'We are trying to be the best at local search discovery' – YP CMO Allison Checchi on the future of the brand

Earlier this year, Allison Checchi was promoted to chief marketing officer of the company in order to drive awareness of the new brand that emerged from the 131-year-old company.

YP now employs around 4,000 sales staff across the US and its legacy was one of the things that initially attracted Checchi when she met with chief executive David Kranz to join the company in her previous role. She admits to having been skeptical about joining a company she considered as outdated, but afterwards came out 'energised' by the possibilities it still held.

"Really to me it was the story of small business in America and how every day our marketing consultants are in there working with anybody starting up a business or someone taking over a family business," states Checchi who joins The Drum at a noisy coffee shop on 8th Avenue in Manhattan to discuss her marketing plans for the platform of 80 million users across all properties.

"That is a great value proposition but nobody knows about it. They think about the Yellow Pages as this book. I felt that we had a lot of assets here, even the consumer property which is digital. We have over $1bn in digital revenue generated largely from our consumer properties but also from reselling marketing solutions that we provide. It's a top 30 site with great assets and we can really make something of it."

The rebrand was the work of vice-president of brand and advertising, Alex Kaminsky, who worked with Interbrand to create something that would aim to convey the essence of what the company stood for to target the relevant audience of small businesses, Checchi explains. "We help consumers get stuff done by finding, discovering and connecting with businesses. We're on a journey with our brand at the same time as we are on a journey with our product."

She explains that the product has to deliver on its promise as the company attempts to make a perception change and raise awareness of the marketing and data services it provides.

"My challenge is that I have to get out there and start telling the story of YP so people know us for the things that we really are and not for just the print book."

This work began with local campaigns across four key cities, although the story will soon be told on a national level with activity planned next year to drive use of its app. This will aim to alter people automatically searching for local business through Google, in itself a customer, she reveals. The company has worked hard to improve the on-site experience through third party partnerships and content creation to retain users.

She highlights YP's online feature, Mybook, which in itself has 2 million users who can bookmark company details and share them with other users and friends, as another element in the company's battle against its competitors. The network includes the ability to save data for specific cities. "We're really interested in getting extremely local with that content," she says.

"Our platform and our product is moving into saving time and money for companies getting their to-do list done and making YP a weekly habit. We're not done yet but those are the things we are doing to invest in our properties. Google has a purpose. We're not trying to be the best search engine for all things search, we are just trying to be the best at local search discovery and get shit done.

"My brand strategy needs to arc and be relevant across both consumers and businesses. We have built a platform with the tag line 'YP can do that' as well as our brand. So b2b marketing is going to be more important for me next year. We'll be doing that through more traditional direct response media such as radio, TV and a focus on ROI in region."

Asked to conclude by sharing the overall perception of the company she intends to build, Checchi responds: "We are a leading marketing solutions provider to local business in the United States. We drive and power local communities and we just happen to have an amazing app and consumer property that over 80 million people use and it's getting better every day. It's all aimed at connecting consumers with great local businesses and getting stuff done."

Checchi is clearly not underestimating the work that needs to be done to rebuild a brand that is over a century old, but she is also determined to succeed in the task of establishing it once again, this time as YP, over the coming year and beyond.