"Insights" is a Valley term for analytical marketing — taking the vast amounts of data generated by users' Web activity, and acting on that information. This used to be the realm of Usama Fayyad, Yahoo's now-departed chief data officer. With the departure of traditional brand marketer Cammie Dunaway, and the ascension of Colella, I'm begining to see a pattern. Decker is trying to replace art with science — marketing by the numbers.

It's a shift Decker has already made in Yahoo's sales department, starting with the disgraceful forced departure of respected ad-sales chief Wenda Harris MIllard, a botched exit which is still talked about on Madison Avenue. Millard, now at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, has loudly defended the role of art in the sales process, the notion that human intelligence can sometimes better match advertiser and audience than an automated exchange.

Decker and Colella may have an easier time automating Yahoo's marketing efforts, though. Pop quiz: What does Yahoo's brand mean? Right. When you're starting with a blank slate, painting by numbers may be the easiest solution.

It is a lonely job in the sense that you have to make some of the tough calls.

It feels like I've been in training for the past 13 years.

I feel some urgency for what Yahoo has to do and we have some challenges ... It feels like forever but it's also gone by very fast.

When things are going great you want to feel like you belong to something, and when things are not going great the (company) identity can help you get through it.

We're in that transformation again where there's a change in the way advertising is sold... We are embracing the change.

I don't think Yahoo can be Facebook tomorrow; I don't think we want to be Facebook

There hasn't been a lot of innovation around display relevancy.

I'm in the position of pinching myself everyday to say I started the company, but we lucked into creating the Yahoo name. Today I'm still not sure why we added the exclamation point

On the Yahoo brand:

We have a lot of work to do there.

Oh, and Yang's conspicuous failure to mention the exit of chief marketing officer Cammie Dunaway?

We had to fire her traitorous ass.

As you may have heard, on November 2, Cammie Dunaway will leave Yahoo! to take on a new challenge. In her 4 1/2 years, she built an award winning direct marketing team; improved our customer insights; and found creative ways to improve our brand. Cammie has strengthened the Marketing function and built a strong bench of creative talent. I'd like to thank Cammie for her leadership and dedication and all that she has done for Yahoo! I wish her the best in her future endeavors.

Since the formation of the President organization, Cammie and I have discussed the best way to align the Customer Experience Division (CED) with our new purpose and strategies. In support of our "Must Buy" big bet we have already moved advertiser and publisher marketing into the Global Partners Solutions (GPS) division. We will now take this opportunity to move a number of functions to support our consumer "Starting Point" big bet and initiate a more dedicated focus of insights as part of our core Yahoo strategy. Therefore we are making the following changes.

Yahoo! Network Marketing

The following teams will now report into the Yahoo! Network Division (YND):

• Audience "Go to Market" team led by David Riemer
• Direct Marketing led by Nick Besbeas
• Consumer/Customer Innovation led by Karin Timpone
• Customer Care led by Laura Narducci

We will take the next few weeks to determine the head of a new YND Marketing organization. In the meantime, David Riemer will continue to be the point of contact for YND marketing efforts.

Strategy and Insights

Given the important role of insights to our company strategy we are aligning the Customer Insights organization with Corporate Strategy so we can better leverage insights across Yahoo, globally. Therefore, Peter Daboll will now report to Gerry Horkan, head of Corporate Strategy.

Customer Experience Division

The following teams will now comprise the Customer Experience division:

• The Brand team led by Allen Olivo. Jorge Consuegra will report to Allen and focus on Brand Marketing for international.
• Policy and Editorial team led by Ninj.
• Central UED led by Larry Tesler.

As we consider a replacement for Cammie leading this team, Allen Olivo will serve as the acting leader and report to me.

While we are sorry to see Cammie go, we have a strong team of marketing and customer experience leaders. I'm confident that moving forward, these teams will continue to produce the strong, award-winning work they're known for.

Thank you for your continued creativity and support.

Sue

With a mix of emotions I am writing to let you know that I will be leaving Yahoo! at the end of the month to pursue a new career opportunity. I am certainly feeling tremendous sadness at leaving the leadership of the brand I love so dearly and the day to day interactions with such a talented team. I am feeling pride over the many accomplishments that we have achieved here at Yahoo! over the past 4 1/2 years. I am feeling excitement about this next chapter in my career. And I am feeling great anticipation to watch the exciting future that I believe lies ahead for Yahoo!

When I reflect over the past 4 1/2 years there is so much to feel good about:

• We have built a direct marketing team from scratch that is great in areas ranging from optimizing network media and email to developing channels like SEM and Affiliates to customer experiences in landing pages and within the products themselves. In fact we are so good that we were recognized as the 2006 Marketer of the Year by the Direct Marketing Association.
• We have championed the Yahoo! brand with consumers and advertisers; substituting big ideas for the big budgets of many of our competitors. From the Julie Real People Billboard campaign, to the Big Idea chair and marketer testimonial campaign, to Ask the Planet and the Big Brain in Time Square to having our Scruffy ad voted the 3rd funniest TV spot in the world last year; our marketing has consistently won creative awards and driven the numbers.
• We have brought a tremendous amount of discipline to our marketing metrics while also championing risk and experimentation. Our work was recently recognized in McKinnsey Quarterly as being exemplary for its accountability.
• We recently launched Customer Satisfaction metrics that can help teams truly diagnose and deliver great experiences to our consumers.
• We championed Project Goldmine, helping Yahoo! move forward with customer centricity by better understanding who our most valuable users and advertisers are and how we can better focus efforts to meet their needs.
• We expanded the group to include edit/policy/UED, enabling us to think about end to end consumer experiences and enabling me to get to know more amazingly talented Yahoos.
• Most importantly we have built a world class team bringing in senior leaders with tremendous functional excellence and Yahoo! heart. as well as young leaders who will be the future CMOs, GMs and functional gurus of the industry. The team in place is my most important accomplishment and hopefully will be my most lasting legacy.

It was my reflection on the strength of our team that made it possible for me to accept the new opportunity. While I can't share the specifics until mid next week, suffice it to say that it is a natural fit for
someone who loves driving profitable revenue for big, well loved consumer brands and can't pass up the opportunity to be the coolest Mom in the universe.

I have been honored to closely participate with Jerry and Sue this summer as they crafted plans for making internet history again. I have so much confidence in their leadership and in the amazing assets and talent here at Yahoo! The future is definitely bright and I will be both a proud former Yahoo! and a future advertiser who will always bleed (and wear) purple!

I hope to see many of you in person over the next few weeks. I will be staying in the area so I plan to maintain the close relationships that have made these past years so special for me. That will be even easier as I am also blessed to have my amazing assistant Carol Rogers going with me. Carol has made my life and that of everyone she has worked with at Yahoo! more pleasant. I know she will be tremendously missed, but boy do I feel lucky!

At my first All Hands I said that our team should focus on growing profitable revenue by unlocking consumer/customer insights and providing:

• Products that Delight
  
• Communications that Inspire
  
• Results that Deliver

I hope you will all continue that vision!

Warmly yours,

Cammie