Accelerating Yahoo Ad Tech's global momentum on the heels of a strong 2021

By Iván Markman, Chief Business Officer at Yahoo

Hola! And welcome, 2022 – a new year and a tremendous opportunity for Yahoo and the ad tech industry. We are entering this year on a high note with powerful products and strong teams to accelerate Yahoo’s momentum connecting our clients and partners to growth.

2021 was a banner year for Yahoo. Strategic partnerships opened the door for more premium  exclusive data and inventory. Best-in-class products solved complex client and industry challenges. And we launched a reimagined Yahoo led by new CEO Jim Lanzone to take us into the next chapter of success. I am immensely proud of the work our teams accomplished last year. Among the highlights:

• Yahoo partnered with marquee brands like Condé Nast, VIZIO, Catalina, Tubi and NBCUniversal to amplify their unique inventory and enhance Yahoo’s premium data and supply.
• New products and services across Yahoo’s unified ad tech stack gave advertisers and publishers greater transparency and reach, and supported an omnichannel strategy across flourishing channels like CTV and DOOH. Yahoo’s CTV business grew 141% YoY, helping our clients and partners meet the surge in CTV content consumption. Our DOOH business grew over 220%, fueled by early to market leadership and the world’s return to a new normal. Yahoo has emerged as the #1 DSP for many of our DOOH SSP partners.
• Brands around the globe connected with audiences in new and exciting ways, tapping into Yahoo’s immersive ad experiences. Discovery Communications launched a Shark Week campaign that jumped off the screen. Saks featured an AR selfie filter to try on the season’s best looks. And, for the third straight year, we worked with Walmart to inspire shoppers through engaging content and immersive experiences.
• The future of identity continues to be at the forefront of the industry challenges we are tackling. Last year, Yahoo ConnectID gained adoption from large publishers and platforms, including BuzzFeed, The Arena Group (formerly Maven), CafeMedia, and Mediavine, where it delivered an 80% increase in eCPM rates on cookieless browsers Safari and Firefox. Over 11,000 publisher domains have adopted Yahoo ConnectID, and over 1,200 advertisers are directly activating their first-party data with the solution. The solution became interoperable with Epsilon, Catalina, NCSolutions, IRI, mParticle, Adobe, and Merkle’s Merkury, among others. And in ID-less environments, advertisers and publishers have access to Yahoo’s Next-Gen Solutions, which leverages the power of contextual and real-time device data signals to infer audiences and deliver relevant messages.
• Yahoo closed out the year strong: In Q4, our DSP grew 64% YoY and our SSP grew over 40%. And our customers are seeing positive performance. Over 200 DSP customers are now spending over $1 million with Yahoo, and over 80% of Ad Age’s top 200 advertisers are working with us directly.
  

In 2022 and beyond, we are laser focused on bringing to market what our customers value: a trusted partner who delivers performance, audiences at scale and drives real growth. This year, we are more deeply aligning our global operations with our global orientation, driving a cohesive strategy and execution for demand and supply clients and partners worldwide. We are bringing together our global sales, operations, and marketing teams to help Yahoo execute more seamlessly across the global stage.

None of this happens without fantastic talent and strong leaders. Today, I am pleased to share how we are taking our leadership to the next level in line with this evolution in our operations. 

Elizabeth Herbst-Brady will lead Global Revenue & Client Solutions, unifying Yahoo’s global supply, demand, and strategic partnership teams. Combining these teams into one organization will further our holistic and unified stack strategy, sharpen our customer-centric focus, and enable us to accelerate our growth.

A proven leader, with over 30 years of digital advertising and media industry experience, Elizabeth is the right person to lead our revenue organization in this dynamic environment, marrying strategic vision and operational excellence. Her keen ability to elevate the voice of our customers and champion client-first strategies has driven remarkable results in her previous roles with us, first as Head of U.S. Field Sales, and most recently as Head of North American Sales & Global Client Solutions where she led her team to six consecutive quarters of YoY growth. Elizabeth is committed to fostering Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and continues to spearhead both internal and external initiatives to drive awareness and action. We are thrilled to have her leadership.

Truly effective global execution requires deep partnership across go-to-market, marketing and business operations. In order to accomplish this, Kalina Nikolova will head Global Operations & Strategy and Jen Whelan will lead the Yahoo for Business Global Marketing Organization. 

Elizabeth, Kalina, and Jen are exceptional partners in advancing Yahoo Ad Tech, and will continue to partner with Product and Engineering leaders as we chart the next phase of growth. In tandem with their expanded responsibilities, they have named new leaders in their organizations to partner with them in driving the strategy forward.

With a global organization, we are aligning our operations to reflect Yahoo’s truly global orientation. Fueled by a unified ad tech stack and unified teams, we believe Yahoo is poised to blaze a path of differentiation, driving success for our customers and partners, and leading the ad tech industry into the future. Thank you for your continued partnership. Hasta pronto!