AOL gets first dibs on the newest rich media ad formats and platforms from provider PointRoll, and access to a dedicated team of its rich media experts, as part of a two-year preferred portal
agreement announced Monday.
AOL is already showing advertisers NetStream, the first product to emerge from the new relationship, according to Kathleen Kayse, executive vice
president of sales and partnership alliances at AOL.
NetStream is an embedded video player that appears within the actual Web page in a 200 x 250 unit, Kayse said. As soon as the user clicks into
a page, the video begins to play.
"It's clickable and trackable and a powerful alternative to pre-roll video," Kayse said. "You can also do behavioral targeting with it."
Kayse declined
to name the marketers who have seen NetStream, but said: "When you have so many marketers moving dollars from broadcast to the Internet, we think it's a very efficient opportunity."
While AOL and
PointRoll have worked together under standard ad-serving agreements, the new deal gives AOL exclusive use of PointRoll's new media formats--including video in banners. It also gives AOL access to a
dedicated team of rich media experts from PointRoll.
"What's different about this is that it does create more of a proprietary agreement with AOL and PointRoll," Kayse said. "The real key is
we're challenging PointRoll just as marketers are challenging us to come up with new and creative video executions online that will capture users' attention and engagement."
An analysis issued by
Avenue A|Razorfish on Monday reported a 454% surge in AOL's advertising
billings in 2006. Last year it decided to replace its subscription model with a free service supported by advertising. Video was not broken out as a percentage.
PointRoll, owned by Gannett Inc.,
currently holds 60% of the rich media market share, according to Nielsen's AdRelevance.
Financial terms of the arrangement were not disclosed.