Oath-owned Yahoo unveils plans to pioneer digital creativity in latest summit

Following its acquisition by Verizon to become a part of the Verizon-subsidiary Oath, and a meeting with the media last month which announced its re-positioning as a digital marketing and creativity leader, Yahoo had kick-offed its effort by holding one of its largest digital conferences last week.Dubbed the "Yahoo Big Idea Chair Summit 2017", the full-house 500-attendant conference saw two global digital gurus, David Shing, digital prophet, Oath, and Jessica Lauretti, global head of RYOT Studio, on stage to reveal their visions and achievements in digital creativity and talk about the future of storytelling.It also marks Shing and Lauretti's first appearance in Hong Kong after joining Oath. Prior to his current position, Shing served as AOL's European head of media and marketing.RYOT Studio, is to be Oath's in-house state of the art global content studio, the establishment of which was revealed during the summit. The studio has a presence in 14 countries across five continents, and offers premium end-to-end content marketing solution to brands."As the digital space evolves, we will need a new definition of digital creativity," commented Rico Chan, managing director, Oath Hong Kong & INSEA."As Oath's core is committed to putting a combination of unique data, award-winning content and cutting-edge digital technologies in our digital advertising solutions, advertisers are facilitated to maximise reach and efficiency of any big idea with more powerful online engagement, and most importantly to build brand love that capture billion of hearts and minds of today's consumers."[gallery link="file" ids="202738,202739,202740,202741"]So what are Oath's insights and plans for digital innovation?Virtual reality (VR) technology is still inIn an interview with Marketing, Lauretti said content marketing is raising its head in the digital world, and that VR technology is still "one of today's hottest trends to deliver human stories and raise the awareness of cultural uniqueness through immersive capabilities on a global scale".Admitting that the VR headset is still not exactly mainstream, Lauretti believes the market will soon or later take up the technology. "For now, I see the gaming, e-commerce, health and entertainment industries the key driver to VR technology application, and NGOs like the UN use VR in the campaigns, and have proven the technology is effective in terms of fundraising aspects," she said, adding that she has faith in the technology. The line between social media and daily life is blurring - heavily"The power of expression today is a new form of entertainment which people are using social media like Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook or WeChat to express themselves," explained Shing. "And there’s no delineation between the digital and physical."And building on that, Shing advised companies to engage people on an emotional level, whether is online or offline. "They can no longer look on them simply as consumers. It doesn’t matter so much how you tell the story just as long as you have a good story to tell."And this goes beyond just marketing, the customer support department should play a role in the brand's social listening strategies as well, as they interact with consumers the most, Shing added.Ad-blockers exist for a reason, and it’s up to us address that reason From Apple's Safari to Mozilla's Firefox, ad blocking features have seen exponential growth. Shing suggested that ad blocking, as well as other new tech such as the darknet, are all here to support a culture of privacy, which means there's a trust problem in the digital industry."The world will be flooded by a mind-bending 34 billion connected devices. Wearables may be the next big thing. There are a lot of things happening through the last ten years, but advertisements have not evolved along the way.""We have to move, and start to present our collection and usage of data as useful and relevant."