eBay, Cadreon, Vivaki and Amnet partner for launch
LONDON – AOL announces today that it is putting 100% of its reserved inventory from all its owned and operated sites into AOL’s proprietary Demand Side Platform (DSP). Automating the sale of reserved inventory, that is currently done manually, will free up a vast amount of time that is lost in the standard IO process, in addition to driving efficiencies and effectiveness with digital campaigns. A number of agencies and advertisers are partners of AOL’s DSP, including eBay, Amnet, Cadreon and Vivaki, and they will now have access to AOL’s complete reserved inventory.
Advertisers can now buy all reserved inventory on AOL UK’s owned and operated sites including AOL, The Huffington Post, Engadget, TechCrunch, Parentdish and MyDaily, in an automated way on a self-serve basis. Four of AOL’s existing premium formats including the award-winning multi-screen Project Devil/IAB Portrait, Billboard and Monster MPU will be available exclusively through AOL’s DSP, with more set to come. Advertisers can also scale their brand message beyond AOL’s owned and operated sites, utilising a wide range of premium formats through AOL’s network of premium third party publishers.
Noel Penzer, Managing Director, AOL UK said: “Making all of our inventory and premium formats available through our DSP is a major milestone for AOL UK and the industry as a whole. It re-affirms our investment in and commitment to automation and our belief that programmatic will be the main driver of digital advertising budgets going forward. We believe all of our inventory can be bought in an automated fashion, giving agencies and advertisers more time to spend on bigger creative integrations, sponsorships and tailored solutions.”
Danny Hopwood, Head of Platform EMEA, VivaKi said: “It’s refreshing to see a premium publisher like AOL embrace programmatic across all aspects of its business. AOL’s commitment and drive is further confirmation of the immense growth and adoption of programmatic, which is now present across every product and every inventory source AOL offers to the industry. Over the past two years, the company has gone from an ad network proposition to a fully formed technology platform. This has helped transform the relationship between VivaKi and AOL from that of traditional agency and publisher to one of true collaboration and a shared consensus on how we can work together in a programmatically traded industry.”
Steve Hobbs, Managing Director, AMNET UK said: “This is an interesting move by AOL that validates the increasing power of programmatic spend in the UK. As one of the leaders in the purchase of programmatic premium campaigns, AMNET will certainly be interested in exploring how we can best use AOL’s premium inventory and formats effectively to deliver value for our clients. We hope to see more premium publishers following AOL’s decision over time.”
According to a recent IAB UK study the share of ads bought through programmatic technologies is estimated to grow from (47%) in 2014 to up to (60-75%) of total UK digital display advertising by 2017. AOL has invested organically in programmatic technologies over the past few years, building both a proprietary Demand Side Platform (DSP) and Supply Side Platform (SSP). In the past 12 months, AOL acquired Adap.tv, a leading video trading platform and Convertro, an attribution modeling technology among others, as well as announcing AOL ONE by AOL in February this year: a cross screen programmatic platform that will include linear TV once rolled out in 2015 .
About AOL UK
AOL (UK) Limited is a subsidiary of AOL Inc. (NYSE:AOL), a brand company, committed to continuously innovating, growing, and investing in brands and experiences that inform, entertain, and connect the world. The home of a world-class collection of premium brands, AOL creates original content that engages audiences on a local and global scale. We help marketers connect with these audiences through effective and engaging digital advertising solutions.
