AOL ad sales drive based on original site content
AOL Advertising is to refocus its advertising efforts on publishing more original content and offering more premium display and videos around it, following its rebrand from Platform-A in July.
The ad sales division of the internet services and media company is looking to make its offerings more appealing through the introduction of more of its own online magazine-style websites. It will employ more journalists to produce original content that will provide a more attractive context for premium display advertising.
Advertisers will also be invited to co-create online video footage, which could then be syndicated elsewhere. AOL Advertising will also continue to work with third-party websites.
Jeff Levick, president of global advertising and strategy for AOL, says: “The concept is to start with a specific channel and then expand on premium advertising opportunities through more niche topical subjects. It gives advertisers access to the target audiences that primetime television is not offering at the moment.”
The moves follow the appointments of Bebo Europe’s vice-president and managing director Kate Burns as head of its European sales division and Microsoft’s Christian Peck as vice-president of European advertising products and operations. They are now looking to leverage their publishing platform with “high quality ad-funded content.”
Earlier this week, AOL reported that advertising sales had fallen by 18%, led by lower paid-search and display advertising on AOL sites and by reduced sales of ads on third-party sites.
