Founder of Yahoo! Outlines trends facing the online industry

Yang says advertisers must drive relevance and create new experiences.

Friday, 14 November 2008

At the keynote address of the IAB Engage 2008 conference Jerry Yang, founder and chief executive of Yahoo! outlined three trends facing the online advertising business.

Addressing senior members of the advertising industry this morning Yang said he was optimistic about the future: “internet advertising in a recession will come out better than when it went in. People are still buying brands and engaging with brands. Our job at Yahoo! is to connect [consumers] with brands.

“Branded advertisers have to continue to spend. Most of them will want to come back with a share of voice. They will need to drive stimulus and consumption when economy hits a certain level. It’s about trust, relationships and verifiability.”

Secondly he pointed to internet advertising such as search marketing being critically important at this time. “Performance-based advertising is very important to driving direct response. Search and lead generation continue to be a growing area for all of us. People are still searching, the question is are they searching for commercial or non commercial things?”

Thirdly, Yang expressed optimism and concern that the recession may delay marketers adopting new technologies such as broadband TV and mobile. “I am optimistic about mobile advertising and broadband TV advertising but marketers need to be able to invest in new technologies.”

Yang also felt that tough economic times provide a great opportunity “In the darkest days Yahoo! and Google were born. I am sure the new companies of the future are being born now. These are times for opportunity , to build infrastructure and the tools to come out at the other end.”

“We must drive relevance and create new experiences in a collaborative way.” He added: “Consumers want to comment on what they want as it’s now harder to maintain attention in a sea of content.”

For more information please contact amy@iabuk.net