Yahoo doesn’t have a very good history as far as advertising technology is concerned. That maybe why people are surprised to hear what some people have to say about the latest custom ad-buying platform, Yahoo Gemini.
It was launched in February 2014 and billed as a marketplace both for native & search ads. It is basically a self-serve web-based interface which allows marketers to buy ads which run on all of Yahoo’s properties, mobile apps & other websites.
Since launch, Yahoo has increased the targeting options & mobile inventory and is also planning to incorporate video ads in the future. But for now, Gemini will be focusing on mobile ads.
But apart from mobile, the dream for Gemini is to allow advertisers of any size to log into the interface, use Yahoo’s data set & but native & video ads across all Yahoo properties & thousands of other websites & mobile apps. The same way they currently buy ads on Google.
Executives believe that Gemini is going to be able to play an important role in growing the Yahoo Mavens business segment. The sales team recently touted Gemini while at the Cannes advertising festival.
In the second quarter, even though the legacy advertising business of Yahoo fell as opposed to the previous year. Mavens increased by 60% to $ 399 million.
Nobody is claiming that this will put an end to all of the company’s challenges. It won’t be able to transform Yahoo.
Arun Kumar, Cadreon’s global president said that he believed this was Yahoo’s big play & that they actually did have something powerful in Gemini.
Some of the issues with the product are that it’s focused too much on Yahoo’s ad space and doesn’t integrate well with Yahoo data. There is also a segment which doubts Gemini simply because it is built by Yahoo.
Steve Smith
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