Start wearing purple

Posted September 15th, 2008 at 9:47 am by Nick Chavez, Vice President, Integrated Marketing

 11 Comments / Filed in: Those Crazy Yahoos

At Yahoo!, we talk about Purple quite a bit. Some folks internally would say we’re obsessed with it, in fact. From our earliest days, Purple has been the official color of Yahoo!. You can see it in our offices –- our furniture, our building signs, even our sprinkler heads. You can also see it out in the world –- we’ve created Purple taxi cabs, Purple trains, even Purple brains. Every day, visitors to Yahoo! hear us talking about Thinking Purple and Bleeding Purple… Yes, we take it that seriously.

Why Purple? Back in 1996, our humble digs needed quite a bit of renovation so our co-founder, David Filo (notoriously frugal), went out to buy some paint at the store. Once everyone had painted most of one large wall under dim fluorescent lighting, they stepped back and realized Filo had bought light purple (it was probably on sale). From that day on, Purple stuck.

But Purple ’s not just about the paint on the wall. It’s not just the blend of blue and red. It’s not just the latest trend in gardening and fashion (though it is). Purple is the color of innovation and ingenuity. It’s fun and youthful, but also courageous and daring. It represents a spirit of individuality but also a sense of connectedness with others. For us, it represents the spirit of our company, our culture and our products –- Purple is Yahoo!.

As a resident brand marketing guy (though we often say that the Yahoo! brand is too important to be left in the hands of brand marketers), I’m pleased to share that we’re launching a variety of Purple projects over the next few days and weeks. We’re embracing our Purple and sharing the spirit and pride with hundreds of millions of users who, perhaps, feel a bit of that spirit and pride as well.

“Start Wearing Purple” is the theme (and theme song) of this effort to celebrate Purple. It’s not about selling Yahoo! clothing – though we do have some amazing new limited-edition gear coming in from partners like Pony, tokidoki, big wave surfing legend Jeff Clark, Mimoco, and more. “Start Wearing Purple” is about celebrating that unique, charmingly eccentric side of all of us. You’ll see and hear about Purple Picks, the best Purple content from across the web hand-picked by Yahoo!; Purple Photos on Flickr and omg!; Purple Pranks with our friend Charlie Todd from Improv Everywhere; Purple Bikes that take photos; and even some Purple Acts of Kindness. And you’ll meet the Pioneers of Purple, inspiring people who’ve changed the world by following their passions and pursuing their dreams. “Start Wearing Purple” is, quite simply, an invitation to embrace and share the Purple in you.

Check out what we’re up to at startwearingpurple.com. And may some of that Purple pride rub off on you.

Purple reigns,
Nick Chavez
Senior Director, Brand Advertising

Tagged: marketing, purple, Video

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11 Comments Add your own

Mark | September 17th, 2008 at 9:25 am

So why did you not credit the band Gogol Bordello for the song?

Nicki Dugan | September 17th, 2008 at 9:10 pm

@Mark – Oh, but he did! Nick actually linked to the Gogol Bordello music video. Too subtle?

anz | September 19th, 2008 at 1:27 pm

We’ve been working closely with Yahoo! for so long.. and i completely get it what you mean by bleeding purple… :)

As for “though we often say that the Yahoo! brand is too important to be left in the hands of brand marketers” ..absolutely bang on…the brand is much too loved to be tampered with :)

Cheers .. or should i yodel! ;)

Mohan | September 20th, 2008 at 6:04 pm

So sweet.. to my surprise, BBC portal is wearing purple. Just came across this and loved it.. Yodel loud and proud with purple all over!

RobRoy McGregor | September 21st, 2008 at 2:54 pm

Lisa and I want to join forces with yahoo wearing purple and the purple bike project…i would like to ride the purple bike from the purple bike project to raise money for the Chautauqua and RobRoy Challenge charities with yahoo’s endorsement.

Next year is the 2009 Gathering of all the clans from around the world to Scotland….I can start training on the purple bike now to raise awareness in the press while speaking to towns across the US…while sharing thru youtube our purple violin’s journey…
Lisa and I have matching purple violins.

also check out Lisa’s purple hair…

http://www.myspace.com/leftandrighthandshow

http://www.robroychallenge.com
http://www.myspace.com/unitetheclans2009
http://www.myspace.com/purpleviolinproject

http://www.myspace.com/robroymcgregor
http://www.myspace.com/sober013

~ RobRoy and Lisa

Angela | September 23rd, 2008 at 1:57 am

One thing I don’t get….you’re trying to get people to embrace individuality, correct? So you’re encouraging EVERYONE to start wearing purple….come on…isn’t there a contradiction in there somewhere???

ith0 | September 23rd, 2008 at 6:54 am

How about http://www.purple.com

and how about Purple phones..Motorola has one on Verizon Wireless.

Purple was Donny Osmonds favorite color on the Donny and Marie show

Purple Rain

mera | September 23rd, 2008 at 6:43 pm

Purple is the most spiritually evolved color, and royal, too (most expensive dyes started that custom), so let’s flaunt our own evolution as humans… it’s about time!

sam | September 28th, 2008 at 6:59 pm

I love Yahoo and its products like Yahoo mail and Flickr. However, this makes no sense. Yahoo’s logo is RED, not purple. I actually miss the Ya-hoo! cowboy yodel.

It’d be nice if you gave me a reason to use Yahoo search instead of Google’s.

Nancy | October 29th, 2008 at 12:47 pm

Bunch of big purple grapes runnin’ around?

Lin | February 14th, 2009 at 12:37 pm

Hi. I think its a great idea to have your homepage be customizable but will you need to sign in to keep your customizations? I think that if that is so than there is little difference between the new homepage and the MyYahoo page wich I set up entheusiastically and then abandoned because it requires me to sign in to be able to see the customization. When I get online i like to see everything right away so that it can be seen at a glance and accessed. If it is not that way then it is too much work for me to sign in and check things out when I am actually just on my way to my email anyway.

My suggestion is that you make whatever additions to the apps side you like but make sure that the email ones, like the access to google gmail and such are first on the list. I hate scrolling or searching through things to find what I want and I’m sure many others do, too. Also, you should not need to be signed into yahoo to access or use them properly.

Things like the horoscope section should be made to show links of all the signs rather than needing to sign in and pick your own, in my opinion. They should also be put on the main page rather than in the apps section, or else have two apps sections, one for important links like the other email services and then one for the other frequented but less important things like ebay and horoscopes. I like the fresh look about the page but the clutter of the app bar is what turns me off. Take what I’ve said into account here and maybe even us hard to please lazy clutter haters would be happier.

Some email links you should have would be gmail, hotmail, verizon, and yahoo. I am sure there are others but I don’t know them all. These are what I use. As for the ads tht peopl0e are complaining about on the page, if you placed them under the featured area they should still be visible but might blend in better with the page. Maybe concider a banner ad instead of the awkward square. I am a student of the Art Institutes taking up Digital Design so I do have experience with design. The banner under the featured section would break up the page nicely and then have the space under it for whatever page content you like. It would leave the featured area first though to speak with the viewers like it is now so that your page still comes across as fresh, new, and user friendly. Just some suggestions there.

The page does need more content. The feature area and the shopping leave the page dull. Maybe put a cooking spot there, too. The new site is looking good so far. Asthetically it is an improvement over your old site. However I also recomend you make users more aware they getting a trial. I’m not even sure how or when I agreed to try it. I actually was suprised and confused thinking I had reached some fake yahoo phishing site. I still don’t know what the m in http://m.www.yahoo.com stands for. You gave me a bit of a scare there for a while.

Anyway, keep up the good work and I look forward to using your new homepage in the future.