Yahoo is focusing on growing ad business in India: Paul Sigaloff

Yahoo!, the 30-year-old US-based tech giant, is the third-largest property on the internet and has nearly 900 million monthly active users worldwide. Yahoo closed FY 2021 with 141% growth in CTV YoY.

Yahoo has said that its ad tech business is growing steady and the company is now forging strategic partnerships in the connected TV segment to drive growth.

On this note, e4m interacted with Sydney-based Paul Sigaloff, VP, Head of Apac. He spoke about the company’s strategy to take its ad business ahead to compete with Google.

Excerpts:

There is a new government in Australia. Expecting any major changes in media policy?

There is a lot of opportunity with the new government in place. However, it is too early to say if any major changes are coming through. This is an interesting time as everybody is talking about privacy and compliance, and obviously the call of scrutiny about some of the larger media businesses who have taken a lot of revenue out of traditional media businesses will probably continue.

What is your vision and strategy for Yahoo business as you have taken over as APAC Head now?

It is a very exciting time for our business. We call it “New Yahoo”, which is in a transformational phase since Apollo has acquired Yahoo. With Apollo’s backing, we wish to take Yahoo to the next level with our impressive range of assets, including premium iconic brands, industry-ready ad-tech and billions of data points that help us to drive better audience personalization for better and meaningful engagement.

We are focussed on driving value creation through big iconic brands and ad tech which is helping us to grow across the markets. In 2021, India’s DSP (demand side platform) business grew 130 per cent YoY over 2020, which is quite impressive compared to 105 per cent growth globally and our overall CAGR 115 per cent. Our growth in India is through our native products DSP.

We have a lot of local and global partners in India on our exchange side of the business. Along with direct publishers, we have brands like Times of India, Zee5 and Daily Hunt as our partners. We have reported high revenue growth due to extensive engagement. We want to double down the partnerships across APAC regions.

Recently, we partnered with Near (that offers identity solutions for cookieless advertising) and Hivestack (a programmatic digital out of home ad tech company) to access the inventory in DOOH and have identity solutions for the cookieless world.

Yahoo had shut down its news operations in India last year. How has it impacted the company? Do you have any plans to restart the news domain?

There was a change in regulations and that’s why we have to end our 20-year relationship with news in India. It was not a decision that we took lightly. We still have search and the email service, which is the largest email service in India. Right now, we are focussing on growing the ad business in India, which is a strategically important market for us and a strong contributor to our global growth.

We will continue to engage with the Indian government to understand the future opportunities for us.

What are your biggest challenges at this point in time when tech giants like Google, Meta and Amazon are ruling the digital ad landscape?

They are pretty big competitors but our scale and global reach are quite similar as we have 900 million users. However, we work like an independent player. We are way more collaborative and we don’t have a “walled garden” approach (like the competitors). We keep our partners first.

We are one of the founding companies of the internet and we have had a lot of learning along the way. New Yahoo is focused on driving add value creation through our global brands, ad tech solutions and search business. We have deep productive experience and with Apollo coming on board. We are free from the public market.

Personally, I am very excited about Yahoo’s future. We have the ability to unlock our full potential through collaboration with big brands, omnichannel full stack and the partnership with Apple and Microsoft.

How do you plan to scale up Yahoo Creative Studios, and the Metaverse? Are you planning to produce branded content?

We are the early movers on AI (Artificial intelligence) and AR (Augmented Reality), which are much more immersive and have a long-lasting impression. It is important how you can keep your brand on top of the mind of audiences for their future buying needs. As per studies, 46 per cent shoppers are interested in AR content, 80 per cent people viewed 360 view products and a lot many people are going for the ecommerce experience before shopping.

Metaverse is all about experiences and how we can bridge the gap between the physical and virtual worlds. Brands are learning more as they explore this space. Interestingly, millions of consumers are already playing in this space. When you read, you understand 10 per cent, when you hear, you understand 20 per cent, and when you see, you understand 30 per cent of it. However, when you experience it, you understand 90 per cent of it.

We did a study in the UK on a liquor product - Monkey Shoulder. The brand recreated a virtual music content in Decentraland (metaverse) that attracted a lot of people who didn’t have a drink outside their homes due to the pandemic.

Lot of people are shopping digitally through the metaverse. In New York, Yahoo was the innovation partner of the Fashion Week. We collaborated with popular designer Maisie Schloss who presented her brand ‘Maisie Wilen’ with moving holograms of models with which people could interact and buy using QR code.

The popularity of Metaverse events has shown that we have to look beyond the traditional approach of marketing. It's not just the adoption of metaverse, it's about democratisation of Metaverse. Yahoo is exploring and identifying a lot of opportunities in this space.

What are the current trends in digital advertising in India? Which categories of brands are advertising on the Yahoo India platform?

Omnichannel marketing definitely stands out in India. It offers a seamless connection with consumers on all digital platforms. It is not just display, video and TV ads anymore. Now, we have to do connected TV (CTV) and Digital Out Of Home (DOOH). The number of connected TVs in India is going to be 40 million by 2025. CTV and DOOH both are available programmatically making it easy for buyers. CTV and DOOH are going to be a big driver in India for advertising and are attracting huge demand. In our studies, over 56 per cent of buyers said they purchased an item after seeing the ads featured on DOOH and 65 per cent of the purchases were unplanned. Besides, brands have started preparing for the cookieless and ID-less worlds. Yahoo is pioneering solutions for the post-cookie world with an integrated approach to identity - Yahoo ConnectID and Next-Gen Solutions.

With regards to categories of brands, Yahoo India is collaborating with brands in FMCG, Auto, Banking, Finance and other sectors. Some of our clients are Amazon, Apple, ICICI Direct, Renault and Mercedes. We also have a strong network with advertising agencies such as Madison, OMG, Connoisseur and Amnac.