Marissa Mayer Is Off Yahoo's Board; Leo Burnett Hires media Exec Andrew Swinand

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Mayer Off The Board

Yahoo’s board is going to have some notable absences after Verizon completes the acquisition of its operating business. Yahoo’s embattled CEO Marissa Mayer will step down from the board — along with five other members. It should be noted that these resignations affect only the investment part of Yahoo that’s not going to Verizon. Basically, it’s the part that owns a hefty stake in Alibaba, and which will subsequently be renamed Altaba. Read more.

Change Or Die

Even the most traditional creative agencies are getting with the data-driven program. Publicis’ Leo Burnett will appoint media exec Andrew Swinand as its CEO in North America, as the holding company works out a deal to buy two agencies that Swinand currently runs, The Wall Street Journal reports. Swinand, formerly president of Publicis’ Starcom Media Group, will bring the tech and data expertise that Leo Burnett needs to stay relevant. The move fits in with the broader trend of holding companies putting data and analytics at the core of all their work. Leo Burnett lost its 30-year relationship with McDonald’s last year to Omnicom’s DDB, in a pitch that was awarded partly on the merits of the latter’s analytics chops. More.

Death, Do Us Part

Rumor has it that Flite, the ad creative tech company snapped up by Snap in December, will phase out all clients over the first quarter of 2017 [evidence on Reddit]. The deal was reported to be an acqui-hire, meaning that Flite’s tech may be less important to its new parent than its talent and experience. It’s a common refrain with social platforms. Facebook very conspicuously shuttered LiveRail and TheFind, and Pinterest took a similar approach with URX. Other buyouts are more of a mystery. (Like, what ever happened with Twitter’s TellApart?)

Attention Metrics

In a new test of mid-roll ad formats on Facebook, publishers will be able to run ads at 20 seconds into a video and will reap 55% of the resulting revenue (the same split that YouTube offers), Recode’s Peter Kafka reports. Despite the 100 million hours of daily video that Facebook says users consume on its platform, publisher monetization options have been scant, because Facebook bans pre-roll ads. The specs for the new format suggest that Facebook is focused on time spent, rather than total views. “Facebook is telling publishers that in order to make money, they need to make clips that go on for a while and keep users’ attention,” Kafka writes. More.

Still Hungry

Airbnb led a $13 million Series A investment in Resy, a restaurant-booking service, the startup said in a blog post. Airbnb partnered with Resy late last year to let users book tables via its core app, and its new stake in the business comes with a board seat. It’s a relatively small investment for Airbnb, but a good indicator of how it aims to support the full travel and hospitality “journey.” The company is reportedly in development on a flight-booking tool and travel agency-style tourism packages.

But Wait, There’s More!