Storytelling, Data, and Experimentation Drive Modern Brand Success

Key Quotes

"yahoo we're actually celebrating our 30th anniversary this year which is really exciting and um you know yahoo is still a top five internet property 90 of the us internet population comes to yahoo every month so that's nine in 10 people come to yahoo every month that does surprise me a massive audience and out of that nearly 50 of unique visitors to yahoo are gen z and millennials so also a younger user base as well"

Shannon Shae Montoya highlights that Yahoo, despite perceptions, remains a significant internet property with a large monthly user base, including a substantial portion of Gen Z and millennials. This indicates the brand's continued relevance and reach among younger demographics.

"and so what i oversee is a lot of our business marketing that is to connect to those advertisers and where i come into play is really you know what's important is really differentiating differentiating both our ads offering or yahoo ads offering and our yahoo dsp offering which is it is the number one rated dsp amongst our customers and to also head to head competition against other dsps the yahoo dsp wins 90 of the time"

Shannon Shae Montoya explains her role in marketing Yahoo's advertising offerings, emphasizing the competitive advantage of their Demand-Side Platform (DSP). The statistic that the Yahoo DSP wins 90% of head-to-head competitions underscores its perceived superiority by customers.

"and what storytelling does is storytelling can then shape and transform that memory to make it even more impactful so what would have been just a sort of normal memory makes it something that's absolutely unforgettable and then what i love about that is you take it a step further and think about some of the work that we're doing those shared stories then become collective memory right and so all of a sudden what you've done within that marketing campaign or event or live experience extends beyond the people even that are within that room"

Shannon Shae Montoya elaborates on the power of storytelling, explaining that it transforms ordinary memories into unforgettable experiences. She further notes that these shared stories contribute to collective memory, extending the impact of marketing campaigns beyond immediate participants.

"and so i think you know the world that we were living in then was one where mobile phones were a brand new thing i remember sitting with a bunch of restaurant customers you know if you think about the doordash core business our original core business was restaurant delivery what that meant was we got a lot of local restaurants and national restaurant chains put it on a website or as you said our mobile application and we allowed consumers to order for a small fee and get that product delivered to them and in the background was this very complex logistics network of of amazing dashers who would go and pick up the product and deliver it"

Toby Espinosa describes the early days of DoorDash, highlighting the nascent state of mobile technology and the company's foundational business model of connecting local and national restaurants with consumers for delivery. He emphasizes the complex logistics network of "dashers" that enabled this service.

"but i think there's kind of two modes that silicon valley is very famous for one is failure so abject go to zero and the other is google's meta these massive massive massive businesses where if you are the average employee not someone who was there in the very early days but you're the average employee at one of these large large businesses life is not that difficult this thing kind of grows itself you show up to work you you do it and you kind of leave and so you have these two extremes one is that life is impossible that trying to create something from scratch ends in failure and the other is that life is extremely simple and easy and this valley is filled with those two mental models in the middle of this valley the truth which is that the shared experience that creates what i think of as the greatest entrepreneurs and companies is one where like i said you have a group of people that sees the following experience that it's really really really hard to create something great but it's possible"

Toby Espinosa contrasts the extreme perceptions of Silicon Valley businesses--either complete failure or effortless success in large companies--with the reality of building great companies. He posits that the truth lies in the shared experience of a core group that understands the immense difficulty but ultimate possibility of creating something significant.

"and then now they have power to be able to avoid proactively messages and advertising that they don't want to see so how do you talk us through this relevancy idea and how it is operationalized in the context of the architecture for the ad business and why it's and why what you're doing is different from what competitive let's say businesses maybe trying to do in terms of competing with you"

Toby Espinosa addresses the challenge of consumer ad avoidance and explains how DoorDash operationalizes relevancy within its advertising business architecture. He frames this as a key differentiator from competitors, implying their approach is more effective in engaging consumers.

"and i think that that's the really the goal and what's cool about you is that even though you have a what looks on paper like a pretty traditional background you came to it in different ways like for instance before you got here at l'oréal you were at ogilvy which is one of the biggest advertising agencies in the world and i would think you know traditional marketing that's ogilvy but that's not how you got to ogilvy right you came through a different door"

Americus Reed highlights Adam Kornblum's unconventional path into marketing, noting that despite a seemingly traditional background and experience at a major agency like Ogilvy, Kornblum's entry into the field was through a different, less conventional route. This suggests a unique perspective on creativity and disruption.

"and i think that that's the really the goal and what's cool about you is that even though you have a what looks on paper like a pretty traditional background you came to it in different ways like for instance before you got here at l'oréal you were at ogilvy which is one of the biggest advertising agencies in the world and i would think you know traditional marketing that's ogilvy but that's not how you got to ogilvy right you came through a different door"

Americus Reed highlights Adam Kornblum's unconventional path into marketing, noting that despite a seemingly traditional background and experience at a major agency like Ogilvy, Kornblum's entry into the field was through a different, less conventional route. This suggests a unique perspective on creativity and disruption.

"and so i create this fictitious billionaire build all these websites hack google at the time if you googled monopoly found like this billionaire trying to save the credit crisis you know and amassed millions of followers myspace was big at the time so this is like a hot minute ago yeah and the ceo of hasbro gets wind of the billionaire this was on purpose this fake billionaire yes he was so but they and did you answer the phone like as the fake billionaire so yeah actually the fake billionaire actually had a personal assistant you know so it was like a universe it was just me and my best friend but like we just went down this hole like the personal assistant's name was jamie sky with two