Yahoo said yesterday it will merge its search and display advertising sales teams in the U.S. in an effort to streamline media buys for customers who want to advertise in a variety of formats, from search and graphical ads to videos.
Senior vice president of Yahoo! Search sales David Karnstedt will lead the new integrated ad department as head of North American sales. Wenda Millard, the company’s former chief U.S. sales officer, has left Yahoo! and assumed the post of president of media for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.
“The future of advertising isn’t about choosing between search and display, but about leveraging the breadth of advertising products to more effectively reach your customers with the right message, in the right context, at the right time, and on the right platform,” said Gregory Coleman, Yahoo! executive vice president of global sales, in a release.
The restructuring of its U.S. ad sales team comes less than a week after Yahoo! replaced CEO Eric Schmidt with a team of co-founder Jerry Yang as CEO and Sue Decker as president. At that time, the company also warned that continuing weakness in display ad sales would be one factor dampening second-quarter growth.
“By taking a more holistic approach to advertising sales, Yahoo! will become a more consultative seller, which should make buying complete solutions easier for our customers across Yahoo! and our partner network,” Karnstedt said in the release.
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