AOL, US-based global Internet services and media company, has acquired Pictela, a provider of global technology platform for serving and distributing high-definition brand content across online advertising and social media.
The transaction brings further scale to AOL’s suite of premium advertising tools for advertisers, agencies and publishers, including the company’s new Project Devil display advertising format.
Every high-definition asset in a Pictela unit can be navigated without the user leaving the page. Content can be updated instantly during a campaign, based on data from advanced analytics that measure impressions, interactions and time spent across both paid and shared placements.
The acquisition follows the public launch of AOL’s Project Devil display advertising format, which is designed and developed with creative input from some of the people and agencies in the advertising industry.
Project Devil improves the quality, impact and interactivity of online ads. In a departure from traditional display advertising, the new format offers a large ad space segmented into three panels that can be customised with a range of media streams and applications, AOL said.
AOL president of global advertising and strategy Jeff Levick said Pictela’s media display formats meet Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and Online Publishers Association (OPA) standards that run across AOL Media properties and other publisher sites.
"We’ve taken one important step towards spotlighting quality ad content with Project Devil on AOL Media properties, and now we’re taking a second by bringing Pictela into the AOL Advertising family," Levick said.
"Our goal is to create the highest quality ad content for user experience and monetisation opportunities, and we’re excited to work with innovators who share our vision and excitement for what brand advertising on the Web should be."