Former Head of Global Sales at Yahoo! to Drive Platform-A’s Display Advertising Sales Across AOL’s Businesses
NEW YORK – AOL named Greg Coleman President of Platform-A as part of the company’s effort to expand display sales across its advertising and programming networks. Coleman, who has more than 25 years of sales and media experience, will lead Platform-A, the industry’s largest online advertising platform.
“Greg Coleman is perfectly suited to build on the foundation we created at Platform-A and drive branded display sales across our fast-growing MediaGlow programming network,” said Randy Falco, AOL Chairman and CEO. “Greg’s a seasoned sales pro who understands that online brand building is the next frontier in digital advertising, and that whoever can deliver marketers measurably improved branding online will be positioned for long-term success. I’m confident Greg will help us create branding solutions that leverage the strong success of MediaGlow and the upcoming launches at People Networks.”
“I thought long and hard about jumping back into the media and sales world. The only way I would do it is with a company that has everything it needs to deliver what advertisers need most, particularly in difficult economic times – productive, efficient and measurable ways to reach increasingly fragmented audiences with their brand messages. AOL is that company,” said Coleman. “Platform-A’s reach, combined with the incredible growth of AOL’s MediaGlow and the potential of its social media business, gives us a strong platform for advertisers to build brands that really perform online.”
Coleman replaces Lynda Clarizio, formerly the President of Advertising.com who was tapped to lead the integration of Platform-A. Under Lynda Clarizio’s leadership, AOL successfully consolidated and integrated the seven companies comprising Platform-A; created a unified organization around areas including sales, technology, publisher services and R&D and expanded overseas into nine countries within the past year.
“Lynda helped us realize the vision for Platform-A as the world’s largest, unified display advertising platform with the most comprehensive suite of marketing solutions,” said Falco. “We are enormously grateful for her work and success.”
Prior to joining Platform-A, Coleman served as President and CEO of NetSeer, a start-up company focused on next generation search and ad targeting. Before that, he was EVP of Global Sales at Yahoo!, where he helped establish Yahoo!’s leadership in the online advertising marketplace. At Yahoo!, Coleman was responsible for all advertising revenues worldwide, which grew from $600 million to more than $6 billion during his tenure. Coleman also served as Senior Vice President of Reader’s Digest Association and President of U.S. Magazine Publishing, where he was responsible for the company’s magazine properties including Reader’s Digest. Coleman was the founding publisher of Memories magazine at Diamandis Communications and worked at CBS, Inc., where he spent 10 years leading advertising efforts for Women’s Day as Vice President and National Sales Manager.
As head of Platform-A, Coleman will report to AOL President and Chief Operating Officer Ron Grant.
AOL is now focused on growing three mutually dependent online businesses to take advantage of the shifting media landscape: advertising through Platform-A, publishing through MediaGlow and social media through People Networks.
Platform-A is uniquely positioned to leverage branding opportunity across the more than 70 high-quality publishing assets that make up MediaGlow, AOL’s newly launched and rapidly growing business unit. In 2008, MediaGlow launched more than 20 new sites and saw page views climb 64% year over year, engagement climb 39% year over year, and unduplicated users top 70 million, according to December comScore Media Metrix numbers. MediaGlow’s current assets include the AOL.com homepage and AOL branded sites such as AOL Money & Finance, AOL Living and AOL News, along with dozens of niche sites such as WalletPop, Bloggingstocks, Engadget, Autoblog, and AOL’s commerce sites, including AOL Travel, AOL Real Estate and AOL Autos. The MediaGlow unit is expected to create more than 30 editorially curated sites in 2009. AOL’s social media business unit, People Networks, is also poised to launch a number of new products in 2009 in connection with its next version of Bebo as well as efforts at socializing third-party websites.
About Platform-A
Platform-A, AOL’s advertising business, reaching 90% of the U.S. Internet audience, is the industry’s largest digital advertising platform. Platform-A offers the most comprehensive suite of marketing solutions, powered by the Web’s best advertising technologies. Platform-A comprises AOL’s leading media properties – AOL.com, AIM, MapQuest, and more – and Advertising.com’s third-party networks. Platform-A also includes TACODA’s audience insights and behavioral targeting; Quigo, a site- and content-targeting solution; ADTECH, an international digital ad serving business; Third Screen Media, a mobile ad serving network; and buy.at, an affiliate marketing solution. Platform-A currently has operations in the United States, nine countries across Europe, including Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, the UK, and Japan through a joint venture with Mitsui. Learn more at http://www.platform-a.com.
