Experiential marketing is a brand philosophy you either have or you do not.

I've always been an experiential person. Making every moment memorable is how I live my day-to-day, and I live in the now. Guiding and leading experiential and broader marketing teams has been seamless.

I did my graduate work at NYU with an expertise in sports business. A family friend was Coach Tom Coughlin, and I had a conversation with him about working with the New York Giants. I came in in a small capacity at the beginning, on game-day experiences for top clients and suite-holders, and was brought in on a project basis over the next two years while in graduate school. I was part of a true winning team: a Super Bowl-winning team. When organisations talk about being on a winning team now, I know what it feels like.

Time Inc., Meredith, Verizon Media, Yahoo. I don't see it as a pivot from sports; I see it as an expansion. Sports is one-to-one (a fan with a team, a fan with a player). Media expands that into the ecosystem around the sport. Tech is the technology that allows sport and entertainment to live in your daily life. Yahoo Fantasy is one example; Yahoo Finance is another. These are all forms of entertainment and they're important in everyday life.

The thread that connects them is the opportunity to build memory. A memory is a past event that impacts future decisions. In sports that was lifelong fandom. At Yahoo it means creating consumer or client experiences (on the B2B side) that get people to take action and to have a real sensibility for what Yahoo can provide them.

Experiential lets you feel a brand and not only see one. I call my team a team of live storytellers. The job is finding opportunities to create memories that drive future impact. The way to think about it is relevance and resonance. Relevance is the opportunity to open the door, backed by data and insights. We want to be in front of the right audience at the right time. Resonance is the emotional quality you bring. What makes it impactful is the storytelling that surrounds it.

We're celebrating Yahoo's 30th anniversary, paying homage to where we came from and growing what we're known for now. We're well known in San Francisco for a billboard we had years ago, A Nice Place to Stay on the Internet. We brought that to life alongside the trend of motels popping up across the US as destination experiences. The whole beach was Motel Yahoo.

Inside Motel Yahoo we brought our brands to life immersively. The bar was Our Search Bar. The front desk felt like entering a hotel lobby and had a mailbox where you could send messages home through Yahoo Mail. There was a mini-golf course branded Yahoo Sports. Yahoo Sports also brought morning paddleboarding. We pulled together a Yahoo alumni happy hour with over 700 former Yahoos coming together to do the infamous Yahoo Yodel all in one place. That kind of memory lasts for people for a long time.

Partnerships are a big part of live experiences because working together scales reach (you bring in two different audiences), and the partnership should be additive. With the San Francisco 49ers (a long-standing partnership rooted in Silicon Valley, an important footprint), every time the 49ers score a touchdown the entire Levi's Stadium bursts into the Yahoo Yodel. Yahoo is a brand that brings joy into everyday life; the logo has an exclamation point in it. Being part of those joyful moments is additive to the in-stadium experience and additive for the brand.

With NASCAR, Denny Hamlin (our driver this year) won an important race that launched him into the playoffs. Over the race radio (which 5 million listeners on average tune in to during a NASCAR race), he yodelled. That's how he celebrated the moment of joy.

Wu-Tang Clan was celebrating the 30th anniversary of their debut album, aligned to our 30th anniversary. They're incredibly relevant today (I live in Brooklyn and every third person is wearing a Wu-Tang shirt). Shortly after, Nike relaunched the Wu-Tang special-edition shoe; they had also just started a Las Vegas residency.

We did a concert experience with them. They performed their top hits and did covers. The most powerful moment was an homage to hip-hop artists who have passed away: Biggie, DMX, Tupac. All eight surviving Wu-Tang members were there. ODB has passed away, and his verses were performed by LDB, his son, who came out on stage. That brought many people to tears and inspired them in a way that wasn't an ad for Yahoo. It was a memory we got to create for people, and they get to take it with them and tell the story.

An internal mantra at Yahoo is always under construction. We are always trying to continue to build and develop the best product experiences. Visually we lean into vintage and current: a brand that has continued to evolve, with the expertise of being one of the OGs. The register runs through how we bring marketing experiences and partnerships to life.

We did a consumer event at South by Southwest with Marty Bell, who started Pool Suite. He spent winters in Scotland (cold, dark) and started a digital radio station as a way to escape and take a vacation. Pool Suite has become a lifestyle, entertainment, and digital brand. He leans into up-and-coming DJs and uses imagery from 80s and 90s European jet-set life, which vibes well with the 90s nostalgia in our visual ID.

We built a 10-hour party at SXSW for influencers and tastemakers to immerse them in the Yahoo brand. Three or four DJs (including The Knocks and Shaboozey). An immersive photo booth that took you back to early 90s internet life, complete with office props. Drinks named dial-up daiquiri. The details ran throughout.

AI is an incredible thought partner. It helps us get the relevance of what we're doing right (where data and insights come in), and that lets us move faster. The human piece is the resonance: designing what will impact people emotionally, the thing they carry with them for days and years to come.

Digital and live experience have to work together; the digital scales the experience beyond the people in the room. We work significantly with talent. The Pool Suite partnership at SXSW with The Knocks and Shaboozey is one example. Whether the moment is consumer or B2B, talent that helps people understand the nature and vibe of our brand is critical.

People crave live experiences and the connection of community. Our industry works hard, so when you can combine a work experience with a personal first or a memory, that's a unique opportunity. We did a concert with The Chainsmokers at Cannes Lions on a packed beach; Shaboozey came out and danced. A client (a married woman with kids) told me afterwards Shannon, this is the best day of my life. I've subsequently seen her about 20 times and every time she says it back to me. That's what people expect from brands now: moments they might not find elsewhere, additive to their experience rather than distractive.

Success comes from a moment living on in conversation and scaling in conversation. It becomes part of the dialogue. That's how we measure: social listening and the way it persists. The fact people are still talking about Motel Yahoo, the Wu-Tang moment, or the Chainsmokers night is what proves the work.

The most important thing is authenticity. Be true to the voice and style of your brand. We didn't have a Yahoo beach at Cannes; we had Motel Yahoo, brought to life immersively. It felt Yahoo. You couldn't have replaced the brand. That's how brands need to show up. Don't play someone else's game. Play your game. Yahoo leans into humour and culture to help tell the story, never into the serious-ad register. The work feels Yahoo, and it stands out from others.

You have to embrace the unknown and the white space. The best leadership advice I give my team is twofold.

Say yes. Say yes to new opportunities. Say yes to dinner when you're tired. Say yes to the conference even if it means weekend travel. Say yes to standing in line for the event because you might meet someone interesting. People need to get out of their offices and into the world. You can get cultural references from TikTok and social, but you won't feel it until you experience it. 99% of my creative decisions are made outside the office (in an art museum, at an event, in a conversation with my friends).

Allow space for the magic. Pull back on programming and over-planning. Real conversations are born in the white space. The Wu-Tang example was the proof: we're prescriptive about the artists we choose and why, but we give them space and flexibility to do their thing, which is what makes the moment special.

We can all be curious and stay curious, but innately we'll be curious about some things more than others. I'm going to say yes and try new things makes you less averse to risk and putting yourself out there. It opens up the team to deliver creative ideas without fear of the wrong idea. That's the leadership principle I want running through the team.

The balance of data and insights meeting creativity (relevance and resonance) will continue, and people will push the limits. The Cardi B campaign around her album is the recent reference: the DoorDash Cardi Bodega, the MTA announcement on the New York City subway (It's Cardi B, this is the best subway ride I've taken in years). It was an homage to New York City, the city that raised her and gave her the career, done with multiple partnerships.

Partnerships will continue to be key. Vulnerability will come through in how brands and artists show up, which is authentic and real. Storytelling stays at the heart of it.

Say yes to new things. The path won't be a straight line. At many points along the way I took the harder and more unknown road, and what resulted were opportunities that wouldn't otherwise have opened up. Raise your hand. Try new things. Do things off the corner of your desk. Make sure people know what you're passionate about and what you're good at.

I have quarterly career conversations with my leads. They aren't one-to-ones; we don't dig into the daily work. They're an opportunity for the lead to talk about what inspires them, where they want to go, what they want to learn, so we can bring that into the everyday workplace.