With constant, disruptive change as the mantra of AOL's advertising sales organization, will AOL ever achieve its full potential?
It's been six months, and it's time for the bedrock to shift under AOL's feet.
I kid, but not really. Despite all the jokes about AOL being a breeding ground for noobs, despite the many aborted attempts to get real traction in the online ad space over the years, and despite the apparent culture of shellshock that seems to permeate the halls of AOL, I have remained a fan. I figured that as long as someone over at AOL near the top of the pyramid has the vision and the wherewithal to stick to it, AOL will figure it out.
Shortly after the December iMedia Agency Summit, I was convinced AOL was on the right track. Curt Viebranz, who until recently headed up Platform A, made a presentation to agency attendees and convinced me that AOL could deliver on something I had written about last August -- targeting technology at scale.
To get there, AOL would apply best-of-breed targeting technology from Tacoda, Quigo and Ad.com to a huge swath of inventory from AOLTW properties, massive ad networks and even mobile devices.
This all made sense. It would change low-value inventory into high-value targeted ad opportunities. This is what everybody wants: the ability to identify the sweet spot of a target audience and deliver ads at scale against that sweet spot.
That was the strategy Curt Viebranz sold at the Summit. It was leaked Monday that Viebranz will no longer be with AOL and that it wasn't his choice to leave.
Now, AOL is faced with three challenges to get back on the right track:
- AOL needs to decide what it wants to be when it grows up. It is rumored that Viebranz departed due to disagreements with AOL CEO Randy Falco and COO Ron Grant about strategic direction. If Viebranz owned the strategy he outlined at the Summit, then what precisely do Falco and Grant want to do with the company that's so markedly different from Viebranz's vision?
- AOL needs to tell a consistent story. Platform A's positioning and mission was one of the big stories of last year. It was a big departure from prior positions that centered on AOLTW premium brands, or on the strength (giggle) of AOL's access business. Like I said, after hearing what Platform A was going to deliver, I had renewed faith that AOL would be relevant in today's digital media landscape. AOL can't continue to tell media buyers a different story every year in this respect. If they continue to do so, buyers are going to stop listening.
- AOL needs ad sales leadership. It almost goes without saying that it has been tough for anyone in the position of heading up AOL's advertising business. Some of the biggest names in our industry have been unable to get traction in that position, and many haven't lived up to expectations when they've been successful in other places. Viebranz is the third big name to depart in recent months. His departure was preceded by that of Kathy Kayse, EVP marketing, and Dave Morgan, EVP global ad strategy and ex-chairman of Tacoda. While ad buyers understand that it's a volatile job market out there, they're not going to believe that something isn't strategically off-kilter when they see a management exodus.
AOL has some premium assets that are the envy of quite a few companies in the online ad space. They own the biggest ad network (Advertising.com), the best-known and largest behavioral network (Tacoda), their own ad server (ADTECH) and a top mobile ad network (Third Screen Media). The roll-up strategy for many of these assets is obvious and produces a scenario where the whole is worth more than the sum of its parts.
Ad buyers need to know that this is still on track.
So, AOL -- six months' worth of "analysis paralysis" isn't going to cut it here. What's the plan for dealing with the three challenges I outlined above? I'd love to see current and former AOL people tell us in comments.
Tom Hespos is the president of Underscore Marketing and blogs at Hespos.com. Read full bio.