More mobile ads for AOL's Platform-A
Thanks to the Time Warner unit's acquisition of Third Screen Media last year, the ad platform has gone mobile and expanded its reach to third-party ad networks.
AOL has formally launched the third-party mobile-advertising division of its Platform-A ad-serving technology, the company said Monday. The division has sprung out of Third Screen Media, a mobile-ad start-up that AOL acquired last spring.
Third Screen Media runs its own mobile-ad network, but Monday's announcement is focused on a new technology that enables publishers to put their ads on multiple networks using a strategy that AOL calls "inventory partitioning." They can, in other words, use a Web interface to pick and choose what percentage of their available ads go on which networks.
Mobile advertising got a big boost upon the launch of the iPhone 3G, with entire ad networks and start-ups popping up around Apple's device--making it the hot new platform for both Web and third-party app development.
Platform-A's mobile-ad options extend from text and picture messages to mobile Web ads to video and downloadable applications.
