Now, personalise your Yahoo yodel

As part of its global 'It’s Y!ou' brand campaign, Yahoo is now inviting users to create the next generation of one of its best known brand assets – the Yahoo! yodel.

Participants will compete for a chance to be featured in Yahoo!’s new global advertising campaign and on one of the world’s largest stages: the Yahoo! homepage. For each yodel submitted in the online contest, Yahoo! will also donate to participating global charities.

“The foundation of the ‘It’s Y!ou’ campaign is about making the web more personally relevant to each of our consumers, so it’s important that we engage the world in the creation of our new yodel,” said Elisa Steele, Yahoo! executive vice president and chief marketing officer. "It’s essentially a unique form of user generated content that honors the millions of people who visit Yahoo! every day."

The Yodel Studio kicks-off a casting call for the world’s best new yodels, allowing people to personalize and reinterpret the Yahoo! yodel. In addition, Yahoo! is hosting live recording events today in New York City and London, and on October 14 in Mumbai, with celebrities and musical artists to coach yodelers.

The Yahoo! yodel was established in 1996 as a mnemonic device to help people make the association with the brand and the euphoria of finding what they were looking for online. The classic yodel was created by yodeling cowboy Wylie Gustafson and aired at the end of Yahoo!’s first television commercial in May 1996.

While the company’s new campaign consists of myriad new yodels, including those sought by Yodel Studio, the original will remain part of Yahoo!’s ongoing legacy.