Back in December, we kicked off 5 Questions, a new interview series featuring conversations with both established and up-and-coming leaders in adtech. The goal? To spotlight key figures not just at adtech companies but also at brands and agencies shaping the industry.
Our next guest is a big one: Stephen Yap, Perion’s new Chief Revenue Officer. Stephen spent nearly 20 years at Google, most recently as Head of Americas for Google Marketing Platform. Over the past seven years, he played a major role in developing, launching, and commercializing Google’s platforms business, leading sales and operations across products like Google Tag Manager, Audience Center, Data Studio, and attribution solutions. He also founded Google’s data and measurement platforms business, starting with Google Analytics Premium. Fun fact: He first joined DoubleClick back in 2001.
Stephen steps into this role at an interesting time. As Perion CEO Tal Jacobson put it:
“As Perion transforms into a marketing and advertising platform company, I cannot think of a better-qualified person to lead our commercial efforts worldwide than Stephen.”
On the same day Perion announced Stephen’s hiring, the company also introduced “Perion One,” a new strategy aimed at unifying its brands and technologies under a single, advanced platform (also called Perion One). This means brands like Undertone and Hivestack are being folded into Perion, streamlining operations under one unified identity.
We caught up with Stephen to talk about his new role and what Perion One means for the company’s future—check out the full interview below.
1. Perion has acquired a number of companies over the past few years and has laid out its vision for a unified platform and approach. Do you see similarities between the work you’ve done with Google Marketing Cloud and Perion, in terms of that vision?
Yes and no. When we look at other ad platforms in the market, the similarities are very clear in how they acquired best in class solutions, and have integrated them into their current solutions. What is different is that we find ourselves in a very different world today, one where first-party data, AI and advanced solutions are table stakes that are necessary to compete. We are building Perion One using these conditions as our foundation from which to build innovative solutions that will serve the market needs today, as well as innovate for tomorrow.
2. What are the key trends that you think will shape the company’s future in 2025 and beyond? Any surprise areas?
It’s no surprise that the main trend driving the market is the development and leveraging of AI capabilities in ad systems. This trend underpins and is symptomatic of a larger problem with waste in the industry. It is simply unsustainable and places an extraordinary amount of strain on the ecosystem costing model. This trend is what is driving our aspirations at Perion – to create a more sustainable, efficient and cost effective ad platform leveraging automation, powered by AI.
3. What’s the AI story here? Perion has SORT and several other AI offerings, but how does a company like Perion, which is still becoming known in the market, differentiate itself from a company like The Trade Desk, Google, or others on AI?
There are several ways in which we can differentiate in a crowded marketplace starting with how AI is leveraged within our systems. Everything from creative optimization to audience selection helps reduce the enormous amount of inefficiency that plagues our industry. By weaving in AI into the building of Perion One we can not only create a system that is efficient from both a workflow and planning perspective, but also performative in what and how it delivers.
4. How would you describe Perion today, in one sentence? What’s the elevator pitch?
We are the technology partner helping brands, retailers and agencies get better results with their marketing investments
5. For over 5 years, retail was a key area of focus for you at Google. How will that shape your work at Perion, who has prioritized retail media?
There is no better teacher than Google, and I was lucky enough to to spend close to two decades there learning from some of the smartest people in the industry. I take with me from my experience the critical importance of being agile. The retail landscape is changing and evolving very quickly, and our ability to capture the opportunities it brings will be dependent on our ability to recognize the direction it’s moving, adapt our approach and act fast. Our technology helps retailers tap into more in-store and near-store media to create a more seamless shopping experience that engages consumers both online and offline. The ability to move quickly has helped propel us to the one of the best solutions for retail media and we will continue that approach to help our clients meet this incredible moment.
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Thanks to Stephen for joining us. Stay tuned for more insights from the leaders shaping adtech in our 5 Questions series.
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