In-Flight Outcomes, Identity, and the Future of Programmatic | ft. Alice Beecroft

In this episode Joel interviews Alice Beecroft, Senior Director of Global Business Strategy and Partnerships at Yahoo, about her path from software engineering into digital advertising and how the industry has evolved through open RTB, pre-bid, and now AI. Alice argues AI can reduce fragmentation across planning, data, activation, and measurement, aligning media buying more closely with real consumer behavior, but only if the whole ecosystem participates. She outlines Yahoo’s focus on organizing accessible data and highlights Yahoo’s advantage at the intersection of consumer context, consented first-party data, and a proprietary identity framework. They discuss audio’s attention and memory impact, and Yahoo’s “in-flight outcomes,” which links near real-time signals to optimization via Yahoo Blueprint using metrics like cost per store visit and cost per completed purchase. Alice also describes deeper agency interoperability, agent-to-agent campaigns, companies shaking up buying models, and growing opportunities in retail data partnerships. 00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro 00:26 Alice Career Journey 01:16 Industry Waves and AI 01:57 AI Breaking Media Silos 03:52 Yahoo Resurgence and Data 06:03 Audio Attention Advantage 07:05 Measurement Meets Optimization 08:08 In Flight Outcomes Product 10:48 Leadership and Startup Vibe 12:16 Agencies and Agentic Future 15:16 Companies to Watch 17:46 Closing Thoughts