Yahoo Taps ComScore Exec to Head Market Research

Yahoo has added a new senior-level executive to beef up its global market research team.

Peter Daboll, formerly the president and CEO of comScore Media Metrix, has been named Yahoo’s chief of insights and head of global market research. He will be tasked with pulling together the various internal and external data points the group analyzes, streamlining the group’s processes, and bringing them all together, Daboll told ClickZ.

“This position was created to bring together the external world of market research and the wealth of internal data that Yahoo collects,” Daboll said. “They’ve already been doing that, but they wanted to bring in someone at a more senior role to pull the pieces together.”

Daboll ran comScore Media Metrix, the audience measurement division of comScore Networks, since comScore’s 2002 acquisition of Media Metrix from Jupiter. Before that, he had been president of comScore’s Media Solutions Division.

Daboll also held executive roles with marketing research firm MarketTools, Advertising.com, and media planning software company MediaPlan.com. Earlier stints included senior positions with market research firms Information Resources and ACNielsen.

As a Yahoo outsider and a veteran of broad-reaching research providers, Daboll hopes to bring a fresh perspective to the global market research team.

“I’ve been in consumer behavior and audience measurement my entire career. I’ve worked in audience measurement, but also in custom behavior and attitudinal analysis.” he said. “I’ll bring a broad view of what’s been happening with every property on the Internet.”

Yahoo’s global market research team provides the company with key consumer research insights, which are used to help drive product development, marketing and media sales efforts. The group provides strategic guidance and counsel to all Yahoo business organizations based on consumer brand and advertising research, market analysis, and insight into overall industry trends.

Daboll will be based in Sunnyvale, Calif., and will report to Cammie Dunaway, Yahoo’s chief marketing officer.