Yahoo unveiled new data and tools, its partnership with Afterpay to a commerce media network and a suite of AI-powered enhancements at The Collider event space for its Newfronts on Thursday.
John McNerney, managing director AUSEA for Yahoo DSP, presented the new announcements alongside Yahoo’s AUSEA executive team, director of data and insights AUSEA, Dan Richardson; director of commercial and platforms AUSEA, Andrew Gilbert; and head of commercial, Australia, Maddie Basso.
Mediaweek caught up with Mediahub’s Gerry Bowness, Ashleigh Carter from Atomic 212° Sydney and Avenue C’s Mark Zala.
John McNerney
Gerry Bowness, Mediahub’s head of digital, said that the “intimate” setting enabled a “more personalised approach for each of the holding companies.”
McNerney lead with Yahoo’s position as an Omni-Channel DSP and its recent award from Digiday for DSP of the year. Bowness praised Basso for energising the crowd and providing a teaser of what was to come in the session.
Gilbert delivered the 2025 punchlines, it’s data partnership with Afterpay, which boasts 3.5m customers in Australia and over $13.4B in total sales in 2023.
Gerry Bowness
“This is a welcome enhancement to their data stack and will only improve their product, especially with the current cost of living pressures; however there may be questions in the future on whether this data will be useful for brands targeting higher income consumers.”
Bowness noted big players teased to partner with Yahoo next year and the introduction to Yahoo DSP’s new AI engine, Blueprint.
“With other big tech companies investing heavily in AI powered solutions this is a smart move from Yahoo but ultimately proof will be in the outcomes.”
Gilbert rounded out the presentation with the introduction of Yahoo’s new dynamic creative suite – a tool that enables creative to be exported to other platforms such as Social media, which Bowness called: “another shrewd move that should increase usage.”
Ashleigh Carter
Atomic 212°’s Ashleigh Carter, head of client services, Sydney, called the presentation “punchy”, “to the point” and “covered some really significant points and developments that are poignant to daily conversations we are having both internally and with clients at the moment.”
“Yahoo’s solutions around simplifying how we plan and buy in the programmatic space thanks to Yahoo Blueprint and the additional partners in Are Media and Fetch TV (and another about to be announced) accessed within Yahoo Backstage show the expansion plans that Yahoo is bringing to life.”
For Carter the upcoming Afterpay media network launch was of significant interest. She said: “This will be a very interesting proposition for clients to be able to tap into the 3.5 million Australians who are currently using the Afterpay platform for both online and offline sales.
“Understanding search and browsing behaviour right through to purchase in offline environments, and to stitch that together with a closed loop measurement system, will be game changing for vendors in the retail space, and more broadly for clients wanting to try and tap audiences based on behavioural attributes or hard-to-reach younger people,” she added.
On what might move the needle on the amount advertisers spend, it was all about measurement for Carter.
She said: “With the Afterpay partnership, it will be very interesting to see how advertisers can more closely stitch together what’s working with a greater view of a customer and purchase ecosystem.”
Andrew Gilbert
“‘The ad tech of a walled giant but with the independence of a startup.’ I’m likely butchering the tagline (sorry team Yahoo) but that was one of the early slogans to open Yahoo’s New Front,” Mark Zala, digital director at Avenue C, said.
He called it a “catchy brand position” that draws comparisons to The Trade Desk, yet “balances the juxtaposition of assuring the market they’re a global giant that can carry their weight against, well obviously Google, while reaffirming their independence in the ad tech space and ensuring they’re thought of as a last bastion against big tech.”
Zala noted that while it was no Google, Yahoo’s stack “has always been impressive” and as “interoperable as any other DSP in market.”
“They were one of the first to pioneer omnichannel marketing and have extensively rich partner integrations. But they’ve probably lacked the wow factor or singular differentiation that makes an advertiser or agency think ‘ah you want to do X, you’ve got to use Yahoo for that’.”
“But after today’s announcement that might’ve changed,” he said.
Zala noted Yahoo’s partnership with Afterpay to create a global finance media network as “quite some feat” as the buy-now-pay-later platform commands two-thirds of the Australian market share, with research showing that its customers spend 54% more versus the average consumer; and can give advertisers a window into offline purchases as 40% of Afterpay transactions are in-store.
“This offers advertisers a wealth of opportunity to reach custom audiences based on browsing habits, search activity but more importantly transactions.
“FlyBuys and Cartology have FMCG locked down but no one’s really planted a stake in the ground and become the go-to for cross category transactional data (CBA and NAB may beg to differ). As we head into 2025, Yahoo may have just given advertisers and agencies alike a highly compelling reason to re-think their DSP mix.”
See also: Yahoo unveils new partnerships and tools at its 2025 Newfronts
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Top image: Gerry Bowness, Ashleigh Carter, and Avenue C’s Mark Zala