AOL brings ad business under single umbrella

AOL is extending its US advertising business Platform A in Europe. The move aims to align the two advertising divisions under the same brand.

It will bring its existing European operation such as Advertising.com, Adtech, the ad serving company, affiliate network, Buy.at and the AOL sales team under one umbrella brand. The individual brands will be retained for the foreseeable future.

Brendan Condon, head of Advertising.com’s international business, has been promoted head of Platform A’s international operations. Condon will report to Platform A president Lynda Clarizio.

The new organisation will also integrate technologies including Quigo’s contextual search, Tacoda’s behavioural targeting and mobile ad serving by Third Screen Media.

The Platform A audience combined reaches 125m consumers online, more than half of Europe’s online audience, according to comScore’s Media Metrix, April 2008.

AOL recently acquired social networking site Bebo and in mid-May launched its People Networks business unit, which combined Bebo with AIM, ICQ and other AOL community properties.