• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, December 12, 2007

Getting one step closer to a truly unified ad sales force, AOL is creating a new business entity named Platform-A Marketing Solutions. Tailored to the largest marketers and ad agencies, the new unit combines the sales muscle of AOL and Tacoda.

Kathy Kayse has been chosen to head the new entity, while Mark Ellis and Matt Arkin have been named to lead its regional divisions. Ellis will lead the sales teams in Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, New York and Virginia, while Arkin will assume responsibility for the Platform-A Marketing Solutions teams in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas and Chicago.

Platform-A Marketing Solutions will work closely with Advertising.com, the AOL unit that matches buyers of online advertising to thousands of Web sites with extra ad space to sell. AOL established Platform-A in September to encompass its various ad networks, and named Curt Viebranz, former CEO of Tacoda and a one-time Time Inc. executive, to lead it.

"We're positioning Platform-A to enable top advertisers and agencies to more easily harness the full power of digital media," said Viebranz in a statement.

Platform A will encompass Ad.com, the direct-response network AOL acquired in 2004; Tacoda, the behavioral ad network it recently bought for $275 million; the video ad network named Lightningcast; Third Screen Media, a mobile ad network, and AdTech AG, an international online ad-serving company based in Frankfurt, Germany.

The reorganization comes amid criticism that AOL has so far failed to meet some media buyers' expectations, and less than two months after parent company Time Warner released slower ad growth numbers for AOL--news that sent its stock price down 3%.

Selling advertisers both performance-based and branding programs, AOL plans to eventually have a single data platform that would give it the ability to target ads across its different network businesses.

AOL is not alone in its focus on ad networks as a way to fend off a slowing ad market overall. Yahoo, Microsoft, and even holding company WPP Group have invested in ad networks over the past year.