Yahoo!, AOL and Microsoft today announced agreements to offer each other’s premium non-reserved online display inventory to their respective advertising customers. By early 2012, Yahoo!, Microsoft, and AOL expect to have the opportunity to access each other’s non-reserved inventory to achieve the benefits of scale and efficiency.
“We’re thrilled to partner with Microsoft and AOL and bring to market what we believe will be a more efficient, effective and more effortless way to access true premium inventory and formats,” says Ross Levinsohn, Yahoo! EVP of the Americas. “There has a been a significant shift in how inventory is bought and sold, and we’re now 100% focused on controlling our own destiny, working directly with marketers and agencies and driving better returns for our advertising partners.”
The announcement underscores Yahoo!’s commitment to growth and innovation in the performance display advertising space.
The partnership is not exclusive, and the three companies will continue to compete with each other. Agencies, advertisers and publishers will still be able to do business with the individual Yahoo!, AOL and Microsoft ad networks.
By integrating one another’s real-time bidding (RTB) technologies to facilitate the availability of non-reserved inventory, by early 2012, Yahoo!, Microsoft, and AOL expect to have the opportunity to access each other’s non-reserved inventory to achieve the benefits of scale and efficiency. The Microsoft Advertising Exchange and Yahoo’s! Right Media Exchange will initially serve as the two marketplaces from which the partners can procure this inventory for resale to advertisers and agencies. AOL may, at its discretion, opt to use its own exchange technology solution subsequent to the launch of the partnership.
The partnership is based on the premise of audience-based selling across a large number of sites and is not expected to affect direct sales made by each partner’s respective internal teams. In addition to the United States, Yahoo! and AOL will have an agreement that extends to Canada. Microsoft’s Canada business is not participating directly in the agreement.