AOL ONE Aims to Simplify Programmatic

After nearly five years of planning AOL officially launched ONE, a new unified cross-screen programmatic platform, earlier today.

The idea behind the new offering is to streamline the marketplace by enabling advertisers to optimize both digital and TV campaigns with multi-touch attribution.

“It simplifies programmatic in a way that’s much more omnichannel than saying, ‘Hey, it’s easier to execute your mobile and display and video ads,'” says Seth Demsey, chief technology officer for AOL Platforms.

“I also think the multi-touch attribution and single-touch of a user used to understand relative value is an important differentiator, as we see more and more marketers try to get a holistic view of their media investment.”

ONE, which allows users to combine AOL offerings with third-party platforms, goes deeper than simply tracing a consumer browsing Zappos.com on both a smartphone and desktop computer, for example. According to Demsey, ONE includes more measurements: what brought the consumer to Zappos in the first place, whether it was an email or a TV ad, what actions they took on the website, and other actions that could lead to further targeting.

Additionally, the extra measurements give marketers a more complete picture of where their money should go. Tying all the data together, you’re less likely to underinvest in mobile, Demsey says.

“This is like our stake in the ground,” he adds. “This is where we start scaling progress to where the industry needs to be. It’s the beginning of a journey and we’re already back writing code. There’s not a breath to be taken; the market moves fast.”

Though ONE is currently only available in North America, other programmatic modules such as ONE by AOL: Display and ONE by AOL: Video, rebrandings of AdLearn Open Platform, and Adapt.tv are available in other regions around the world.