Adara recruits Yahoo chief to lead rapid international expansion

Adara, the US specialist in exploiting big data for targeted marketing campaigns in travel, has turned to Yahoo to recruit for the new role of vice president international sales.

Adara, the US specialist in exploiting big data for targeted marketing campaigns in travel, has turned to Yahoo to recruit for the new role of vice president international sales.

The firm announced its arrival in Europe with a bang in April having secured a major deal with Ryanair and has since established a sales office in London and European headquarters in Dublin.

It has appointed Yahoo veteran Ann Reilly (pictured) to the new international sales role as the list of clients signed up to its platform outside of its US homeland grows.

Kit Simon, Adara’s global chief revenue officer, said: “Ann’s appointment is a key component to the roll out of our international strategy, and I am confident that with her extensive sales knowledge, wide international experience and strong focus delivering insights and customer success that she will prove to be a valuable leader for Adara as she drives international revenue growth.”

Reilly has extensive experience in international advertising having spent significant parts of her career living and working in Hong Kong and Singapore, the US and most recently in Europe. She spent the past eight years working for Yahoo, which she joined in 2003 in New York as sales director.

In 2009 Reilly took up the role of commercial director in Barcelona where she spearheaded a new pan-European sales strategy and vision for Yahoo’s mid-market search and display advertising sales teams.

Prior to Yahoo, Reilly held a variety of advertising and sales roles with Intuit in Silicon Valley, and Star TV and Leo Burnett in Asia. She holds a BA from University of Michigan and an MBA from Thunderbird School of Global Management.

Adara now has a total of 24 travel companies on its list of European data partners, including three of Europe’s largest online travel agencies and a leading travel distributor, as well as prominent airlines, hotel companies, ground transport and travel activity specialists.

Layton Han, Adara chief executive, said: “Adara is experiencing significant growth in Europe.

“We attribute this momentum to our innovative approach to data-driven marketing and our track record in helping travel companies turn data into new revenue streams.

“We’re making big data available to digital advertisers in a way it’s never been available before.”

Leading European travel companies that have joined Adara’s list of partners include National Express Group, National Rail Enquiries (NRE), Louvre Hotels Group, STA Travel, City Discovery, Finnair, Lot Polish Airlines, airBaltic, Directflights.com and HostelBookers.

Tobias Wessels, vice president of Europe, said: “These new partners represent a significant expansion of Adara’s already massive collection of consumer travel data.

“Together, these travel companies account for a huge volume of web traffic, offering an enormous opportunity to marketers targeting premium travel audiences across Europe.”

Had added: “We’re excited that European companies are recognising Adara’s ability to help digital advertisers target travellers at scale with the right message at the right time.

“Our precision-targeting platform allows marketers to leverage first-party data on a huge scale so they can cost-effectively focus advertising dollars on travellers who are actually in-market, planning their trips.”