As if taking a cue from tech counterparts uniting their point solutions onto a single platform (like Salesforce1, Neustar’s PlatformOne and AOL’s ONE), enterprise giant IBM Tuesday rolled out IBM “ExperienceOne,” a cloud and on-premise tech portfolio that is a culmination of its acquisitions and services. These include Sterling Commerce, DemandTec, Tealeaf, Unica and Xtify. It will be […]
After AOL’s and Google’s respective acquisitions of Convertro and Adometry, the space held by independent marketing attribution vendors immediately shrank. Remaining companies include Visual IQ, C3 Metrics, DataSong, DC Storm, and Encore Metrics. But what is the future of these attribution pure-plays as enterprise stacks invest in cross-channel technologies? “I see a complete collision course with […]
Still thinking of AOL as a media company? Tim Armstrong wants to change your mind. On the company’s Q1 earnings call Wednesday, its CEO repeatedly invoked “platforms,” “mechanization” and, of course, “programmatic” as the underpinnings of the business. AOL’s Tuesday acquisition of multitouch attribution vendor Convertro also hammered this message home. Armstrong’s platform ardor almost […]
Following Google and AOL’s acquisitions of multitouch attribution vendors Adometry and Convertro Tuesday, several questions arose. The first, and perhaps easiest to answer: What was the driving force for the purchasers and how will the technologies plug into their existing platforms? “The macro rationale for both of the acquisitions seems to be the growing need […]
“Mechanization,” “piping,” and “programmatic” are the keywords at AOL these days as the company puts the pedal down on its ad tech plans. One day after scooping up multitouch attribution vendor Convertro for $101 million, AOL revealed revenue from the company’s ad platform business grew 55% during the first quarter 2014 to $186 million, despite a 3% decline in […]
Digital marketing attribution is in vogue. AOL will acquire attribution vendor Convertro for approximately $101 million, the company announced Tuesday afternoon. This comes on the heels of Google’s move earlier in the day to snap up competing attribution pure play vendor Adometry for an undisclosed sum. Customers will have access to Convertro in a couple […]
At its NewFront event last week, Time Inc. unveiled partnerships with Nielsen and comScore’s cross-platform measurement solutions to simplify the digital ad-buying process. TV-online audience research has become something of a theme at the NewFronts, with AOL and Yahoo unveiling similar plans. Time Inc., a division of Time Warner that will be spun off this quarter, […]
AOL CEO Tim Armstrong addressed a crowd of close to 2,000 media buyers at its NewFront Tuesday night with an exuberant, “tonight is about connecting content with distribution.” It’s clear, with AOL, that much of that connection will happen through video. Ran Harnevo, president of AOL Video, talked up digital video and its intent to […]
AOL introduced its own native ad unit for the mobile Web and apps on Thursday. The ads include an image and text that is inserted in between content on the publisher’s site or app. “Before, if advertisers wanted to work with seven different publishers, they’d have to customize their creative and specs with each one, […]
When Jimmy Maymann sold content distribution company GoViral to AOL in 2011, some expected the Danish entrepreneur to take his share of the $96.7 million exit and chase new startup opportunities. Instead, he stayed on at AOL as SVP for international, much to even his surprise. “I always knew I didn’t want to stay on […]
Speculation about Alibaba’s upcoming IPO pegs Yahoo’s share at about $10 billion, giving Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer substantial firepower to acquire more companies and develop Yahoo’s businesses. But Mayer has an extremely thin margin of error to turn the Sunnyvale, CA company’s fortunes around. Despite its expected windfall, Yahoo is struggling. Its revenue for 2013 […]
AOL Networks on Wednesday rebranded as AOL Platforms. As part of the rebrand, the company has rolled programmatic capabilities for video with Adap.tv, mobile and display with the AdLearn Open Platform (AOP) and its supply-side Marketplace product, into the development of platform “ONE by AOL.” IPG Mediabrands is the charter agency partner for ONE, which […]
Although Google is the $4 billion darling of the US display ad space, players like AOL, Amazon and Facebook are closing in on that share. Most noticeably, Facebook, which for the first time last quarter served more ad impressions on mobile devices than on the desktop, experienced a 50.5% increase in US digital display ad […]
If you’ve ever shortened or shared a link on a social platform, chances are you’ve used Bitly. “We are so ubiquitous, but at the same time, people gloss right over us,” said Mark Josephson, CEO of URL shortening service Bitly. He joined the company six months ago from AOL, where he served as SVP of […]
One of the key strengths of a business is knowing when to pivot. For demand-side audience-targeting platform ChoiceStream, that involved switching from product recommendation software to programmatic advertising services in 2011. Eric Bosco, formerly the company’s COO, took the reins as CEO last May. AdExchanger spoke with Bosco about the company’s transition. AdExchanger: Where does […]
FreeWheel, a technology and services company cofounded seven years ago by Jonathan Heller, Doug Knopper and Diane Yu, helps media companies like NBCUniversal and Viacom connect TV buyers with premium digital video inventory. It also worked with Amazon to help power video ad content for the ecommerce giant. Knopper, who also serves as FreeWheel’s co-CEO, […]
AOL CEO Tim Armstrong said 2013 delivered the “best results we’ve had in a decade.” Although the company reported 13% overall growth in revenue year-over-year in the fourth quarter, growing from $599 million to $679 million, AOL noted net and operating profitability was affected by a “pre-tax restructuring” that cost it $13.2 million. This was […]
Fred McIntyre, CEO of social marketing platform Awe.sm, has noticed that while the present-day patterns of media consumption are exciting, they also pose challenges to the DNA of cost planning for publishers and marketers. “If you look at media consumption across most categories in television, radio, online and social, they’re going up in each category,” […]
AOL’s comeback story under CEO Tim Armstrong over the past four years has at times looked improbable, with highs and lows along the way. Its quarterly performance has often been mixed: As one area of its display advertising stream looked strong, other parts have lagged. Its usually strong third-party network business had been looking weaker […]
Microsoft is hoping to gain more traction with higher priced, direct sales inventory on its network by striking an agreement with its fellow portals, AOL and Yahoo, to support technical specifications for automating the buying process around reserved ad sales. In other words, Microsoft is joining the push toward “premium programmatic” that AOL trumpeted Monday […]
AOL finally answered the question “What is a programmatic upfront?” by saying it would put its money where its mouth is: starting in 2014, it will make its reserved, guaranteed inventory available through its automated platforms for the first time. The portal lined up an array of advertising partners, noting that five of the six […]
While online video continues to grow, it’s becoming less certain that media buyers are ready to shift their focus demonstrably away from primetime TV. That’s not to say companies in the video space aren’t trying to make the movement between PC, mobile and TV screens more seamless. “We’re seeing single-digit ad dollars starting to move […]
AOL and Yahoo – so different, right? Well, not exactly, but they have less in common than they once did. Here’s a crackpot theory for you: The companies are taking different paths in preparation for an eventual megamerger of the sort that was discussed, and then scrapped, back in 2011. Now we’re deep in speculative […]
Ned Brody can officially join Yahoo as SVP for the Americas, five months after resigning his post as CEO of AOL Networks, the unit that houses the company’s ad-tech properties. Brody had been constrained from heading to Yahoo by a noncompete clause, which could have kept him from starting the job until April 2014. But […]
With its new partnership with a number of TV media sellers, announced yesterday, Interpublic Group has begun to make good on its pledge earlier this year to “automate” 50% of media. The use of “automation” here is perhaps a bit misleading however, since what IPG is really trying to solve is a workflow problem – […]
It’s a frenzied IPO season in the ad tech space. Despite the tepid reaction of investors to public offerings by Tremor and YuMe, companies like Rocket Fuel aren’t showing signs of cold feet. True, it helps to have a set of impressive financials, which Rocket Fuel submitted to the SEC last week. The Redwood City, […]
Facebook’s big push into video ads, expected this fall, is bound to have ripple effects in the online video space — as a major new source of premium inventory becomes available. From Tremor Video’s perspective, Facebook’s focus on what appears to be in-banner ads will allow the company to further differentiate itself in what remains […]
Adap.tv was not the only video company to have a good day yesterday. On the same day that AOL snapped up video-ad marketplace Adap.tv for $405 million, digital ad management provider DG saw its stock shoot up 25% to $10.31 at yesterday’s closing bell. Although DG rescheduled its earnings call from Wednesday afternoon to Thursday, […]
AOL is not taking its foot off the programmatic gas pedal, and agencies are impressed. The $405-million acquisition of video ad platform Adap.tv sheds new light on other recent developments, including the hire of Razorfish’s global CEO Bob Lord to lead AOL Networks and a planned “programmatic upfront” event in September. Their obvious conclusion: AOL’s […]
Its $405 million acquisition of video ad marketplace Adap.tv closes two big loops for AOL. The first is around video, which has become a bigger part of both its and rival Yahoo’s strategies. Both portals have doubled down on original video content creation, but AOL has looked to video as an ad-tech solution, whereas Yahoo […]
