COLOGNE — Advertisers have got better at using data to derive real meaning from campaigns – now they need to improve the way they port their messages to new platforms.

That’s according to the woman who runs revenue at recently-acquired Yahoo.

Lisa Utzschneider tells Beet.TV: “We’ve become much more sophisticated over time about how to turn it in to actionable insights.” But Yahoo’s chief revenue officer thinks buyers still have a ways to go in another key department.

She details surprising a global brand marketing chief recently by explaining how his company was shovelling TV spots on to smartphones.

“It was almost a wake-up for him,” she explains. “His brand team was taking 15-second TV ads and just transferring them on a mobile phone. It doesn’t transfer very well from a consumer experience perspective.

“We’ve worked closely with that marketer on creative optimization – very simple things like ‘have your brand front-and-center within the first three seconds’. As a marketer, you don’t get much time to make an impact.”

That advice echoes the kind of message rival Facebook is also trying to give creative agencies – for mobile, where attention spans are shorter, ‘cut to the chase’.

This interview was taped at DMEXCO ’16. It is part of a video series of industry leaders. The series is sponsored by Videology. For more Beet.TV coverage of DMEXCO, please visit this page.