Internet and media giant AOL has fired an early salvo in the emerging programmatic TV advertising market, announcing plans to build a cross-screen platform that enables brands to automate their media buys on all channels.
Announcing the news at Ad:Tech in San Francisco, AOL said it would unify all of its programmatic investments, including its video ad platform AdapTV, which it acquired last year for US$405 million. The firm billed it as the culmination of four years planning and buying up ad tech firms, and said it was essentially its big brand push to compete with Google.
The new platform will be called ONE and also include its programmatic mobile and display advertising units. The creation of the single division is a bold move by AOL to create a single digital hub for automated media buying.
“Development on ONE is underway and customers will be able to start using portions of the platform later this year,” the company said. “It is completely format, screen and inventory agnostic – from video, display and TV, to tablet, desktop and mobile devices, to reserved and non-reserved inventory across AOL or any other publisher or media source.”
IPG Mediabrands, plans to be the charter agency network partner for ONE, reinforcing its commitment to fully automating half of its media investments by 2016.
The head of AOL’s technology division said brands were looking for an efficient and cost-effective way to manage their digital advertising.
AOL Platforms CEO Bob Lord said: “Our industry has developed too many niche offerings and specialised services over the last 25 years, and chaos in ad tech is at an all-time high. The inefficiencies, ineffectiveness and expense of managing multiple teams, tools and metrics for display, mobile and video, across all devices, are stifling.”
The success of the initiative would depend on AOL and its divisions securing programmatic deals with ad agency trading desks, which control the relationships with their TV network and brand clients.
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