Yahoo Exec Affirms Yahoo's Lead in Branded Advertising

"I do not See the Advertising World Turning into One Large Algorithm"

[weeks]

Yahoo's Wenda Harris Millard, speaking at the UBS Media and Communications conference in New York today, got up and said, "We don't need to regain the lead. We have the lead by far," claiming that they are growing in all of its business categories and continues to gain market share.

According to WJS, Millard argued that professionals in brand advertising, the area of Yahoo she oversees, aren't interested in moving to join machine-driven rival Google. "I do not see the advertising world turning into one large algorithm." Yahoo staff works closely with the world's top marketers on complex campaigns, and "the notion that a machine could do this is just foreign."

"As more and more advertisers learn to use search and brand together, then Panama will become very, very important" because it will help marketers better understand the results of their campaigns, Millard claimed.

Millard made a plea to traditional media and other "newbies" that are bringing large amounts of video-ad inventory into the market not to erode pricing. "I hope that they will quickly understand that we need to establish the value proposition" of video advertising, which currently sells at a higher price per thousand impressions than does standard brand advertising.

Millard said Yahoo sees a big opportunity to improve its sales of non-premium ads on its sites, and that its acquisition of Right Media is about making that happen.

[martinibuster]

She may have a point. Google has sales people working on landing those accounts, it's not all machines. But their branded advertising hands have been tied by their plain home page.

That may be changing with YouTube. But YouTube may not have the reach that Yahoo enjoys.

[mikey158]

Interesting points. I think she is correct. If your website is high traffic and quality enough, you can sell brand advertising on a CPM level that is 25X what the BEST contextual ad program pays.

[weeks]

This coming year is going to be the year Yahoo either breaks out with some real success or breaks down. I'm betting on them making it work, somehow. Everyone is looking for a way to market on the web now and Y has some answers at least, if not all of the answers.

[magicdan]

Its not necessarily very clever to ensure premium advertisers get good complex campaigns and no one else. Yes they will probably land some big spenders and that will bring in some especially with brand power behind them, but if the noises of the main market of advertisers are anything to go by, Yahoo isnt solving their customer service or product problems.

[ddogg]

I see Yahoo and MSN switching places over the next couple of years, Yahoo as a viable competitor to Google is dead. Microsoft has the desire and money to continue to improve, probably buying Yahoo in the process..

Panama? About 2 years too late... yeah keep focusing on the brand advertisers, that's been working well so far huh?