Allie Kline, chief marketing officer, AOL
AOL chief marketing officer Allie Kline went on the offensive in her presentation at IAB Canada‘s Engage 2015 conference Thursday. Her target: “walled garden” tech vendors, those that try to discourage advertisers from working with other competing vendors by creating “closed” technology platforms.
“The biggest danger in our ecosystem today is a walled garden… that doesn’t allow for flexibility,” she told the audience.
Kline went on to argue that the only way marketers can keep up with the pace of media innovation is to to have access to a range of technologies created by different providers, rather than being coerced into using a single provider for all their needs. Vendors that refuse to collaborate with third parties risk falling behind in the race to automate and optimize digital media, and dragging their brand clients down with them.
She said that in some cases, brands are working with upwards of 65 vendors across their various digital marketing channels. Far from being a bad thing, Kline said that tapping the expertise of that many different partners is necessary to adapt and keep ahead of the modern consumer.
But to coordinate all their partners, marketers need an ecosystem where different technology solutions can connect with each other and share data. If one key walled-off partner refuses to work with the others, then the marketer is left managing 60-plus solutions independently — an impossible task.
She said walled gardens make it especially difficult to marketers to own and control their data.
“Data is the single most valuable assets brands and agencies possess,” she said. “One of the things that is crystal clear in the millions of dollars of research that we’ve invested is that any attempt to close off access to that data, [which prevents data] from being manipulated and actioned on, is going to be rejected in the long-term.”
Not naming names
Though Kline didn’t name any names, her criticism appeared to be directed at tech rivals like Google, which, according to some industry watchers, has shown signs of becoming a walled garden.
Over the past year, Google’s been accused of pressuring advertisers on YouTube and other properties to use its technology rather than third-party platforms. Further criticism focused on its controversial decision to effectively disable major third-party data management platforms, like Oracle’s BlueKai, from collecting data on ads served across the Google Display Network. Google said the move was intended to encourage providers to use tracking methods not based on pixels, but several agencies and vendors alleged it was really about pushing marketers to use Google’s own data management tools.
At least one leading digital advertiser, Kellogg, has cut ties with Google over its refusal to work with unbiased third parties. According to a Digiday story from January, Kellogg no longer buys YouTube ads or uses Google tools like Adometry for measurement.
Facebook, too, has received criticism for how carefully it protects its advertising ecosystem. The social network only works with vendors that have been accredited by its Marketing Partner Program, though it recently expanded this program to include a second tier of limited-access partners working towards certification. Facebook has strict policies governing data-sharing with advertisers and technology vendors, refusing even to release user data to vendors plugged into its Atlas ad server.
However, with the sensitive nature of its private user data, and the strong likelihood of less-than-reputable actors looking to gain access, its hard to fault Facebook for focusing on security.
By contrast to the two biggest players in ad tech, AOL has made a show of being an open-access provider. Throughout the launch of its One programmatic platform last year, AOL promised to remain neutral towards third party vendors, and allow clients to bring their own partners to its programmatic marketplace and buying platforms.
Kline said that strategy has been adopted at the insistence of brands and agencies. “Our clients have continued to tell us, ‘I have to have control. AOL, you cannot control my decisions. You cannot control my media. You cannot control what tools I use, and most importantly, you cannot control my data,'” she said.
Before Kline’s presentation, Engage emcee Tony Chapman pointed out the irony of seeing her present back-to-back with Google’s Matt Lawson, who moderated the morning’s first panel on mobile marketing.
“It’s kind of like Kanye West and Taylor Swift, or Coke and Pepsi,” Chapman joked. “We’re going from a very closed platform to AOL, which is here to talk about the power and potential of an open platform.”
