Just when you thought AOL was officially dying once again, the creative minds behind America’s first ubiquitous internet provider is successfully reviving their brand once more.
Even though AOL continues to fade behind the shadow of web giants like Google, the esteemed Internet company is acquiring notable traction in mobile territory.
Last week Virgin Mobile disclosed a deal to use AOL’s Platform-A as its exclusive display advertising and sales partner for the mobile virtual network operator’s mobile Web inventory, delivering banner ads across Virgin Mobile USA’s deck.
The partnership gives AOL access to Virgin Mobile USA’s five million subscribers.
“Working with Virgin Mobile USA, we can help advertisers expand their mobile marketing efforts and effectively engage the 14- to 34-year-old market,” Platform-A President Lynda Clarizio said in a press release from AOL.
The Verizon Wireless pact grants exclusive rights for Platform-A to guarantee placement to advertisers within the carrier’s online and mobile Internet properties; other sales partners can sell only on a blind-network basis, which means marketers have no control over where their ads run. The Virgin Mobile USA deal, on the other hand, covers only the wireless Web but makes Platform-A the sole ad partner.
