Event Marketer Spring 2022 - 71

LACOFF
BRAND: Yahoo
CURRENT TITLE: Senior Manager-Events and
Experiential Marketing
DREAM TEAM TITLE: Associate Director-Events
and Experiential Marketing
WHY WE WANT HER: For the breadth of her
experiential background that includes leading
some of the industry's hottest tentpole events.
Alyssa Lacoff launched her career working
in television advertising sales, then grew
into the publishing world where she supported
magazine executives at InStyle and
People magazines. You might say it was her
first taste of strategizing for, and engaging,
key stakeholders.
" You can start small with
sustainability, because every
little bit helps. Instead of
creating bespoke structures,
rent items that are reusable
and use design and
branding to customize the
experience. Digital consumes
power, but creating digital
activations and digital-only
communications is naturally
more sustainable and
trackable. "
" At my first big event for InStyle, I saw
everything come together from start to fineventmarketer.com
ish.
I was so excited to see how a raw field
was transformed into an amazing experience
for clients. That's when I realized that
I loved creating experiences and wanted to
continue on this career path, " Lacoff says.
" That 'doors open' moment is what truly
excites me and keeps me passionate about
this industry. "
As the senior manager of Yahoo global
events, Lacoff leads some of Yahoo's largest
and most impactful b-to-b event programs,
from Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity to
the brand's AdWeek presence to a proprietary
Partner Day hybrid program to, just a
couple of months ago, serving as the event
lead on CES 2022. And there, she demonstrated
serious pivot chops as the program
moved to fully virtual two weeks prior to
the event.
Her " quick and decisive " actions yielded
sizeable savings and credits and drove
more than 140 new sales leads, placement
in CES's video platform and more than
1,000 virtual tour videos on the platform,
among stats. She effectively wrote a new
playbook for future events.
Overall, she is in charge of producing
on average 15-20 events of varying
sizes each year and, overall, the larger team
produces more than 100 events per year
including b-to-b, brand (Yahoo Sports,
Yahoo Fantasy, Yahoo Finance and MAKERS
Conference) and internal events.
" Before the pandemic, there were a
lot of large experiential activations across
the industry. Now I'm seeing a focus on
more curated, intimate events, " Lacoff says.
" The goals remain the same-deepening
client relationships and driving revenue-
but we've realized that these higher-touch
experiences are driving the same results.
I hope to see a strong focus on accessibility
and diversity and inclusion across the
industry, as it's important to our team to
work with vendors who share the same
goals and values. "
The shift to virtual events has sparked
her interest in video production and custom
website strategies that make virtual
experiences more creative and engaging.
And in today's world of hybrid events, she
actively seeks out ways to create growth
through digital extensions that allow her
team to reach larger audiences through
video and social media.
She plays a key role on multiple Yahoo
task forces, and is leading the team's sustainability
efforts. Among her recent contributions:
Putting guidelines in place for
the organization's premium partners that
focuses on recycled packages and materials,
sourcing products by diverse suppliers, and
tracking carbon emissions in where and
how the brand ships and stores inventory.
As part of this plan, Yahoo is rolling out a
new program that allows clients to forgo
gifts in favor of donations to charity.
All of this, on top of being a rock-star
b-to-b event lead. We'll have you on our
team, Lacoff.
SPRING 2022 EVENT MARKETER
71
http://www.eventmarketer.com
Event Marketer Spring 2022

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