Robust New Platform Will Put Creative Control in the Hands of Ad Agencies
Digitas and Mindshare Sign on as Beta Launch Partners
NEW YORK & MIAMI – AOL, Inc. (NYSE: AOL) announced the beta launch of Pictela Enterprise, a technology platform for the design, delivery and management of Premium Format ad units across the Web. Pictela Enterprise gives advertising agencies a clean, simple, guided self-service interface to manage all their clients’ brand assets and efficiently serve them into premium online display ads.
“We believe the power of opening our Pictela platform to agencies is the next step in scaling Premium Formats across the Web,” said Greg Rogers, Senior Vice President, Premium Formats, AOL, and CEO, Pictela. “Think of Pictela Enterprise as a content management system for ads, whereby creative professionals can efficiently deploy high definition ads across the Web, all the while being able to update and optimize the content of those ads in real time. We are putting the power of publishing in the hands of the ad agencies and their clients so they can take full advantage of the new larger ad sizes coming to market.”
Pictela Enterprise is a suite of products and services that includes:
- Pictela Management Center (PMC) – Pictela’s cloud-based platform for the creation, delivery and analysis of Premium Formats ads. The system currently supports six IAB standard sizes: 300×1050 (Portrait), 300×600, 970×90 (Pushdown), 728×90, 160×600 and 300×250. Pictela Management Center is backed by a cutting-edge ad-serving solution that organizes delivery of brand content through a set of standard applications for maximum production efficiency. It also supports standalone custom apps that specifically suit the needs of individual clients.
- Pictela Styles & Guides – Pictela’s ad formats are based on standardized, template-driven layouts that have proven, industry-leading engagement metrics. Users of Enterprise are provided with a design portal and detailed Style Guides for each ad size that contain asset, application and video requirements for pre-production and design.
- Pictela Reporting – Enterprise users have access to Pictela Reporting and Benchmarking. Not limited to clicks and impression data, users see key metrics including interaction rate, exposure time, interaction time and video completion. Third party impression, click, and engagement tags supported.
- Pictela Support – During the beta period, Enterprise clients will have access to a dedicated Agency Manager and Service Delivery team at AOL for training and business/technical support. Enterprise also provides a browser-based debugging tool to ensure the quality delivery of campaigns and standardized metrics.
Digitas and Mindshare have signed on as the beta launch partners.
“As two of the most innovative media agencies, Digitas and Mindshare already have many clients who deploy Premium Formats across AOL, and these Beta partnerships are a way to extend these efforts across the Web,” remarks Rogers.
“We’re thrilled to see that AOL has opened the Pictela management tool up to agencies and is willing to give control back into the hands of creative talent. Our ability to optimize client campaigns in-market and respond real-time to consumer interest and social conversation is an essential need in today’s marketplace,” said Robyn Katz Tombacher, SVP Business Operations Director at Digitas. “Being on the ground floor as a launch partner allows us to take early advantage of the rapid growth rate of custom high definition online advertising.”
Pictela Enterprise is certified to serve its ad units across AOL, Advertising.com, and most major online publishers.
Partnership with Moat
Today, AOL is also announcing a partnership with Moat, a brand intelligence and analytics company. “Moat is becoming a leader in measuring the effectiveness of online brand advertising,” said Rogers, “and we are excited to offer Moat Brand Analytics through Pictela Enterprise Beta.”
Jonah Goodhart, CEO of Moat, said, “We are thrilled to partner with AOL on this initiative. We think Pictela’s innovative creative platform combined with the standardization of Moat’s metrics is exactly the type of solution that will appeal to brand advertisers.”
AOL recently conducted research with Moat that compared user interaction rates across three different versions of the same brand ad: the IAB Portrait format vs. custom rich media vs. standard animated Flash (all 300×1050 in size). The results show that the IAB Portrait performed 12% better than the custom format and 72% better than the animated Flash version.* “The 12% difference does not sound like much, but there’s been a perception in the marketplace that the only way to build a highly engaging ad unit is through custom rich media executions,” said Rogers. “By teaming with Moat, we are validating the effectiveness of Premium Formats, while providing the benefits of repeatability and scalability through a productized approach.”
*Moat/KitchenDaily study, February 2012
About AOL:
Having helped millions of Americans to get online, AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL) is on a mission to 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.
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