A manifesto for a better Internet in 10 slides or less: Dan Richardson, Yahoo

Digital has opened up a whole new world for the advertising and marketing industry. It is no longer just a new-age media platform to complement the traditional platforms like print, television and radio. The Ad-Tech and Mar-Tech worlds are leveraging emerging aspects of Digital to sharpen their strategies. Adgully held the inaugural edition of DATAMATIXX 2022 Summit & Awards on August 25, at the Taj Lands End, Mumbai. Though the adoption of Digital began more than a decade back, newer elements are emerging frequently, which makes this medium so dynamic and also difficult to master.

Delivering his keynote address on ‘A manifesto for a better Internet in 10 slides or less’, Dan Richardson, Head of Data, APAC, Yahoo, highlighted the many learnings that Yahoo has experienced along the way. “Three simple words are important if we go back and have a look at history, which are Instantaneity, Connection and Joy. Earlier, we would hear a song on the radio on a Sunday afternoon, but now we can hear the same song by typing it on Spotify and other platforms. That is instantaneity.”

Adding further Richardson said, “There are many political and social movements which grew through the joy of the Internet and connected people. Joy is expressed through various forms such as memes, gifs, discovery of new content, new music, new talent. Even Justin Bieber would not have been discovered without the joy of the Internet!”

At the same time, Richardson pointed out that there are three other words which sum up why we have gone wrong as well. These are Fear, Proliferation and Shame. Elaborating on the same, he said, “Fear, through the consumer data awakening such as the Cambridge Analytica case, the blatant misuse of data, fear of hackers stealing our personal data, fear of our children’s safety online being taken advantage of, proliferation of fake news, fake ads, misleading measurement metrics for marketers, shame through the constant reminder of the self image, unrealistic body types, peer pressure. The first thing that we have learnt is that the Internet is broken and the marketing safety net is removed. The dichotomy is that an open or ad funded Internet is dangerous. A private ecosystem naturally equals privacy.”

At the same time, he said that there has never been a better time to work together as an industry and craft a fair and equitable ad funded internet. “Better content, better ads and better ad experiences can be delivered. From research it is found that 86% of the Gen X consumers expect brands to deliver personalised, innovative and seamless experiences, while 25% opt in for tracking. Essentially, we have the Internet divide these days into two parts. One the one hand, we have the consumers that we know, the addressable, and on the other hand, we have non-addressable and unknown consumers. At Yahoo, we have developed the Yahoo Next Gen Audiences,” Richardson said.

These are edited excerpts. For the complete address, watch below:

https://www.linkedin.com/video/live/urn:li:ugcPost:6968510276174295040/