‘We aren’t in the slightest bit schizophrenic’ – Yahoo’s Dawn Airey defends its use of native advertising alongside original content
Yahoo’s senior vice president of EMEA, Dawn Airey, has defended its position of publishing a growing amount of native advertising alongside content and said there is no confusion over where the internet giant hangs its hat.
Speaking today (10 September) at the Dmexco exposition in Cologne, Airey said that native advertising is an “intrinsic” part of what Yahoo offers to its customers and that the company has proved itself as being “incredibly adept” at delivering a rich experience.
“It’s an intrinsic part of what we offer,” she said. “On the one hand absolutely you can access our inventory in a very direct, direct accountable way, but part of what we do is to create content that is there as much for a marketing statement for audiences to come to our platform to engage with ad products and for our content.
“We have this lovely relationship with consumers, that is around both content and off the back of that the ad tech for monetising and engagement with the platform. I don’t think we are in the slightest bit schizophrenic and we are very clear about what we’re doing. We’re about content and context at scale.”
Airey also dismissed the idea that Yahoo is experiencing a detachment and is “fishing with the net, versus fishing with the line” when it comes to delivering video audiences to advertisers. She said that, on the contrary, it has a “very direct” relationship with its audience.
“I don’t think there’s a disconnect at all… broadcasters look rather covetously at that very direct relationship that we can have with our consumers and that insight and that ability to sell audiences. Broadcasters are looking at what we’re doing and saying ‘how can we get a bit of that?’
“[With] video, and we have an insatiable appetite for video, we can provide that through both our relationship that we have with publications, but also with the content that we create ourselves and we just do not see that disconnect.”
Airey also revealed that Yahoo is aspiring to become a “destination site” and is creating an increasing amount of original video content aimed at a younger audience.
While she couldn’t be pushed into revealing what Yahoo has in store for the future when it comes to video content, Airey did concede that the internet company “wants more video and is getting more video”.
