AOL opens up on ‘naked ambition’ to no longer be ‘advertising’s best kept secret’

So what sets AOL apart? “We have both the both the premium content and the ad tech; the culture and the code,” answered Nicklin at AOL’s Digital Upfront today (20 October), where he used the 'culture and code' metaphor to differentiate its offering to a packed room of potential clients.

It’s the ability to balance media platforms with data targeting and distribution through an open – rather than walled off – ad tech stack. That stack is called One, a combination of its video DSP (formerly known as Adap.tv), its display DSP (formerly known as AOP) and a DMP that’s lets advertisers fire out dynamically created ads optimised across screens to go native for every platform. All of that is wrapped around a multi-touch attribution platform, which Nicklin said completes a “pretty powerful stack”.

“This means that we’ve gone from the stage of being able to help solve campaign problems like banners and buttons very effectively across the Huffington Post and Engadget etc with some brilliant native advertising, to actually partnering with you to get much deeper and solve real-life business problems,” added the former Google executive.

It’s a proposition underpinned by AOL One’s ability to leverage the customer and location data of Verizon, call on Microsoft Advertising’s premium inventory on the likes of Skype and Xbox, and (hopefully) turn to Millennial Media’s mobile expertise.

“I think we’ve gone a bit too far on just optimising on the buy-side because whilst that side is fundamentally important, if we ignore the code side and purely optimise for the buy, we’re forgetting that we’re human beings, said Nicklin.

“We all know that we don’t wake up in the morning craving for dynamically created programmatic ad-served native ads across all of our screens. That’s nuts. What we crave, as human beings, is incredible stories that resonate, engage, challenge and entertain us.”

Video, as it is for Facebook and Google, has been given a key role in AOL’s bid to get advertisers to pay higher rates for its inventory. And nowhere more so is this being demonstrated than through the Huffington Post, which is now producing original shows – the first of which stars Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner.

Moving forward, the publisher is transferring its ‘What’s Working’ focus on positive storytelling to video via a new show. A weekly ‘What’s Working’ series will visualise the approach, providing a snapshot of positive storytelling from across the publication, which the Huffington Post’s editor-in-chief Stephen Hull said is “going to be topical, positive, shareable and it will start a conversation”.

“We know that there’s a huge range of brands who want to align themselves with the things that we at the Huffington Post champion everyday,” said Hull at the same event. We also know that the data tells us that positive stories are the ones that get shared the most on social media.”

“Over the next year we’re going to be producing loads more short-form content. We want to take stories beyond the normal headlines. My journalists are going to be sharing their views and ideas much more on video.”

Globally, AOL claims over 100 million viewers each month and more than 13 million in the UK and growing. “What’s the point of all this reach if we can’t get engage audiences? What if we can’t get the right content to the right people at the right time?” mused Mark Melling, director of video at AOL, during the Digital Upfront session. “Video is our pivot point between code and culture. We connect premium content producers to amazing publisher partners all over the world.”

It’s not a secret formula but it’s one that works and is reliant on five pillars – unscripted inspirational topics, talent-led, socially engaging, shareable and culturally relevant. Buoyed by four Emmy nominations and a star-studded line-up that includes Snoop Dogg, James Franco and Sarah Jessica Parker, its latest pitch signals a growing confidence when pitting its own content against more established brands like Amazon and HBO.

Melling used the example of AOL's partnership with NBC Universal to celebrate cultural diversity and beauty in a series that he described as an “opportunity for a cosmetics or CPG or any brand that just wants to be associated with positive messaging”. Similarly, AOL is working with the broadcaster to produce its Citizen Mars reality series, sponsored by Honda, charting the trials and tribulations of five hopefuls competing for a one-way trip to colonise the red planet. Other series include the 40 Partners-produced follow-up to 'Being Mom', 'Career 2.0', and '30 Something' with Richard Bacon, alongside efforts with ITN, Endomol and Channel 4 News in the UK.

“In a world of most views, most shared and most content for advertisers, that doesn’t mean the best content,” said Melling.

Armed with quality content and a burgeoning data offering, AOL is tying the two areas up in a narrative it hopes provides a counterpoint to the scale-only offering it claims its larger rivals peddle to brands.

Nicklin referred to his favourite Mark Twain quote to summarise “how we feel at AOL right now”.

“It’s not the size of the dog in the fight. It’s the size of the fight in the dog. We know in the UK we’re number three and we know that means that we have to try harder.”