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Future of TV Video Verizon

An interview with AOL's SVP of Advertising Marta Martinez about Verizon and their video business

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By Natan Edelsburg, SVP

April 21, 2016 | 4 min read

Aol has had a big year. Now part of Verizon, they have access to unprecedented data and information on consumers. They also have video expertise that Verizon needs as they expand into original content with go90.

Found Remote interviewed Marta Martinez, Senior Vice President of Aol Advertising about the direction the company's video business is taking and how they're helping grow go90.

Martinez leads the advertising sales organization "in simplifying marketing for AOL’s clients by bringing together programmatic advertising and premium video-first content experiences," according to the company.

Found Remote: How has AOL’s video business evolved post-Verizon acquisition?

Marta Martinez: AOL has been a leader in the video space for some time now. Joining Verizon has not only added resources and people power to our strategy, but also has unlocked new video opportunities for us to explore in emerging formats such as live video and virtual reality. On the former, AOL already creates anywhere from four to six hours of live programming every day, and through our platforms like VDMS, we partner with thousands of publishers to deliver more than a million hours of live video across mobile, digital, OTT and linear TV, every day. There are tremendous opportunities for advertisers and publishers through these new tools and formats to create new kinds of content experiences with profitable business models supported by them.

FR: How does AOL work in partnership with go90 and Verizon's other offerings?

MM: AOL and Verizon are collaborating on number of levels, and much of it focused on capitalizing on the consumer shift to mobile viewing. In terms of go90, AOL represents its ad sales, and a number of AOL’s content brands, like The Huffington Post and TechCrunch, stream both live and on demand on the platform.

We are also in a limited beta test with advertisers to harness the power of Verizon’s mobile data within AOL’s advertising platforms, enhancing the ability for marketers to truly understand the audiences they want to reach with better branding opportunities across all screens, from mobile to TV.

We’ll have much more to share on both fronts in the near future.

FR: How was AOL’s video business and advertising evolved in the last year?

MM: Last year was a truly transformational year for AOL, full of acquisitions and partnerships, including being acquired by Verizon, bringing on Microsoft's advertising business and acquiring Millennial Media. We’ve grown our global reach to more than half a billion consumers, which is a very expansive canvas in which to build a mobile- and video-led business around. Most notably, we added an incredibly talented team of mobile-first experts, many of whom have taken on key leadership roles within the company, as we drive towards building the #1 global mobile media technology company in the world.

FR: Any new products or launches?

MM: We’re very excited about two new video players that we rolled out recently: an out-stream player and an in-player with an enhanced feature we call “sideview.” Both of these help to alleviate issues surrounding viewability, which has perplexed publishers trying to sell video and advertisers trying to buy video. And, they provide a much better user experience overall, being less interruptive and decrease page load times for the user. We were excited to have USA Today Sports Media Group and Complex Media be our launch partners for our out-stream roll-out, and users can check out the experience on AOL’s sites, like sideview on AOLBUILD.com.

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Future of TV Video Verizon

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