CampaignTV: Yahoo's Rose Tsou on investing in the region

When asked about major influences on Yahoo's marketing strategy, Tsou said the number one priority is expanding the user base and growing 'newternet' users, including those that are younger, keen to outreach more and not necessarily in front of a computer all the time.

She adds B2B marketing as another pillar for the company's marketing strategy to showcase Yahoo’s products or digital capabilities to advertisers, especially the targeting capability.

In response to a question about the most important technological developments, Tsou said that cloud computing is fundamental as it's changing not just Yahoo, but also the industry. 

"Without cloud it would be enormously expensive to provide the servers and capacity on a local level," she said.

When asked about important markets for the brand in 2011, Tsou mentioned India and Southeast Asia as the primary focus to drive the user base, wheras in more mature ad markets like HK, Taiwan, Korea and Australia, the growth momentum is very strong and the focus is to maintain the market leadership.

She added that in Southeast Asia, important markets are Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Singapore as the head quarters for the region. 

Overall, she said, Yahoo is investing heavily in the Asia-Pacific region.

Speaking of the company's approach in emerging vs. developed markets, Tsou said Yahoo uses a combination of on-and offline media and leverage the brand's own media power. In emerging markets, she said, mass media and getting into the places where people physically access the internet is where the company puts the marketing media mix.

Click here to watch other interviews in the series, including Citibank's Francesco Lagutaine, Richemont's Nicolas Brindjonc and Aegis Media's Nick Waters.