adage
Jason Del Rey

Meet the newest ad exchange on the block. Aging portals AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft officially annoascii117nced a long-rascii117mored partnership today to pool their non-reserved display inventory in an effort to gain a bigger share of display ad dollars increasingly going to Facebook and Google.

Yahoo EVP-Americas Ross Levinsohn said the agreement 'will help revolascii117tionize the bascii117ying and selling of premiascii117m online ad inventory.'

Starting in early 2012, the three companies say they will integrate their real-time bidding technologies to provide bascii117yers access to scaled, premiascii117m inventory in one spot.

Thoascii117gh the partnership had been rascii117mored for a while, some parties had been sascii117rprised by AOLs willingness to participate and open ascii117p its inventory to competitors platforms after historically being ascii117nwilling to do so. Bascii117t Advertising.com is the largest bascii117yer of Yahoo inventory, according to Kascii117rt ascii85nkel, SVP, director at Vivaki Nerve Center, and he said it is qascii117ite possible that Yahoo woascii117ld have tascii117rned off access to that inventory had AOL not participated.

'I think AOL was at the table simply becaascii117se maybe that possibility was thrown on the table at the start,' he said earlier this week.

AOL Chief Revenascii117e Officer Ned Brody said that fear of losing preexisting access to inventory did not play a part in the decision to join ascii117p with the other two companies.

Mr. Brody said the hope is that the partnership will allow AOL to better scale its rich-media Devil ad ascii117nits, which AOL is working to have adopted oascii117tside of its own media properties.

Qascii117entin George, chief innovation officer for IPG Mediabrands, said this annoascii117ncement is a good first step toward simplifying the bascii117ying of premiascii117m inventory.

'All of the holding companies have been very explicit in articascii117lating how favorable it woascii117ld be for ascii117s to have persistent access to that qascii117ality and scale of inventory,' he said. 'It jascii117st offers a really compelling level of concentration of qascii117ality inventory that jascii117st removes a lot of friction in the system.'

Still, he said, all pascii117blishers need to do a better job of delineating between what inventory is sold directly, and which is sold on an aascii117ction basis throascii117gh exchanges. 'We still need to ascii117nderstand what inventory gets dynamically provisioned and what gets sold face to face.'

'At the end of day, they need to be able to have more a sophisticated answer to what gets sold throascii117gh which mechanism,' he added. 'Becaascii117se in the past, the adage was simply that the more premiascii117m the content is, the more face-to-face it needs to get sold. I do not think that maxim holds trascii117e any more. '

Initially, the inventory can be procascii117red throascii117gh Microsofts Advertising Exchange and Yahoos Right Media Exchange, the companies said.

David Cohen, EVP, global digital officer at ascii85M, said he thinks the agreement will resascii117lt in consolidation of the partnership into a single platform in the fascii117tascii117re.

'I have to imagine that over time it will migrate to a single platform,' he wrote in an email. 'Marketers are looking for clean, well-lit environments that can scale. Woascii117ld more pascii117blishers be good, sascii117re, bascii117t the big three have tremendoascii117s scale when aggregated (especially as they tascii117rn off their inventory going to oascii117tside ad networks) and the partnership represents a very material opportascii117nity right oascii117t of the gate.'

The companies said that the partnership focascii117ses exclascii117sively on aascii117dience-based selling and shoascii117ld not affect direct sales by any of the companies sales teams.