AOL kicked off Advertising Week, last week, with its landmark Programmatic Upfront event, bringing together more than 200 global leaders in media and technology to discuss how data and automation is changing the nature of media today.
The evening began with Tim Armstrong, Chairman and CEO of AOL, taking the stage to explain the intersection of culture and code at AOL. Along with media properties that drive culture globally, including The Huffington Post and MAKERS, AOL also operates some of the world’s most sophisticated technologies to create, distribute and monetize media, such as the AOL On network, Adap.tv, Convertro and the soon-to-launch ONE by AOL.
Bob Lord, Global CEO of AOL Platforms followed and, while echoing those statements, also threw down the gauntlet for media professionals in attendance. “The transformation that’s happening in the marketing and ad world is happening faster than we could’ve imagined,” he said, urging for the silos that have held back marketers and the industry as a whole to come down.
To facilitate this shift to converged data and media, AOL is building ONE, and Seth Demsey, CTO of AOL Platforms, demoed, for the first time, specifically how the ONE platform would provide the insights that brands and agencies need to stay informed on how their investments are performing. Alongside the demo, Demsey also announced a key milestone in the product roadmap for ONE: a new data management platform powered by multi-touch attribution.
Demsey explained, “ONE by AOL is the first marketing investment platform. We turn your big data into smart data and that into results.”
The massive shift to programmatic was highlighted by key clients and partners that joined executives on stage, including:
- Dominique Delport, Global Managing Director of Havas Media Group, who said that “media is code; campaigns are software”, as well as reiterated Havas’ commitment to ONE as a charter partner. His conclusion: “What can be automated, will be automated.” Havas also announced an expansion of their relationship with AOL to buy linear TV programmatically.
- Marc Fonzetti, Director, Media Strategy/Investments at Verizon Wireless, who took the stage to reveal that Verizon is also a charter partner for ONE, joining IPG Mediabrands and Havas.
- Lisa Archambault, Head of Brand/Demand Generation Marketing for Zappos, who explained the fast-moving marketing efforts of the ecommerce company to embrace programmatic and scale their story-telling abilities. “We embrace failure and look forward to it at Zappos,” she added.
- Linda Yaccarino, President of Advertising Sales at NBCUniversal, who said: “Today, convergence is the new reality. Programmatic is here to stay.“ She also explained that content, distribution and data are critical… “but, what’s even more critical is the need to bring them altogether.”
- Amy Peet, Senior Digital Marketing Manager at Chrysler, who credited short format, partners with rich online extensions and purposeful content integrations for the massive rise in the automaker’s sales over the past several years. “Find the right audience and wrap yourself in their content,” she said.
- Jay Sampson, Vice President, Global Partner Sales at Adobe, who together with AOL’s David Shing, revealed the findings of a recent survey of ad creatives: 75% said that technology gives them more control.
Bob Lord took the stage once again and concluded the night with four key takeaways for media professionals in 2015:
- Embrace an open data strategy – “Open data is only path forward for brands and agencies.”
- Disrupt your current media process – “Convergence is upon us.”
- Partner on product roadmaps – “AOL is offering an open, flexible, modular platform that will grow with the industry.”
- Lean heavily into programmatic within linear TV – “Welcome to the new converged world of marketing and advertising.”
The Programmatic Upfront was just the start of the conversation AOL has had and will continue to have with clients, prospects, partners, media and analysts about the massive disruptive force of programmatic. Stay tuned for more information on our Toronto Programmatic Upfront Roadshow taking place at the end of October.
