It looks like AOL is getting serious about mobile advertising. Last year Time Warner’s Internet business moved its headquarters to New York to be closer to Madison Avenue, and streamlining its advertising services into one group called Platform A. Today, they’ve announced that they’ll be partnering with the iPhone to deliver customized mobile advertising.
The move marks the latest effort by AOL to expand its mobile ad offerings. The company began shedding its e-mail and other subscription Web services last year in attempts to transform itself into an ad-supported portal along the lines of Yahoo and MSN.
AOL acquired mobile ad company Third Screen Media last year and last month began selling ad inventory across multiple mobile ad networks via through Third Screen's "partitioning" technology.
According to Lynda Clarizio, President of Platform-A: "We can not only help advertisers effectively reach iPhone users on WAP pages and Web pages, but we can also deliver banners optimized for display on the iPhone."
AOL has been working with Third Screen to make mobile advertising buying as integrated as it is online. Between its ad reach through Advertising.com and Third Screen networks, AOL says that Platform-A can deliver up to 75 million ads a month to iPhone users.
