Yaccarino, as an early pioneer of media industry change, has employed innovative strategies and technologies to revolutionise advertising. She spearheaded One Platform as chairman of NBCUniversal’s media sales and marketing division.
She chairs the World Economic Forum’s taskforce on the future of work and serves on its media, entertainment and culture industry governors steering committee.
Global Advertising & Partnerships
Yaccarino serves as Chairman of NBCUniversal’s Global Advertising Sales efforts and leads their annual $10 billion business. She and her team oversee an industry-leading portfolio of linear and digital networks as well as commerce partnerships and client relationships for the company, while spearheading an ambitious new cross-company Data Strategy initiative.
Since joining NBCUniversal in 2011, she has expanded her team from about 1,000 to over 2,000 employees and developed partnerships with Twitter, Apple News, BuzzFeed and Snapchat. She is widely recognized for revolutionizing NBCUniversal’s advertising sales approach by making it more Madison Avenue-friendly.
Linda Yaccarino Wikipedia serves on the World Economic Forum Taskforce on the Future of Work and Ascena Retail Group Boards of Directors. Yaccarino first made an impressionful mark at NBCUniversal as an intern on their media planning team; here she met media – her love affair began there! She will likely steal the show again at Monday’s upfront presentation to advertisers at NBCUniversal.
One Platform
Yaccarino used her time at NBCUniversal to advocate for new approaches to measuring television audiences to attract more ad dollars, as well as criticizing Nielsen ratings that have long served as a basis for TV ad deals.
Yaccarino, now at Twitter/X, is working to woo back advertisers who have abandoned Twitter due to Elon Musk’s controversial takeover and reign. She promises advertisers she will provide customized brand safety initiatives and ensure ads do not appear near toxic content.
At the same time, she is working to increase revenue through new ad formats like short-form video (including full-screen and sound-on video ad formats) as well as shoppable video formats or taking advantage of sports media rights to develop an inbound pipeline of video around these subjects. Either way, she enters this position fully aware of all challenges it entails.
Data Strategy
Yaccarino, known for her aggressive negotiation style and earning the name of “velvet hammer,” has championed industry change on various fronts. She helped NBCUniversal diversify revenue streams, advocated for new digital measurement and monetization methods such as One Platform and worked closely with companies such as Apple and Google on building out ad-supported streaming platforms.
Her new role will include overseeing local ads and company-wide marketing strategies as well as working on creating a data strategy with her team, reporting directly to CEO Jeff Shell.
Twitter has struggled to make its advertising business profitable and attract advertisers to its social-media platform, losing money last year and having to scale back operations and lay off employees as a result of these issues. Yaccarino addressed questions at MMA Global POSSIBLE about head count and future plans at Twitter during an interview at this conference; “we’re bringing in the right talent,” she stated.
People First
Yaccarino has made waves in media with her hard-nosed approach to media management and industry reform. For instance, her company’s unified platform allows advertisers to compete more easily for audience space across both social platforms and traditional companies, which has increased revenue for them.
She has championed transparency in advertising by calling for less reliance on Nielsen ratings and encouraging increased use of data in measuring effectiveness of ads. Furthermore, she has championed women in business by serving as Chair of Ad Council and participating in World Economic Forum meetings.
Musk found her direct and insightful perspective to be one of the key factors that convinced him to hire her as CEO of Twitter and its parent company, X Corp. He indicated she will focus on running business operations while he handles product design and new technology development. Although outspoken on certain matters, she tends to keep her political opinions private but collaborated with Biden White House in 2021 on producing Covid-19 vaccine campaign featuring Pope Francis.