AOL to launch massive data platform

By Lucy Carroll | 8 October 2015
 
Managing director at AOL International AU/NZ, Mitch Waters

American multi-national AOL is set to have its mammoth data platform operating by the end of the year, fusing key consumer information from telco Verizon and Microsoft to better leverage targeting potential for marketers.

Combining the wealth of Verizon, AOL and Microsoft resources will draw on a huge mass of data that some view as a viable option just behind Facebook and Google as far as reach and how many consumers can be targeted.

But while Verizon does not have the presence the Australian market to offer similar data, the Australian arm of AOL is exploring partnerships locally to offer a better level of targeting.

AOL Platform’s CTO Seth Demsey has been reported as saying the new data platform “is a different ballgame because of the depth of the relationship Verizon has with customers,” “We know things like addresses, credit cards, phone numbers.” These are “real, authenticated people,” he said.

Managing director at AOL International AU/NZ, Mitch Waters, while said the company doesn't have access to the Microsoft properties and data in the Australian market, there is movement away from cookies and more talk locally about targeting consumers through their device ID, at scale.

“It has also put us at the table when talking about achieving multiscreen campaigns at scale alongside Facebook and Google,” he said.

This measurement could improve effectiveness of ads by “getting a single view of the user, rather than duplicates that cookies currently provide. Further to this it deepens our ability to offer true multi touch attribution and moves us closer to ROI optimisation,” Waters said.

AOL has managed and sold all of Microsoft's display, mobile, and video ad inventory in nine markets around since it was bought by Verizon earlier this year in a deal worth $4.4 billion.
 
Since then, Verizon has claimed it will operate like a “walled garden,” having more control over how brands and advertisers use its data, particularly through third parties.
 
AOL says it is now looking at video, mobile, social, search, linear TV and digital TV, with the ability to track campaigns on Xbox, Sykpe, MSN and other Microsoft properties.

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