Yahoo's 2022 APAC Growth Summit puts immersive ad tech, identity, digital-out-of-home and connected TV at center stage

Watch the full program on Yahoo TV HERE.

Yahoo reinforced its commitment to innovation, fueled by immersive adtech and performance driven solutions at its 2022 APAC Growth Summit. Following last year’s successful Yahoo APAC Growth Summit live stream, the two-day virtual event was held on May 26 and 27, 2022. With a theme around “Inspire to Win”, the showcase brought together 24 industry leaders from around the world to fuel the audience's digital strategies for 2022 and beyond.

Inspiring a Winning Region - APAC

“In 2022 and beyond, we are laser focused on driving value creation through our brands, adtech and search products,” said Yahoo’s Chief Executive Officer, Jim Lanzone.  Sharing his excitement and reinforcing Yahoo’s transformation to growth, new Head of Yahoo APAC, Paul Sigaloff, said “Our reimagined Yahoo is set to reshape the industry by pairing the premium content from brands you know and love with continued investment in our market-leading ad tech. Think of this as Transformational Growth. It’s People First, Partnership Always, Performance Now.” He added “While Yahoo is a truly global business we also appreciate every region and every country is unique. The wonderfully diverse APAC region is proof of that and we’re taking great care to ensure we build products which are able to offer you what you need, wherever you are.”

Inspiring Advertising of Tomorrow

Talking about the ‘big trends’ taking shape in digital advertising, Yahoo’s Chief Business Officer, Iván Markman said “The first is the urgent need for identity solutions in a cookieless world. The second is Advanced TV acceleration, with measurement at the forefront. And the third is access to commerce that is anytime, anywhere, around the world.”

Simon Halstead, VP Exchanges and Supply International at Yahoo tackled the timeless challenge of siloed channels.  As an end-to-end, full-stack technology partner, Yahoo can uniquely support advertisers and publishers in unlocking the full value of their content and marketing, while putting consumer experiences and privacy first.  He added, “The single platform - Yahoo Exchange - offers a direct, premium and transparent platform for buyers to access top publishers at scale, with a focus on premium content. The Ad Exchange centralizes our premium owned and operated ad inventory and partner supply.”

Such transparency and access are also prevalent in both supply- and demand-side platforms thanks to Yahoo’s huge media properties, premium exclusive inventory and tech that powers advertisers and publishers to find the right audience. John McNerney, Senior Director of Platform, Yahoo APAC, noted that in a world of increasing complexity, our tech is designed to make things easier for advertisers by joining the dots for the complete customer journey, from offline to online, in one place. This has created what we call an omnichannel marketing experience. We believe that for marketers, trust is built on simplicity. The Yahoo DSP is designed to drive unmatched performance across every digital screen, while providing that single-view of the consumer journey. The growth of Advanced TV and Digital Out of Home allows us to put brands where they haven’t been before.

Dan Richardson, Head of Data, Yahoo APAC, said that, “Right now we’re at the biggest crossroads this industry has faced with increasing scrutiny on data, how it’s gathered and used. It’s all about consent. Users must willingly hand over their data. To get them to do this, you must have a direct and trusted relationship with them.” Yahoo Connect ID matches our logged in users directly to advertiser’s customer profiles. All data is encrypted and ready to scale. In addition, Next Gen Audiences is another identity-less solution that looks at all the contextual device based and anonymous data signals we observe everyday. To date, he said Yahoo shows a significant 39% increase in average impressions and 20% increase in clicks in these identity-less environments.

Digital Immersion with the Rise of Metaverse & NFT and Unlocking the Creativity of the next-gen Internet

Albeit the recent astronomical popularity of NFT and the metaverse, Yahoo has been a trailblazer of virtual production: namely, its long investment in XR studios across the world that offer exceptional 3D experiences to complement consumers’ 2D consumption habits.  Our Chief Business Officer, DJ Ivan has made his first metaverse DJ performance debut in Yahoo ElectricCity in Decentraland filled with multisensory experiences as an exclusive showcase!

Mark Melling, International Head of Yahoo’s RYOT Studios shared the brilliant cases that have shook traditional industries, Yahoo’s vanguard partnerships with British retailer Selfridges and Scottish whisky label Monkey Shoulder as well as the myriad ways in which the metaverse will be more than an extension of reality. Mark added, “Last month a Razorfish study found that 52% of Gen Z gamers say they feel more like themselves in the metaverse than in real life.”

“As we step into the next gen internet, the next wave of digital shoppability is here.  Customers want personalization.  Yahoo research indicates 86% of Gen Z expect their digital experiences and interactions with brands online to be seamless, innovative and enhance their real world,” added Roger Li, Senior Director of Ad Creative of Yahoo APAC Creative Studio.

Citing a local example from Hong Kong is Matthew Chan – Head of Sales, Yahoo Hong Kong & China – and Lance Tsang, Associate Ecommerce Director of ITeSHOP. Dubbed the ITeSHOP SS21 GIGON Campaign, the week-long sales event married the efficacy of Yahoo’s full spectrum of ad tech ranging from content commerce and real-time dynamic ad integration with a seamless digital out-of-home ad placement on bus shelters in locations frequented by high net-worth spenders. The QR code-helmed DOOH brought interested shoppers back to the ecommerce site for an O2O experience. With omnichannel marketing, viewers of ITeSHOP outdoor ads were retargeting when they were online, this ensures campaign optimisation throughout the consumer journey.

Inspiring Business of Tomorrow – Sustainability, Diversity, Equality & Inclusion

For Yahoo, growth is not limited to business and technology but also spans the workplace. Elizabeth Herbst-Brady, VP, Head of Global Revenue and Client Solutions, Yahoo, expressed that it is an exciting and important time to be passionate and focused on diversity, equity and inclusion. She added, “COVID has revealed the depth of the challenge, women leaving the workforce in droves, along with health challenges and childcare issues and other struggles. At Yahoo, beyond the official policies like hybrid work, location flexibility, I also try to elevate issues such as anti-bias and pay equality through education programs and rooting compensation discussions in data.”

Joined Yahoo in March 2022, Alicin Reidy-Williamson, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, Yahoo has made her first appearance in APAC. Her vision on diversity and inclusion in Yahoo is to offer the same experience to employees as to partners and clients. Alicin added, “The really key piece of D,E&I is to recognize and think about it as an opportunity. Diversity and inclusion is important whenever there are humans. Often people think of it as a challenge or problem to fix. In fact, if we are able to lean on it and get this right, we will all win. To understand other people’s experiences, educate ourselves and maximize opportunities that we have with each other will make us all smarter.”

During the month of mental wellness awareness, it’s especially meaningful through honest conversations of industry leaders in the region, it's possible to take productive steps towards destigmatizing employee wellbeing and thus people's growth.  It's critical now or never to take a people-first holistic approach, creating safe-space to enable deeper interactions and making it everyone’s responsibility. If the industry comes together to find longer term solutions, it’s possible to set people and businesses up for success.

Yahoo APAC Growth Summit 2022 was live streamed on May 26 and 27, 2022 in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore and India followed by Taiwan on Jun 14 and 15. At this Summit, we are setting the stage for how we will shape tomorrow. APAC advertisers and partners can hear about our latest product innovations and what's next as we accelerate for 2022 and beyond. The 2-day, 160 minutes program is archived on Yahoo TV.