Sunnyvale, California — With the ongoing shuffling of management under the leadership of recently appointed CEO Carol Bartz, Yahoo! Inc. announced that it has tapped Silicon Valley’s seasoned marketing executive, “Elisa Steele” as its new chief marketing officer, effective today.
Steele will be responsible for managing the global marketing operations for the ailing search giant, as well as its marketing functions including brand marketing, audience marketing, corporate communications, insights, policy and privacy, community affairs, and related central teams. She reports to Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz.
Bartz has made reviving the Yahoo brand a top priority since joining the company in January.
“It is one of our biggest assets,” Bartz wrote in a blog post in late February.
“Mention Yahoo practically anywhere in the world, and people yodel. But in the past few years, we have not been as clear in showing the world what the Yahoo brand stands for. We are going to change that. Look for this company’s brand to kick ass again.”
“The Yahoo! brand is one of our most valuable and strategic assets, and Elisa is charged with unlocking its potential globally. Elisa has an outstanding track record in leading global marketing, branding, and communications teams, and we are excited to welcome her to Yahoo!’s executive staff,” said Bartz. “Yahoo!’s marketing strategy and teams have become decentralized over time — hiring Elisa in the CMO role will quickly mobilize our plan to integrate the function globally and more effectively represent the Yahoo! Brand.”
Steele comes to Yahoo from NetApp, a Silicon Valley-based provider of storage systems. There she managed corporate marketing, including brand strategy and corporate relations. Her work at NetApp included strategically repositioning the brand in the category and a major global relaunch.
Before NetApp, Steele led Sun’s integrated marketing and merchandising organization, where she was responsible for global go-to-market initiatives, campaign execution, events, online marketing, and installed base marketing. Steele also led several other marketing functions at Sun. Her professional experience also includes management positions at iPlanet eCommerce Solutions, JavaSoft, and AT&T.
“I’m excited to join the team and help unleash the incredible power of the Yahoo! brand,” said Steele. “I look forward to working closely with Carol and the entire organization to help renew the company’s focus on its customers and to reassert the brand’s relevance around the globe.”
Yahoo has been without a CMO since October 2007, when Cammie Dunaway resigned. She eventually landed at Nintendo.
Last month, Bartz, rolled out a major reorganization of Yahoo, integrating its various technology and product groups into one division. Bartz said at the time that after “a month and a half in the saddle” she was ready to make changes. Among these, Yahoo chief technology officer Ari Balogh, was moved to head technology and product operations.
Marco Boerries, head of Yahoo’s Connected Life group, which focuses on bringing Yahoo products to mobile devices, resigned for personal reasons. Yahoo’s mobile efforts are now led by David Ko, senior vice president of the Connected Life group.
Yahoo has pulled back on its advertising in recent years. Its most recent brand campaign was in 2007, when its “Be a better…” push promoted how Yahoo could improve people’s lives in different ways.
Its ad spending, not including online, dropped from $40 million-plus in 2007 to $24 million in 2008, per Nielsen Monitor-Plus. WPP Group’s Soho Square and OgilvyOne are Yahoo’s lead agencies.
Steele holds a master of business administration degree from San Francisco State University and a bachelor of business administration degree from the University of New Hampshire.