Playing to win: Strategies to help you come out on top in 2024

This post is sponsored by Yahoo.

In an ever-evolving, dynamic marketing landscape, 2024 looks to be a year where changing consumer preferences and technology will shape what's next for the industry.

Increasingly, discerning audiences are searching for deeper and more meaningful connections with brands they interact with, and marketers and brands that embrace innovation will have the advantage of nurturing these valuable relationships to realise business goals.

In the changing face of digital marketing, how can brands strategise to continue building on their momentum and future-proof themselves for what tomorrow may bring?

At Yahoo, our belief is simple – when we help our partners win, we win. This is why we have embarked on a relentless pursuit of performance excellence and cost-efficiency, coupled with our dedication to delivering a personalised service.

At the recent Yahoo Newfront, we shared how these two pillars have formed the bedrock of our partnerships with agencies and brands – a customer satisfaction survey with our key partners in Singapore revealed that our Yahoo advertising team outperformed the market by two times.

To build a winning strategy and position yourself for success now, and in 2024, here’s how marketers can get started with a multifaceted approach.

Prioritise simplicity and efficiency

Our world today is hyper-connected, fast-changing and complex, and against this backdrop, simplicity, transparency, and efficiency is the name of the game in 2024.

As advertising budgets stretch, marketers should focus on maximising media spend against performance and ROI. Supply path optimisation is a simple, yet effective method that provides media buyers with bid efficiency and cost transparency through streamlined access to inventory, and it aligns with the growing demand for efficiency and performance-driven strategies.

We recently introduced our industry-changing approach with Yahoo Backstage, an all-access pass in the Yahoo DSP that provides advertisers with a direct path to curated, premium, made-for-advertising-free publisher inventory, enabling them to create fully fledged supply relationships as part of trading deals – a win-win for both the buy and sell sides.

This offering gives advertisers direct-to-publisher access across Yahoo-owned and operated properties, as well as CNET, Dow Jones, ESPN, and Newsweek, among other leading global publishers. Yahoo Backstage has now been recognised in an independent audit by Jounce Media as the largest MFA-free supply source on the open web.

Turn audiences into participants

It is no secret that consumers want a more personalised, customised experience from the brands they engage with. In this era of decreased attention spans and constant distractions, brands and marketers seeking to rise above the noise should focus on the ultimate goal – turning audiences into participants – as they are more invested in each stage of the consumer journey.

In designing creatives, strong visuals, such as those with a human presence, can draw in people with the propensity to buy. Looking beyond ads, branded content is a great way to educate and bring people closer to the brand through compelling storytelling. By providing content that educates, inspires and resonates emotionally, coupled with a clear call to action, brands can shape desired consumer responses and drive decisive action.

But what are great creatives and exceptional content if no one sees them? A recent study revealed that the key to ad effectiveness is the synergy between media placement and creative work, working hand in hand with precision to provide relevance and value for the consumer.

Marketers seeking to move passive audiences into active participants with efficiency should focus on solutions that best combine content and technology.

At Yahoo Newfront, we demonstrate how we integrate the best of content creation through Yahoo Creative Studios and distribution via the Yahoo DSP to deliver successful and engaging campaigns across various verticals.

Some of these recent successes include a campaign for Jack Daniel’s in Australia; a market-first Web3 treasure hunt for unique musical prizes that leveraged augmented reality and digital collectibles; and branded content campaigns for Citibank and StarHub in Singapore powered by our compelling, trusted content and first-party programmatic capabilities.

Many advertisers have recognised this advantage and leveraged our unique position as a publisher of editorial content that people love and trust, and our strong advertising arm to deliver supercharged branded content experiences that scale.

Differentiated by direct consumer relationships, exclusive first-party data partnerships, and a premium omni-channel reach, we harness emerging technologies such as omni-channel measurement, artificial intelligence, and creative experiences to create unforgettable ad campaigns that deliver success.

Partner for success

With so much to keep up with and much more to do, one thing is clear – it seems counterproductive to do it alone. Having been at the forefront of transformation for nearly three decades, we have seen how partnerships can drive sustainable success and create a better digital advertising ecosystem in the long term.

At Yahoo Newfront, we unveiled some of the key partnerships we have worked hard to put in place with our clients in mind. Among these are our partnerships with Taboola to create the largest global Native DSP; with Adelaide to integrate high-attention pre-bid segments in the Yahoo DSP and provide a dynamic way to procure efficient, high-quality inventory; with Lucid by Cint alongside our partner Milieu for better measurement of brand lift; and with Segment by Twilio for data interoperability.

With sustainability hot on the agenda, we also teamed up with Good-Loop to offer carbon-neutral private marketplace media opportunities for advertisers in the Yahoo DSP to minimise their carbon footprint.  

There’s a lot of love for Yahoo out there, and our portfolio of iconic products continues to stand as a trusted guide to hundreds of millions of consumers worldwide. Across many English-speaking markets and some Chinese markets, Yahoo is the top source for international, business and finance news, and lifestyle, beauty and fashion content, and more. This provides advertisers with unparalleled scale and untapped opportunities.

Marketers can set up for success by finding partners who prioritise performance excellence and cost efficiency to elevate the brand and business, and deliver tangible and measurable results. Look for partners who understand your brand's unique needs, goals, and challenges and who can then tailor their services to meet your requirements.

The writer is Kenneth Koh, Yahoo, Head of Commercial Sales, SEA.