole! Read all about it here: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/south-pole/.
On that date, cardiologist Dr. Heather Ross unfurled the
purple Yahoo! flag given to her weeks before her trek to the southernmost point
on Earth began and proudly displayed it with members of her South Pole
expedition team for photographs.
