Original Content, Digital Video Take Center Stage At AOL NewFront

AOL CEO Tim Armstrong addressed a crowd of close to 2,000 media buyers at its NewFront Tuesday night with an exuberant, “tonight is about connecting content with distribution.” It’s clear, with AOL, that much of that connection will happen through video.

Ran Harnevo, president of AOL Video, talked up digital video and its intent to provide “one platform for premium content.” He added: “TV and video will become one…[we will be the] platform for creating, curating, programming, distributing and monetizing content.”

Susan Lyne, CEO of AOL Brand Group, said “the power of video to engage an audience is what drew us to television in the first place.” She referenced AOL’s recent homepage re-do and introduction of always-on video programming from the company and its content partners.

Measurement was also a focal point. AOL and Nielsen took the stage together to announce a beta test of gross ratings points (GRP) metrics to measure audience reach for all of AOL’s 16 original series.

AOL positioned this as an extension of Nielsen Digital Program Ratings, designed to measure the online impact of televised content. (Yahoo Monday night touted measurement, too, at its NewFront when it announced an integration of comScore validated Campaign Essentials (vCE) metrics with Yahoo’s ad server for video, mobile and display).

“In 2009, we were…the new kid on the block,” Armstrong went on. “Now we feel we are at the forefront of video.”

Reality star Nicole Richie, who headlines AOL Original program “Candidly Nicole,” joined AOL Platforms CEO Bob Lord onstage and gave scripted lip service to automated buying: “I hear programmatic buying seems to be the shit right now, so tell me all about it.”

This was Lord’s cue to reaffirm AOL’s commitment to programmatic, noting that all AOL Originals, such as Candidly Nicole, and reserve inventory “will be available programmatically via Adap.tv.” This follows AOL’s announcing at its inaugural “Programmatic Upfront” last fall that it would make premium reserved, guaranteed inventory available in an automated fashion.

AOL closed the night heralding new ad sponsorships from DigitasLBi for two original programs: long-form documentary series “Connected,” which Sprint will exclusively sponsor, and “My Hero,” starring Zoe Saldana, the rights to which were purchased by DigitasLBI.

Tagged in:

DigitasLBI

featured

newfront

nielsen

yahoo

Must Read

CTV

Hasbro And Animaj Form A New YouTube Ad Sales House For Kids And Family Content

The kids companies Hasbro and Animaj have formed a co-venture for selling their ads on YouTube and streaming media.

Marketers

I Asked ChatGPT Where My Ads Were – But It Was Wrong, OpenAI Said

It’s official: ChatGPT has launched ads and the test will expand in the coming weeks. But don’t ask the LLM for details, unless you’re looking for misinformation.

Commerce

Criteo Says It's Bullish On The Future, But The Market’s All Bears

Criteo has an optimistic pitch for future growth, but Wall Street doesn’t see the money yet from LLMs, commerce agents and social shopping.

Commerce

Wizard Commerce Launches An AI Shopping Agent To Make Magic of Ecommerce Madness

What people need is an independent agent that peers across retailer and is entirely focused on ecommerce services. At least that’s the conclusion driving Wizard Commerce, a personal shopping agent that emerged from beta on Wednesday.

Programmatic

OOH Is Getting New Rules For Categorizing Venues In Programmatic Buys

The OAAA’s new content taxonomy introduces new subcategories that OOH media owners can use to classify their inventory in OpenRTB bid requests.

CTV

Say Hello To SAGE, The Latest Agentic AI Platform

Agentic AI is gaining popularity as a tactic for media buyers and sellers striving to simplify workflows, including in streaming TV advertising. Ad measurement firm iSpot introduced SAGE, an agentic AI platform with a “ChatGPT-like interface” that media buyers can use to generate campaign planning ideas.

Must Read

Popular