AOL today named Greg Coleman President of Platform-A as part of the
company’s effort to expand display sales across its advertising and
programming networks. Coleman, who has more than 25 years of sales and
media experience, will lead Platform-A, the industry’s largest online
advertising platform.
“Greg Coleman is perfectly suited to build on the foundation we created
at Platform-A and drive branded display sales across our fast-growing
MediaGlow programming network,” said Randy Falco, AOL Chairman and CEO.
“Greg’s a seasoned sales pro who understands that online brand building
is the next frontier in digital advertising, and that whoever can
deliver marketers measurably improved branding online will be positioned
for long-term success. I’m confident Greg will help us create branding
solutions that leverage the strong success of MediaGlow and the upcoming
launches at People Networks.”
“I thought long and hard about jumping back into the media and sales
world. The only way I would do it is with a company that has everything
it needs to deliver what advertisers need most, particularly in
difficult economic times – productive, efficient and measurable ways to
reach increasingly fragmented audiences with their brand messages. AOL
is that company,” said Coleman. “Platform-A’s reach, combined with the
incredible growth of AOL’s MediaGlow and the potential of its social
media business, gives us a strong platform for advertisers to build
brands that really perform online.”
Coleman replaces Lynda Clarizio, formerly the President of
Advertising.com who was tapped to lead the integration of Platform-A.
Under Lynda Clarizio’s leadership, AOL successfully consolidated and
integrated the seven companies comprising Platform-A; created a unified
organization around areas including sales, technology, publisher
services and R&D and expanded overseas into nine countries within the
past year.
“Lynda helped us realize the vision for Platform-A as the world’s
largest, unified display advertising platform with the most
comprehensive suite of marketing solutions,” said Falco. “We are
enormously grateful for her work and success.”
Prior to joining Platform-A, Coleman served as President and CEO of
NetSeer, a start-up company focused on next generation search and ad
targeting. Before that, he was EVP of Global Sales at Yahoo!, where he
helped establish Yahoo!'s leadership in the online advertising
marketplace. At Yahoo!, Coleman was responsible for all advertising
revenues worldwide, which grew from $600 million to more than $6 billion
during his tenure. Coleman also served as Senior Vice President of
Reader's Digest Association and President of U.S. Magazine Publishing,
where he was responsible for the company's magazine properties including Reader's
Digest. Coleman was the founding publisher of Memories magazine at
Diamandis Communications and worked at CBS, Inc., where he spent 10
years leading advertising efforts for Women's Day as Vice
President and National Sales Manager.
As head of Platform-A, Coleman will report to AOL President and Chief
Operating Officer Ron Grant.
AOL is now focused on growing three mutually dependent online businesses
to take advantage of the shifting media landscape: advertising through
Platform-A, publishing through MediaGlow and social media through People
Networks.
Platform-A is uniquely positioned to leverage branding opportunity
across the more than 70 high-quality publishing assets that make up
MediaGlow, AOL’s newly launched and rapidly growing business unit. In
2008, MediaGlow launched more than 20 new sites and saw page views climb
64% year over year, engagement climb 39% year over year, and
unduplicated users top 70 million, according to December comScore Media
Metrix numbers. MediaGlow’s current assets include the AOL.com homepage
and AOL branded sites such as AOL Money & Finance, AOL Living and AOL
News, along with dozens of niche sites such as WalletPop,
Bloggingstocks, Engadget, Autoblog, and AOL’s commerce sites, including
AOL Travel, AOL Real Estate and AOL Autos. The MediaGlow unit is
expected to create more than 30 editorially curated sites in 2009. AOL’s
social media business unit, People Networks, is also poised to launch a
number of new products in 2009 in connection with its next version of
Bebo as well as efforts at socializing third-party websites.
About Platform-A
Platform-A, AOL’s advertising business, reaching 90% of the U.S.
Internet audience, is the industry’s largest digital advertising
platform. Platform-A offers the most comprehensive suite of marketing
solutions, powered by the Web’s best advertising technologies.
Platform-A comprises AOL’s leading media properties – AOL.com, AIM,
MapQuest, and more – and Advertising.com’s third-party networks.
Platform-A also includes TACODA’s audience insights and behavioral
targeting; Quigo, a site- and content-targeting solution; ADTECH, an
international digital ad serving business; Third Screen Media, a mobile
ad serving network; and buy.at, an affiliate marketing solution.
Platform-A currently has operations in the United States, nine countries
across Europe, including Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands,
Norway, Spain, Sweden, the UK, and Japan through a joint venture with
Mitsui. Learn more at http://www.platform-a.com.
