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Turning the Media into Marketshare |
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Our sales organization promotes Yahoo!'s value to advertisers. Yahoo!'s network is a powerful media platform, organized across five verticals that we showcase in the following pages. A clear part of our success has been to demonstrate to traditional marketers how effectively we can adapt our platform to provide an array of online marketing solutions - from advertising to promotions to research. Our marketing services team works to attract advertisers, build loyalty and increase renewals by promoting Yahoo!'s value and by designing best-of-breed solutions for businesses and their advertising agencies. This past year, we focused on traditional advertisers in key industry verticals such as finance, technology, retail and telecommunications, which helped contribute to revenue diversification and increased free cash flow.
We recruited new talent and got closer to customers. In 2002, we significantly ramped up our field sales force and inside sales organization, hiring more seasoned professionals. We specifically recruited and trained people with valuable experience in particular advertisers' vertical industry sectors. At the same time, we literally moved top sellers closer to customers in the field in order to develop better understanding of customer businesses, provide superior solutions and promote the kind of customer satisfaction that leads to more renewals.
Focusing on verticals increased advertising. These industry experts work with advertisers and their agencies to develop and execute industry- and customer-specific marketing solutions that demonstrate an insightful understanding of how marketing issues differ for, say, automotive manufacturers when compared to pharmaceutical makers, telephone companies or entertainment firms. As we constantly refined and segmented our dialog with customers, we increased our customer base across diverse businesses - from the Fortune 500 to small businesses.
We demonstrated the impact of online advertising. Our teams distinguished themselves with creative executions, developing effective marketing solutions that incorporated innovative rich media. Our campaigns developed for advertisers such as Gap Inc. have moved from simple point-of-purchase ads to coordinated efforts that integrate with other media efforts to promote mass awareness, build brand and move product. In the entertainment industry, Yahoo!'s front page on Friday is a must buy for the movie studios that want to attract moviegoers with interactive features and sweepstakes.
Marketing leadership benefits both advertisers and users. From standardizing online ad units and streamlining the planning and buying process, to designing easier and better ad experiences for marketers, our teams provide effective marketing solutions with expanded functionality that attract and retain advertisers and users.
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