Speaker 1: I'm off my game today. No, you're not. People are
Speaker 1: going to have to start making better content. I think
Speaker 1: we're gonna be talking about this for a long time.
Speaker 1: When you program for everyone, you program for no one.
Speaker 1: I think it's a were purpose driven platform. Like we're
Speaker 1: trying to get to substance? How was that? Are you
Speaker 1: happy with that? This is marketing therapy right now? It
Speaker 1: really is? What's up on? Laura Curnti and I'm Alexa Kristen.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to episode twenty one of Adlandia. We're of
Speaker 1: legal drinking age and to celebrate a badass person in
Speaker 1: the industry decided to give us at Landia and our
Speaker 1: listeners and this community at Landia Hollo holla and exclusive.
Speaker 1: So it's our first exclusive with a bad MF. Can
Speaker 1: I call her a bad m F? I think so?
Speaker 1: Total girl boss. Linda Yacarina, Chairman of Advertising, Sales and
Speaker 1: Partnerships at NBC Universal. Um, this is big what she's done,
Speaker 1: and she's really kind of putting her time and her
Speaker 1: money and NBC my behind this call to say, now
Speaker 1: is the time to change the industry. Now is the
Speaker 1: time where we can't create our own work, you know,
Speaker 1: Digitay was talking about this when they were kind of
Speaker 1: reporting this, and she said it, we can't create our
Speaker 1: own work. We don't create our own work in measurement
Speaker 1: the industry, including Google, Facebook, and then all of our
Speaker 1: peers in the kind of linear and broadcasting programming space,
Speaker 1: as well as our new kind of partners like Snapchat
Speaker 1: and those people have to come together and do the
Speaker 1: right thing and figure out the way forward in terms
Speaker 1: of how brands and programmers are going to measure impact
Speaker 1: of marketing and advertising. So we're super honored and stokes
Speaker 1: that Linda recognizes and she said this to us. I
Speaker 1: just had the reaction that we're talking to the people
Speaker 1: who are going to live right and not the people
Speaker 1: that I'm fighting legacy both or it's it's those people
Speaker 1: who don't discriminate, they don't differentiate. It just is let's
Speaker 1: but if it's limiting us, let's just change it. The
Speaker 1: people who are listening to Atlantia are the ones who
Speaker 1: are going to make change in this industry and are
Speaker 1: going to bring the industry forward for the next hundred years.
Speaker 1: So we've decided to drop this episode on Monday as
Speaker 1: a precursor to the State of the Industry Forum, which
Speaker 1: will be happening tomorrow November as sort of this early
Speaker 1: look inside what's going to be happening with some of
Speaker 1: the top industry marketers, publishers, executives who have the ability
Speaker 1: to impact change. So we'll get to that after the break,
Speaker 1: but first, before we get to that interview, and I
Speaker 1: think super important and indicative of where the industry is
Speaker 1: going and why we need to fix things like brand safety, measurement, viewability,
Speaker 1: but more not just for quote unquote legacy companies by
Speaker 1: the way, or quote unquote premium right publishers and programmers,
Speaker 1: but now we're seeing a bigger effect right digital first.
Speaker 1: So we've seen in the news um Mashable looking to
Speaker 1: sell for fifty millions if Davis, which is a fifth
Speaker 1: of what they were at one time valued. You're seeing
Speaker 1: BuzzFeed and Vice reportedly going to be missing AD revenue earnings.
Speaker 1: And one of the things we were texting about earlier
Speaker 1: Alexa was the idea that you know, is this because
Speaker 1: these folks succumbed to scale and thinking about the lowest
Speaker 1: common denominator and we're ahead of the curve UH and
Speaker 1: thinking about how they could diversify their revenue models. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think there are a couple of things
Speaker 1: I think that can we like pause on the mashable things.
Speaker 1: Someone I was reading someone's tweet last night about Mashball
Speaker 1: and they're like, but they were so successful for twelve
Speaker 1: years and how they should be so proud because they
Speaker 1: came out of you know, the Scottish students, you know,
Speaker 1: blog basically, And I think that the biggest thing with
Speaker 1: Mashball is the Pete Cashmore. And we had a friend
Speaker 1: who worked at UM Mashball a couple of years ago,
Speaker 1: and he came to talk to me and I said,
Speaker 1: the biggest thing that is missing from Mashball is Pete Cashmore.
Speaker 1: I was like, put them back. And I think they
Speaker 1: went for the you know what we talked about, lowest
Speaker 1: common denominator kind of programming and and scale click clickbait, clickbait,
Speaker 1: and so yeah, now they have a crappy, crappy valuation,
Speaker 1: you know. And it's interesting to see the ones that
Speaker 1: are winning and are reporting um hirings. I mean, look
Speaker 1: at Keith Grossman, who's been on the show from Bloomberg.
Speaker 1: They had one of their best quarters ever and Keith
Speaker 1: is coming out swinging in the industry, talking about all
Speaker 1: the different things that he is looking at selling that
Speaker 1: don't just have to do with the traditional kind of
Speaker 1: advertising model exactly when you think about leaning into their
Speaker 1: research and business intelligence is a potential offering, I mean
Speaker 1: ship getting brands on the terminal as a new source
Speaker 1: of revenue stream like these are are things that they
Speaker 1: have access to that you cannot find anywhere else in
Speaker 1: the market. I mean with sub Thomas and Meredith Levan
Speaker 1: have been able to do with the New York Times
Speaker 1: around T Brand and being early there and figuring out that, yeah,
Speaker 1: this is an opportunity to break out a creative agency
Speaker 1: and start competing for seven eight figure deals. You know
Speaker 1: that trump advertising, you know investments presumably right, Well, no,
Speaker 1: I agree, and they will go beyond that because I
Speaker 1: do believe like the advertising model in the advertising agency,
Speaker 1: that a creative agency is not a sustainable model for
Speaker 1: a lot of publishers. Maybe it is for T Brand,
Speaker 1: I hope it is, but they will go beyond that
Speaker 1: will teach them, I think, to take the next leap.
Speaker 1: The next leap. Yeah, and one of the other areas
Speaker 1: that I think is severely severely untapped. I just had
Speaker 1: the pleasure of attending the Girl Boss Rally in New
Speaker 1: York with Sofia Marosso and team, as well as Cindy
Speaker 1: Levis Glamour Women of the Year events. I will pay
Speaker 1: for that. I will pay for that, and many many
Speaker 1: other people will pay for that. And so when you
Speaker 1: start thinking about events and experiential giving people access, Jessica
Speaker 1: Lesson has done this brilliantly with the information red carpet access,
Speaker 1: exclusive behind the rope at sess to perspectives, personalities, experiences,
Speaker 1: networking events. People will pay and there's a people like
Speaker 1: us thaying that Jessica Lesson has done so freaking well,
Speaker 1: which is like the best people in tech, the people
Speaker 1: who are like the really early in this in certain
Speaker 1: spaces blockchain, da da dada, they wanted to be in
Speaker 1: a community together and she knew it and she created it.
Speaker 1: She created a place, she created a forum, and she's
Speaker 1: given access to them in to each other. Uh and
Speaker 1: too quite literally information. Yeah. So I think between you know,
Speaker 1: media publishers moving aggressively into content, thinking about events and
Speaker 1: creating moments of access, you know, thinking about merchandise and product.
Speaker 1: You know, there are so many different ways I think
Speaker 1: One of the most fascinating points that Rachel Typograph made
Speaker 1: on episode twenty was about brands collaborating with another not
Speaker 1: just in trading pixels. I mean that that's great in
Speaker 1: terms of reach, that was genius, but like, how can
Speaker 1: brands be combined. I just saw a great collaboration between
Speaker 1: all birds and outdoor voices like minded brand and getting
Speaker 1: together and doing things differently. Now that's obviously within creating,
Speaker 1: creating like a joint I p which I think is
Speaker 1: like talk about that obscure and Airbnb. I mean, these
Speaker 1: are things that people have to get outside the confines
Speaker 1: of what they're comfortable with and talk about things that
Speaker 1: are not what they do every day, right, So look
Speaker 1: beyond what you perceive as what you do. And I
Speaker 1: think we can do this in our jobs, by the way,
Speaker 1: everyone and think about where you can go. And that's
Speaker 1: as a brand, that's as an individual. One of the
Speaker 1: greatest um exercises that I love to go through in
Speaker 1: the planning process is thinking about non direct competitors and
Speaker 1: thinking about those like minded communities. I think you know
Speaker 1: we're gonna hear Lindiak cre No talk about you know,
Speaker 1: this is us being somebody who hits on the age
Speaker 1: range of eighteen to eight. And let's be honest, there's
Speaker 1: a lot to unpack within the audiences watching it. There's
Speaker 1: got to be one unifying insight across all of it,
Speaker 1: and that represents opportunities to think about programing product differently.
Speaker 1: There you go, drop and so with that, Linda Yakarina,
Speaker 1: we'll be right back. So we are back with total
Speaker 1: badass girl Boss, Linda Yakarina, chair Woman. I like to say,
Speaker 1: woman of NBC Universal, Welcome to Atlandia, Linda, Thank you
Speaker 1: so um. I appreciate it. I'm thrilled that the day
Speaker 1: is finally here. So it's a couple of days before
Speaker 1: a huge summit. What is a huge meaning huge and
Speaker 1: thought leadership, not huge in size, and you called this
Speaker 1: summit to do what, Well, what's huge about it, or
Speaker 1: maybe a little sad simultaneously, is that it's certainly never
Speaker 1: been done before, right, And we called the summit really
Speaker 1: to acknowledge that the need for change in the industry
Speaker 1: is so acute with everything that's going on from technology
Speaker 1: disruption to just sheer an utter measurement chaos, which is
Speaker 1: all of those things going on it once are just
Speaker 1: disrespecting the consumer and also the marketers. So we've got
Speaker 1: to get our act together as an industry because we
Speaker 1: have an obligation to respect both those stakeholders. Right. So,
Speaker 1: what's been the greatest thing about the summit. It's kind
Speaker 1: of taken on a life of its own and the
Speaker 1: response has been overwhelming. So from the way we talked
Speaker 1: about it, we have like four key groups participating in
Speaker 1: the biggest of ways, and it is the let's call it,
Speaker 1: the measurement community. Across the board. We've invited everyone from
Speaker 1: the linear space I don't have to name names, from
Speaker 1: the digital space, from social invited them across the board
Speaker 1: from what I would call, let's call it our traditional competitors,
Speaker 1: everyone from ABC two, Viacom all coming and some of
Speaker 1: them participating. And then we have clients, client direct market
Speaker 1: or CEO cmos for brands and then also agency holding
Speaker 1: companies all C suite people. What morning did you wake
Speaker 1: up and said I've had enough. I am leading one of,
Speaker 1: if not the biggest network in the market. I've had enough. Well,
Speaker 1: I don't know if it was one kind of seminal moment,
Speaker 1: but I will tell you. As you know, coming off
Speaker 1: of last year's upfront, NBC Universal got a lot of
Speaker 1: kudos and a lot of praise, quite frankly, from leading
Speaker 1: the marketplace in abc D things, whether it was you know,
Speaker 1: the push for automation and tech development or great content
Speaker 1: or developing our audience studio or content studio. Got out
Speaker 1: of kudos for that. But I came out on behalf
Speaker 1: of the team and the company on the other side
Speaker 1: of an upfront, which is a just a mind blowing
Speaker 1: tradition to explain right on the other side of that
Speaker 1: saying we didn't do the best we could do for
Speaker 1: our clients. And there were a lot of struggles for
Speaker 1: the reason why I shouldn't have to stand up on
Speaker 1: a stage in front of five thousand people in Radio
Speaker 1: City saying, why do we still have the handcuffs of legacy,
Speaker 1: whether it's legacy measurement, legacy process, legacy go to market conversations.
Speaker 1: Why should I have to stand up there and say
Speaker 1: a one currency metric does not do any service to
Speaker 1: a brand, okay, doesn't accomplish their business goals, and we
Speaker 1: fight so hard for that every day. So think about that.
Speaker 1: We came out on the other side of what was
Speaker 1: a literally best performance ever for our company, Comcast, NBCUniversal,
Speaker 1: So we should be thumbs up, and we came out
Speaker 1: of it almost like now is the time to do
Speaker 1: something right. So now you have kind of lightning in
Speaker 1: a bottle and that's when we said we're not taking
Speaker 1: it anymore. So you had several things going on with
Speaker 1: that lightning in a bottle moment. So you had kind
Speaker 1: of a absolute, overwhelming, really unanimous affirmation of premium content.
Speaker 1: Is it that? So we got that. No one ever
Speaker 1: argues that you have the ongoing and actual no promise
Speaker 1: yet of stopping brand safety issues. Okay, Then you have
Speaker 1: what I call measurement chaos. So you have the legacy
Speaker 1: of inaccurate reporting on the linear side because that's just
Speaker 1: riddled with issues. Then on the digital side you have
Speaker 1: all that stuff. You have the unfortunate let's call it
Speaker 1: add tax where you have to deduct from your investment,
Speaker 1: whether it's fraud, view ability. They've actually done a great
Speaker 1: job of training the audience or charining the customers that
Speaker 1: no audibility is a thing and you should say thank you. Okay.
Speaker 1: So so then you get to the what I call them,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of measurement chaos on the digital side,
Speaker 1: you got the attacks and then you have the uh,
Speaker 1: let's the walled garden or the self reporting. Yeah, if
Speaker 1: NBC Universal did that, NBC Universal did that, we would
Speaker 1: be having very serious conversations with our customers and we
Speaker 1: just can't do that right. So we're much more disciplined
Speaker 1: and we have a lot more disciplined integrity about our
Speaker 1: business practices. So what I'm trying to do is actually
Speaker 1: not even on behalf of NBC Universal, not I don't
Speaker 1: The expectation is not to come out on the other
Speaker 1: side of this or wake up Wednesday morning on the
Speaker 1: twenty nine and say NBC Universal is the greatest and
Speaker 1: where the best, give us all your money, which that
Speaker 1: would be great, but that's not the point. What the
Speaker 1: point is is to level the playing field and some
Speaker 1: pieces of the business will get better. Some pieces of
Speaker 1: the business are going to have to come into their
Speaker 1: own because growing pains is not an answer anymore. I mean,
Speaker 1: these are gigantic companies that are if you just look
Speaker 1: at the digital piece when you have the let's just
Speaker 1: call quote unquote the Duopoli, But there's a lot of
Speaker 1: other companies involved that really need to play the same way.
Speaker 1: Everyone else plays, and there's table stakes, and those table
Speaker 1: stakes need to be agreed upon by the players in
Speaker 1: the business. And I appreciate about this because we talk
Speaker 1: a lot about standardization of this industry, which it's as
Speaker 1: old as the model itself, and we've talked a lot
Speaker 1: about measurement through the lens of the wrong metrics. So
Speaker 1: thinking about things and clicks and views. And I love
Speaker 1: this quote. We tweeted about it on our Twitter handle
Speaker 1: where you said, you know, as a share bringing you
Speaker 1: in to buy a product or is that actually and
Speaker 1: what does it like really mean? And so so that's
Speaker 1: issue number one, But number two is why our third
Speaker 1: parties controlling what we're doing. And so I think when
Speaker 1: you're talking about the Nielsen's of the world and you're
Speaker 1: talking about the ib is the world, certainly there's a
Speaker 1: place to level the playing field. But never, in our opinion,
Speaker 1: has there been a more important time for the people
Speaker 1: who are actually in producing and executing it to a
Speaker 1: stake at that table and to build it. I think
Speaker 1: now it's the time for them to write for you guys,
Speaker 1: to actually build this. Okay, So we agree with you.
Speaker 1: Now do we like the idea that there is a
Speaker 1: third party or an honest broker. Yes, I agree can
Speaker 1: be because honestly, if this existed in the digital space,
Speaker 1: you wouldn't have to worry about if your spot ran
Speaker 1: next to questionable content, or if bots were being purposely purchased,
Speaker 1: or if your ad was only in the screen or
Speaker 1: the audio wasn't aired or deliver properly. So if there
Speaker 1: was an honest broker in that space, you wouldn't have
Speaker 1: to worry about that. That being said, I think that
Speaker 1: there does need to be standards, right, so they needs
Speaker 1: and actually the minimum standards that exist by the Trade
Speaker 1: Association's need to be actually elevated. Okay, particularly if what
Speaker 1: would be considered traditional or TV company standards are dramatically higher,
Speaker 1: and no one argues that they know premium content companies
Speaker 1: standards are much higher. But if we're in a bucket now,
Speaker 1: which does a converged communications plan? Right, So it's one budget,
Speaker 1: one consumer, a consumer who does not discriminate or differentiates.
Speaker 1: They want their content where when? Why, however, they decide
Speaker 1: at that moment they don't care what's next to it.
Speaker 1: By the way, and how shameful is it that as
Speaker 1: an industry we haven't been able to offer a our
Speaker 1: clients and ease of transaction, and along with that ease
Speaker 1: of transaction, one way to uniformly evaluate each piece of
Speaker 1: if you want to call it the advertising taxonomy or
Speaker 1: the kind of spectrum of delivery systems that you have.
Speaker 1: And that's why we're calling the summit, because when you're
Speaker 1: at this inflection point of a market, it's the time
Speaker 1: to make a change. It would be ridiculous if someone
Speaker 1: didn't stand up. I'm just happy you stood at right.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's the truth, and as not even a compliment,
Speaker 1: it's just like it's the The opportunity is huge NBC
Speaker 1: Universal and our partners being the biggest media company in
Speaker 1: the country, right, we take our responsibility of leadership very seriously.
Speaker 1: And one of the media industry analysts wrote something that
Speaker 1: I've said to my team fifty times, and I was
Speaker 1: happy that at least, you know, what's kind of like
Speaker 1: with your kids, when someone else says it, they believe it.
Speaker 1: But he wrote something, as it pertains to the summit,
Speaker 1: was NBCUniversal has the ability to shape the agenda, and
Speaker 1: that's all we want to do and we are happy
Speaker 1: to be, you know, an honest broker of at least
Speaker 1: clearing the path for everyone to get there, get in
Speaker 1: the room and have a responsibility on an obligation to
Speaker 1: contribute to the solve. Because the brands are certainly suffering.
Speaker 1: I mean, think about who's most vulnerable in all this
Speaker 1: convergence in that where innovation is freeing the consumer to
Speaker 1: either skip ads or have no ads at all. Right,
Speaker 1: so brands are most vulnerable. And then when they do
Speaker 1: think they're getting attached to add opportunities, they're really not.
Speaker 1: Who's seeing it, who's hearing it? Is being delivered right?
Speaker 1: And what is the performance? So if if you just
Speaker 1: have a simple ass which is all you want to know? So,
Speaker 1: as as brands or as marketers, you have a very
Speaker 1: simple ask all the time, which is all I want
Speaker 1: to know is who saw my ad and how they responded?
Speaker 1: Why is an NBC building their own version of Nielsen?
Speaker 1: We had Jared Dicker, who's the head of product over
Speaker 1: at Washington Post is taking this on from the digital
Speaker 1: standpoints like why am I waiting for so and so
Speaker 1: out in the market to come to the solution when
Speaker 1: obviously they have the backing of the bezos and the
Speaker 1: ability to pull in engineers don't see that being any
Speaker 1: different in house at So this is really great question.
Speaker 1: So there's kind of two parts of an answer to that.
Speaker 1: Number One, we stopped waiting, right, so we built our
Speaker 1: own capability through our audience studio called the audience Targeting Platform,
Speaker 1: which really takes the opportunity or challenge opportunity with something
Speaker 1: like will and grace way out from screen to screens,
Speaker 1: so screen agnostic, right, we don't care where, and we
Speaker 1: mostly don't even care when, okay, But we also expanded
Speaker 1: that to offer the opportunity to advertisers to actually ingest
Speaker 1: or deliver on their entire media plan. So it's not
Speaker 1: just will and grace. It's will and grace. It could
Speaker 1: be what portion they have on Telemundo all the way
Speaker 1: to Bravo, to CNBC, all the way down the line,
Speaker 1: and include our partners, which is BuzzFeed, Snap, Vox, Apple News,
Speaker 1: so all of our partners. So we have that capability.
Speaker 1: The opportunity for some advertisers has been spectacular. So this
Speaker 1: year will do close to a half a billion dollars
Speaker 1: on via our audience targeting platforms. So it has nothing
Speaker 1: to do with a traditional rating and everything to do
Speaker 1: with what consumer segment are you trying to reach? What
Speaker 1: type of business outcome are you trying to achieve. What's
Speaker 1: been great news is that the renewal rate or return
Speaker 1: rate has been almost and the deal size gets bigger
Speaker 1: and bigger every single time. So advertisers are coming back.
Speaker 1: They're coming back. They want to put in more correct
Speaker 1: the challenges where in a basic blocking and tackling hand
Speaker 1: to hand combat with the legacy processing system of how
Speaker 1: transaction works right now. So it's this audience targeting platform
Speaker 1: or our audience studio challenges legacy at every level. Okay, okay,
Speaker 1: so at every level it challenges process. It's not an
Speaker 1: upfront negotiation. It can be an upfront negotiation, but not, no,
Speaker 1: we don't. We have ours is quote unquote always on.
Speaker 1: But what it has to do is that the marketer,
Speaker 1: the brand, the agency or beha them has to lean
Speaker 1: in and say, here's the outcome I'm trying to achieve,
Speaker 1: or here's the audience I'm trying to target, which is
Speaker 1: deeper or more robust than an age gender split. It's
Speaker 1: more than adults or women. We hope they'll move past that. Well, well,
Speaker 1: for nine of NBC universals, maybe it's eight percent of
Speaker 1: NBC Universal's business. We have not moved past that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I believe that. Can we rewind that cam in the record,
Speaker 1: because I think that's very important point for nine of
Speaker 1: NBC universals. Maybe it's of NBC Universal's business. We have
Speaker 1: not moved past that. And we talk a lot about
Speaker 1: where the onus sits to not just change the conversation,
Speaker 1: which is the purpose of the summit around big issues,
Speaker 1: but just down to the basic blocking and tackling as
Speaker 1: you called it, or the taxonomy. Why are we Why
Speaker 1: is it the same language? Why are we so? It's
Speaker 1: so listen, to be honest with you, it makes my
Speaker 1: eyes bleed, Okay, and that's what I like that visual
Speaker 1: that we can deliver to people who are listening as minds.
Speaker 1: But um so, there's three key stakeholders for change, right.
Speaker 1: It's the media companies that the shoulders of NBC Universal
Speaker 1: in this case are broad and we were in it.
Speaker 1: We're committed, we want to make a change. But it's
Speaker 1: the media companies like NBC Universal, it's the brands themselves,
Speaker 1: and it's the agencies. Okay, So those three people or
Speaker 1: stakeholders have to contribute to the change, but the legacy
Speaker 1: is an end to end legacy. Okay, so that's why
Speaker 1: you know NBC Universal has the capability or capacity to
Speaker 1: transact this way for the ten billion dollars of a
Speaker 1: year of inventory or revenue that we generally have. Okay,
Speaker 1: more powerful than the upfront in the future. Um I
Speaker 1: think it's more powerful than the upfront in the future
Speaker 1: because it's always on. So how could you like the
Speaker 1: car you want to buy? A lot of auto companies
Speaker 1: obviously no one advanced when they're launching a car, but
Speaker 1: they also have needs, whether it's on the national level
Speaker 1: or local level, when they want to interesting add or
Speaker 1: pivot and iterate and move money from one brand and
Speaker 1: go to another brand in one market out of the market.
Speaker 1: So this capability then NBCU has and some other companies
Speaker 1: having a smaller fashion but one to one conversation with
Speaker 1: the customer comes in the form of addressable So this
Speaker 1: is awesome. NBC has it. Guess what Fox has it,
Speaker 1: Guess what Viacom has it? What the fuck? Right? So
Speaker 1: like you're gonna walk in on Tuesday and say what
Speaker 1: the funk and no one's gonna be like, hey, Linda,
Speaker 1: will go on NBC's platform like Viacom. But Bob back
Speaker 1: issue isn't gonna be like, yo, we'll go on your platform. Right.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure I necessarily agree with that. Good okay,
Speaker 1: So and I could speak only on behalf of NBC
Speaker 1: reversal and what our desire is. Okay, So you have
Speaker 1: I think good progress in You mentioned very particular companies, right,
Speaker 1: so we'll put them in a bucket of premium content
Speaker 1: companies at scale that marketers love love. I tend to
Speaker 1: try to stay away from the word legacy as it
Speaker 1: relates to premium, because it conjures up this picture in
Speaker 1: people's minds of old TV or this wooden box that's
Speaker 1: in someone's living room that plugs into the wall. I
Speaker 1: actually think we need a new name in general, because
Speaker 1: premium to me, well, I don't know what to call
Speaker 1: it because like my um, well he just turned six.
Speaker 1: My nephew calls his phone his little TV, which is
Speaker 1: kind of a cool I was like, what he's saying
Speaker 1: that just for ant um. But so when we look
Speaker 1: at those kind of companies take box via common Turner
Speaker 1: companies that would be like, oh my god, there are
Speaker 1: competitors at NBC. We don't think about them that way.
Speaker 1: We think about them as other members of the ecosystem
Speaker 1: who are trying to figure out how to reestablish a
Speaker 1: value for premium content providers. That gets the marketers attention
Speaker 1: because we know that we basically on top of the funnel.
Speaker 1: We know that kind of that mid range consideration to purchase,
Speaker 1: we're pretty strong. But we also have streams of data
Speaker 1: or reams of data that own about I would say,
Speaker 1: on the low end of that bottom of the funnel
Speaker 1: or last quick attribution bs you hear from a lot
Speaker 1: of other folks. Okay, that being said, so they came perfect.
Speaker 1: They formed a consortium called open a p which is
Speaker 1: basically consumer segment or data collective to make it easier
Speaker 1: for buyers. NBC Universal is not in it yet, Okay,
Speaker 1: but we're not in it because we don't want to
Speaker 1: be in it. We completely believe and we support an
Speaker 1: industry wide solution to make the ease of transaction one
Speaker 1: let's call it one imagined platform where everyone gets to
Speaker 1: sell and do their own things. But if you're trying
Speaker 1: to sell more cars or sell more for insurance policies,
Speaker 1: you should identify that consumer segment in advance. You should
Speaker 1: be able to transact on the inventory that's available at
Speaker 1: that time forbid, not for a bid. And then at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, my job is to come
Speaker 1: and talk to you like a human all the time
Speaker 1: and sell you the value of my own wares and
Speaker 1: the differentiation for NBCU or say I have this promotion
Speaker 1: on will and Grace is going to kick ass make
Speaker 1: sure you do that. And I feel very strongly that, um,
Speaker 1: we should, NBCUniversal should be part of the collective change.
Speaker 1: There really is just technical reasons of why NBCUniversal has
Speaker 1: a TP audience targeting platform, which is really an end
Speaker 1: to end solution that's up running and you could do
Speaker 1: your whole deal with us beginning to end. You get
Speaker 1: your post to do whatever we did across it, including
Speaker 1: all of our partners. So if you use a TP
Speaker 1: across all of our partners, which is Buzzfeedbox, Snap Apple News,
Speaker 1: why wouldn't we want to include or grow to the
Speaker 1: point where we're in business with the open AP partners.
Speaker 1: So that is a continuing conversation that I am very
Speaker 1: optimistic about. What do you hope the headline is on
Speaker 1: November What we're trying to guarantee that the headline isn't
Speaker 1: on November. Ho hum, that was just another summit. Okay.
Speaker 1: So what we're really what I would call bullish on
Speaker 1: is the caliber of people that are participating and the
Speaker 1: level of provocative candor that they are prepared to contribute.
Speaker 1: I know that we are going to ask for commitments
Speaker 1: and ask for next steps and ask for change. How
Speaker 1: that ask comes out, we're not sure yet. So you're
Speaker 1: letting it right like you're letting it go natural. No, oh, well, no,
Speaker 1: we have a programmed agenda that's still forming because we
Speaker 1: have you know, again, the level of response and the
Speaker 1: level of executives that we're excited about this notion and
Speaker 1: and raise their hand and said I want to be in,
Speaker 1: I want to do it, I want to be there,
Speaker 1: or I want to participate has been great. So do
Speaker 1: you think that these kind of great changes to the
Speaker 1: industry actually require new talent? And I don't mean new
Speaker 1: as an age that's on an age comment by any means.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about different skill sets people coming in. Are
Speaker 1: you looking for different types of people? Um? I really
Speaker 1: think it's a mindset. So if you want to have
Speaker 1: a mindset for innovation and this I don't mean for
Speaker 1: it to sound cliche, but I mean it really seriously.
Speaker 1: Is that you have to have a diverse organization. And
Speaker 1: I don't mean diversity in the sense of just the
Speaker 1: way you look, although that has a lot to do
Speaker 1: with it, whether it's a mixture of male female, whether
Speaker 1: it has a mixture of race, ethnicity, but however you
Speaker 1: want to call it. But it also has to be
Speaker 1: a diversity of experience. Okay, So on our teams, I
Speaker 1: actually we even try to push I just recently UM
Speaker 1: met this guy through an industry event who is actually
Speaker 1: an engineer in the petroleum and national gas industry who
Speaker 1: has this view on how he looks at inventory. He's
Speaker 1: basically what he does is is almost think about it
Speaker 1: like an airline, how they price seats and things like
Speaker 1: that in a very perishable, real time nature. He does
Speaker 1: a lot of things like that in his job. And
Speaker 1: I became very, very infatuated with the idea of him
Speaker 1: coming into our company because to bring that in that
Speaker 1: says so I think the diversity of experience is very important.
Speaker 1: And we have people, for example, our audience studio. I
Speaker 1: have forty engineers on our staff right now that we
Speaker 1: didn't have two years ago, and so we'll start talking
Speaker 1: about them more. We will start talking about it, and
Speaker 1: you have to meet this rock star woman. Maybe you
Speaker 1: have her. Her name is Denise Kalela. We heard her.
Speaker 1: She was a CEO of an antech company that literally
Speaker 1: I met her and within like the first half hour,
Speaker 1: I'm like no, I told her, I'm like, you will
Speaker 1: never be able to shake me off your leg. We
Speaker 1: didn't have one, and to imagine, oh, female engineers, so
Speaker 1: awesome about that. But then also we look at our
Speaker 1: client Partnerships team that deals with brands or marketers directly.
Speaker 1: There are people in that group that we made a
Speaker 1: really conscious effort that had clients experience, that had analytic
Speaker 1: side experience, and that had branding experience, because we needed
Speaker 1: to be able to think like our marketers instead of saying,
Speaker 1: I have ten spots an hour and this is us.
Speaker 1: That's such an old way of positioning the value of
Speaker 1: what NBC universal is crazy idea. There are so many
Speaker 1: brands consume, especially consumer brands that are startups. Now, I
Speaker 1: think it'd be freaking amazing if NBC said I'm going
Speaker 1: to take some kind of steak, I'm gonna help grow
Speaker 1: you and I'm gonna show you how advertising because I
Speaker 1: see some of these DTC brands always start getting really
Speaker 1: big and getting on TV and they're actually not doing
Speaker 1: the right kind of programming to startup. Could you actually
Speaker 1: is so enormous. So we have this program thank you
Speaker 1: question the we have this program that right now that
Speaker 1: we've had a lot of success with on um using
Speaker 1: c NBC so a lot of those when you say,
Speaker 1: incubated stuff. So we have a lot of deals with
Speaker 1: them that we're will actually even tests, say take our
Speaker 1: own air because it's so valuable for the you know,
Speaker 1: kind of financial community of Wall Street market, but also
Speaker 1: to test the power of on air and say, you
Speaker 1: know what, let's put together a schedule and watch the power.
Speaker 1: So so don't worry about that's what I'm talking about. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is what I make that. No, I'm loving you're
Speaker 1: you're right on with it. So we want to know,
Speaker 1: let's step outside Linda in the boardroom and let's talk
Speaker 1: about Linda Yak, the professional who's come up and taken
Speaker 1: the bull by the horns. If you will, so tell
Speaker 1: us something we don't know about your rise at NBCU
Speaker 1: that would surprise people. Oh, my goodness about my rise
Speaker 1: at NBC. I think a lot of people don't know that.
Speaker 1: If you can include my college internship, this is my
Speaker 1: fourth time at NBC. Do you have to be tougher
Speaker 1: as a woman at the top, Um, okay, do you
Speaker 1: have to be tougher? I don't think you have to
Speaker 1: be tougher. I think you have to work harder, no question.
Speaker 1: And I think you have to present yourself differently because
Speaker 1: you have to work harder. You have to present yourself
Speaker 1: differently because you're graded differently. And there's listen, I have
Speaker 1: looked at until my most recent like let's call it,
Speaker 1: two positions I've had at the company. I felt that
Speaker 1: being a woman was a real advantage because I thank you, okay,
Speaker 1: But now more often than not, whether it's at client
Speaker 1: meetings or in my own company meetings, um, I'm often
Speaker 1: the only woman, one of a very fewer only women
Speaker 1: in the room. Now I do have to go on record,
Speaker 1: my boss, Steve Burke, is gender blind. Whoever's the best
Speaker 1: for the job gets the job, and hit literally it's
Speaker 1: amazing that being said. In my day to day work, um,
Speaker 1: it's lonely, okay, But I have to be very careful
Speaker 1: because and I'm known to be you know, aggressive, men
Speaker 1: would be a driver. That's right. I like air quotes
Speaker 1: than important. So so if I am trying to push
Speaker 1: a new agenda, right or or pushing for change, you know,
Speaker 1: Linda's Linda's passionate, emotional, dramatic, those words are not used
Speaker 1: to describe a man. Okay. So I've been very conscious
Speaker 1: and I've been really lucky to have I'm very big
Speaker 1: on training and continuing education and have had a coach
Speaker 1: many years throughout my career, and we've done a lot
Speaker 1: of work on very specifically choosing words to present myself
Speaker 1: or to deal with a a review, a review that
Speaker 1: might say she's dramatic or emotional, and it just, honestly,
Speaker 1: there's some things that just comes with the territory. You
Speaker 1: just have to learn how to navigate it and swim
Speaker 1: with the shark. I think language is one of the
Speaker 1: most important and underused weapons in business. What's the biggest
Speaker 1: lesson you learned in leadership? Um? Two things. I'll start
Speaker 1: with the not so positive an end on the positive.
Speaker 1: Two things. Leadership can be extraordinarily lonely, okay, because sometimes
Speaker 1: you have to make tough decisions. Sometimes the your your gut,
Speaker 1: your moral compass is challenged and when you are the
Speaker 1: the leader or at it reach a certain level. Um,
Speaker 1: that's lonely and you have to have really conviction to
Speaker 1: power through it. That's one number two, and it's one
Speaker 1: of the biggest things I'm proud of at NBC Universal
Speaker 1: is culture. Culture is that if you have to say,
Speaker 1: what defines what has been the biggest contributor to the
Speaker 1: success at NBC Universal has had in the last five
Speaker 1: years and as a complete change in direction of the
Speaker 1: culture and culture drives your success and it will also
Speaker 1: eat your success for lunch if you're not careful those
Speaker 1: on your board of directors, my board of directors, personal
Speaker 1: board of directors or um oh no, I have a
Speaker 1: full board, Laura, I like to take it. We may
Speaker 1: have some openings. Um I think. Am I still allowed
Speaker 1: to say that my mom and dad are on the show? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I would be so scared to know
Speaker 1: if my mother came on. God, she's four ft ten
Speaker 1: and ways about ninety calves and she will take over
Speaker 1: the without a doubt. Chickens, my mom would say, Um,
Speaker 1: so my mom and dad are my first go two's right.
Speaker 1: But I also have two very successful, very educated sisters,
Speaker 1: ones in the banking business and ones in the healthcare.
Speaker 1: She's a cheap nursing officer. That's my identical twin. UM.
Speaker 1: So they are very senior executives in very different businesses,
Speaker 1: and it's extraordinary opportunity that I have to bounce things
Speaker 1: off because they have such different perspectives. Sometimes for each
Speaker 1: of us it depends what day the week it is.
Speaker 1: We have conference calls and we literally work it like
Speaker 1: you get all of you get all of us, so
Speaker 1: that so we really do. So I'm very lucky to
Speaker 1: have very um like seasoned executives who I'm completely comfortable
Speaker 1: with and can be completely vulnerable or they call me
Speaker 1: out and say, whoa, you are reading this the wrong way,
Speaker 1: and let's you're wrong, let's pivot and do it. So
Speaker 1: so that's in the family. And then actually, you know,
Speaker 1: I have your sister and health care. You're not saving lives.
Speaker 1: I am okay, wait a minute, that's this is the
Speaker 1: I can't believe you just said that, because the whole thing,
Speaker 1: and the whole thing in the family is, um, we
Speaker 1: don't care about CPMs. We are saving lives. Because my
Speaker 1: daughter is becoming a nurse also, she's graduating in two weeks.
Speaker 1: But so she's following in her aunt's footsteps and we
Speaker 1: are saving lives. She's out of the will um but um.
Speaker 1: And then I do have some long time clients that
Speaker 1: I can talk openly and actually help me shape what
Speaker 1: our position or whatever new idea we have for nbc U.
Speaker 1: So I feel great about that and I feel very
Speaker 1: very lucky. Um it's time killed by d I y
Speaker 1: What would Linda Yakarino kill? What would you buy? What
Speaker 1: would you do yourself? Anything? Anything? Um? What would I kill?
Speaker 1: Any form of legacy? Okay, build it fresh? You know
Speaker 1: they talk about zero based budgeting or be fresh. Think
Speaker 1: about what your outcome is supposed to be, not the
Speaker 1: way you did it last year or did it yesterday
Speaker 1: or did it before. Then you never get better, you
Speaker 1: just keep doing the same thing over and over and over.
Speaker 1: I think so definitely yeah, And I don't say kill
Speaker 1: legacy to take away the things that are positive. But
Speaker 1: if legacy what's holding you back, then you have to
Speaker 1: rethink it and feel like you have the freedom to
Speaker 1: challenge it. One of the single biggest issues in this
Speaker 1: industry are the people that say, but that's not the
Speaker 1: way it's done, That's not the way we do that here, right,
Speaker 1: So what would you buy besides a new pair of
Speaker 1: Manola's um, I probably buy some type of fashion company.
Speaker 1: I just joined the board of directors, which has been
Speaker 1: a little dream come to the last couple of years
Speaker 1: goal of line to to join a public board and
Speaker 1: it is in the fashion retail scase. Oh yeah, it's
Speaker 1: an amazing company called the Scene of Retail group. They
Speaker 1: own and Taylor Lewin Gray, congratulations you, thank you. I
Speaker 1: feel really really lucky, especially in a day where so
Speaker 1: many women are needed on so many boards that I'm
Speaker 1: happy to be able to advocate and if angelized, more
Speaker 1: of that to happen. So also do and what would
Speaker 1: you do yourself? What would I do myself? Well, honestly,
Speaker 1: I could say that I'll speak on behalf of the
Speaker 1: professional hat that I wear at NBCUniversal and literally we
Speaker 1: couldn't wait anymore for measurement to change, so we built
Speaker 1: it ourselves with our audience studio, and we don't have
Speaker 1: to be beholden to that, so we will continue building
Speaker 1: and investing and then maybe some kind of pick ups
Speaker 1: along the way with an ad tech company or something
Speaker 1: like that. But we built the infrastructure ourselves and to
Speaker 1: be able to have the unique relationship with our comcasts
Speaker 1: at top Box Data has been extraordinary. How many shoes
Speaker 1: need to um? I don't know, but I will put
Speaker 1: it in a more. How about a more or less
Speaker 1: than fifty pairs? What's that's more? Um? Though the answer
Speaker 1: was more? Okay, So I might wear these November. Okay,
Speaker 1: don't don't judge me. If I don't, it just means
Speaker 1: they didn't go come. But I bought this pair that
Speaker 1: I was on a waiting list four um easy season
Speaker 1: four Yeah, um like calf high Python yea. Where these
Speaker 1: on Instagram? She's my girl? So yeah, Linda, so are
Speaker 1: not worthy? We're not worthy? So Linda, if there's someone
Speaker 1: if you're a size seven and a half, feel free
Speaker 1: to borrow. So if there's someone who wants to talk
Speaker 1: to you, how did they get a hold of you? Okay?
Speaker 1: At Linda yak is the best way on Twitter? Thank you, Lindi.
Speaker 1: This conversation has been incredible and just for the record,
Speaker 1: we can say this was the exclusive State of the
Speaker 1: Industry forum. We got the exclusive you got the exclusive. Honestly,
Speaker 1: you guys, I am so flattered. Thank you for coming work,
Speaker 1: thank you for everything. So that was insane does insane.
Speaker 1: She's just representing everything that we asked for and look
Speaker 1: for in the industry, which is, don't accept convention buck legacy,
Speaker 1: think about where change needs to happen, and listen to
Speaker 1: other people in the room that you wouldn't expect have
Speaker 1: a perspective. I think that. I mean, that's also something
Speaker 1: that I've been amazed with her about. Yeah, and just
Speaker 1: the ability, and I love that she said, check your
Speaker 1: logo and your ego at the door. This is about
Speaker 1: moving the industry forward. And I couldn't think of a
Speaker 1: better place to have that conversation than with our listeners
Speaker 1: in Atlantia. So with that, big thanks, Cameron, drewth mad
Speaker 1: turk Andy Bowers, all of our friends and family of
Speaker 1: Panoply and Atlantia. Keep talking to us. The immunity is growing.
Speaker 1: Hit us on the Twitter at Atlantia podcast. We'll be
Speaker 1: back in two weeks. Full disclosure. Our opinions are our own.
Speaker 1: One word of advice to women figuring it out on
Speaker 1: their way to the top in our industry, be courageous,
Speaker 1: just like it's courage I love that