AOL have unveiled its plans for a new global programmatic advertising platform for brands, agencies and publishers. ONE by AOL will leverage the teams and technologies behind Adap.tv, AdLearn Open Platform (AOP) and MARKETPLACE to drive powerful brand insight and action across all screens including TV, formats and inventory types.

AOL’s Chairman and CEO, Tim Armstrong and Bob Lord, CEO of AOL Platforms, made the announcement at ad:tech San Francisco 2014 where they shared their vision of advertising’s future:  an open ecosystem where partners and competitors, publishers and marketers, are all beneficiaries of a platform-driven industry.

Matt Seiler, Global CEO of IPG Mediabrands announced it plans to be the charter agency network partner for ONE –reinforcing its commitment to fully automating half of its media investments by 2016.  Together, the two companies plan to work to deliver the promise of automation to the industry at-large. The move also builds upon the successful work that IPG Mediabrands, its strategic investment division, MAGNA GLOBAL, and MAGNA Consortium member AOL have done to-date to use data and technology to create different models for media transactions, operations and investments.

“AOL has spent the last four years building platforms to facilitate the efficient and effective flow of advertising dollars to digital,” said Armstrong. “We build brands – our own, and those of more than 22,000 publishers in our global network and the thousands of marketers we work with daily to help them accomplish their business goals in today’s fast moving, dynamic market.  On the platforms side of our business, as machines automate more media decisions across TV to digital, we are well-positioned to help advertisers, agencies and publishers realise the true value of data-driven advertising.”

Lord added, “Our industry has developed too many niche offerings and specialised services over the last 25 years, and chaos in ad tech is at an all-time high. The inefficiencies, ineffectiveness and expense of managing multiple teams, tools and metrics for display, mobile and video, across all devices, are stifling.”

“The holy grail of marketing is helping marketers understand how direct response and brand budgets can interact together,” said Lord. “With the goal of driving economic efficiencies and media effectiveness, ONE ensures that data drives media selection and allocation, pricing and creative.  It is the integrator of media across every screen and the automator of decisions that have long not needed human attention.  I believe a platform like ONE – that is open and that doesn’t discriminate – will win.”

“We very much share a vision with AOL and the other MAGNA Consortium members around harnessing the power of data and technology to make smarter, faster decisions that drive client business results,” said  Seiler. “We have publicly stated that we plan to deliver 50 percent automation to our North American buying process by 2016, with other international markets following closely behind, and we intend to use AOL as a primary platform partner to execute on that commitment. Partnering with AOL allows us to take full advantage of the power of automation to both execute smart investments more quickly, as well unlock custom content and high-touch solutions through newly available resources.”

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