Yahoo!

There is an unsung hero in the online advertising industry, the sales engineer / producer / ad product manager / ad solutions provider… the role goes by many names but is unknown to most. Who do you guess works with engineers, developers, and ad platforms to develop the concepts on which publishers monetize? And whom bridges the technology gap from those producers to Sales and Business Development professionals moving media? For a time, I did. From 1999/2000 through 2005, I rode a revolutionary time at Yahoo! as the company acquired Overture, validated online advertising, and evolved from portal to media company.

The most difficult challenge in my career as a marketer, before the advent of social marketing, is that at heart, there is on one half a sales guy inside me; a penchant for business development and sales calls. On the other half, a web designer developing ad formats and designing landing pages. Luckily, the internet has caught up and the role of Marketer has evolved from the mere story teller acquiring customers to the one responsible for business insights, sales channels, monetization, blogging, social networking, and so much more. I’m at home today because of my roots in Yahoo!

So why the homage to Yahoo! Shopping above? That’s really where I got my start and to whom I owe my career. I was recruited to Yahoo! almost a dozen years ago to manage Yahoo Shopping’s leading technology industry advertisers (i.e. Best Buy, Sony, HP); it is from Y! Shopping that my career has since spanned search, SaaS, and eCommerce.

How can you tell a former Yahoo!? I can’t help but make sure it’s spelled with the point. Yahoo!