• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, November 9, 2007

Just months after acquiring behavioral marketing firm TACODA, AOL has named its founder head of its global advertising strategy and its chief ambassador on Madison Avenue. Dave Morgan, who founded TACODA in 2001 and helped champion the fledgling science of online behavioral targeting, has been named executive vice president-global advertising strategy, responsible for setting AOL's advertising strategy, partnerships, and communicating the online service's "value proposition" to the advertising marketplace. He will report to Ron Grant, president and COO of AOL.

The appointment signals the growing influence of Morgan within one of the largest online media players, which also happens to be inside the world's largest media company, Time Warner. It also reinforces AOL's move away from its traditional online portal roots into a leading aggregator of online advertising services. Since the beginning of the year, AOL has acquired four vertical digital advertising services firms, including TACODA in September for a reported $275 million. Earlier this week, AOL added online advertising network Quigo to the list for an estimated $340 million.

The deals are part of a broader feeding frenzy in the online advertising services market that are sending company valuations soaring once again, and which are restructuring the field as big players like AOL, Google, and Microsoft consolidate some of the most prized assets. While Madison Avenue has been a player - including WPP Group's acquisition of 24/7 Real Media, and Interpublic's acquisition of Reprise and an investment in Facebook - the preponderance of the tens of billions of dollars of online ad services deals have gone to the vendor side.

Interestingly, the rise in digital ad services is also increasing the value of Madison Avenue's investments in the sector. According to one insider, Interpublic's 0.5% stake in Facebook is now worth $75 million, following an investment by Microsoft that brought Facebook's valuation up to $15 billion.

Morgan's ascendancy within AOL, meanwhile, could not come at a better time. Morgan, who is a weekly contributor to MediaPost's Online Spin Board, is recognized as one of the industry's leading thinkers and strategists.