AOL has pitched advertisers and marketers on using its internal ad platforms to make so-called "programmatic" ad buys throughout the year after committing to spend a certain amount of money on the site.
AOL said it has secured such commitments from several ad agencies, and its executives were in New York this Monday trying to line up more with its "programmatic upfronts" presentation. The idea is to manage most of the ad-buying process through automatic ad exchanges that let ad buyers aggregate specific audiences across a wide variety of online properties.
"We think it's going to be the wave of the future," and become a $100 billion industry, AOL's CEO Tim Armstrong said during a presentation to potential clients and the media.
If the industry is to reach $100 billion, it has a long way to go. AOL's deals with ad agencies are reportedly closer to $10 million, according to Ad Age. Those deals will give the agencies a first crack at buying inventory that AOL offers through its AdLearn Open Platform.
For more:
- read AOL's press release
- Ad Age had this report
- the Wall Street Journal had this report (sub. req.)
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