As it continues to combine the multitude of ad tech and content assets within AOL and Yahoo, a big focus of Oath going into 2018 will be to “own the mobile moment.” This is where parent Verizon will be a key ally.
Oath Chief Revenue Officer John DeVine spends much of his time at events like Advertising Week in Manhattan explaining how all of these assets are coming together, along with the melding of the teams and culture of AOL and Yahoo.
“We are consolidating the ad stack to make it ultra simple for our users,” DeVine says in this interview with Beet.TV while attending the Advertising Week festivities.
To help communicate all of the changes under way, Oath in late September launched a global brand campaign called #BuildYourBrand, which spans nine global markets and underscores the company’s differentiators across mobile, video and data for advertisers, publishers and partners, according to a news release.
Oath is a portfolio of more than 50 media and tech entities that Verizon accumulated with its acquisition of AOL and more recently Yahoo. According to DeVine, the company knows it needs to be “consumer first” when it comes to content.
“We have a beautiful garden of properties. We’re going to continue to grow, water and nourish and build that garden for consumers,” says DeVine.
Implicit in the choice of Oath as its own brand name is being open not only about the various consolidations apace but also how the company will operate going forward, given the delicate relations between brands and the digital ecosphere.
“We believe that programmatic advertising can be done with trust and advertisers can maintain control of their brands while they’re journeying into the programmatic space,” he adds.
Among other tactics in the mobile space, where 70% of Oath’s users interact with the company, Verizon plans to share hashed ID’s from its subscriber base for targeting on any AOL or Yahoo property, as well as for media bought through its platforms, AdExchanger reports.
Given its big footprint on the buy side and sell side, Oath is keenly aware that marketers aren’t going to let up on their demands for more open digital dealings.
“Advertisers are not happy with the way they’re being served. They’re not happy with the trust and transparency. At Oath we’re leaning directly into that,” DeVine says.
