AOL launches two new ad formats for video

AOL is launching two new video ad formats this week that it hopes will offer customers more user-friendly ad experiences and increase viewability for advertisers. The formats will extend the company’s offerings on its ONEbyAOL:Publishers platform, which was launched earlier this year, as part of AOL’s six-year $1bn acquisition of technologies for improving engagement and monetisation in one of digital advertising’s highest growth areas. AOL’s Out-Stream Player is an in-article video ad that expands while playing and pauses when below the IAB’s 50% viewability standard. Complex Media and USA Today Sports Media Group will use it first. AOL’s SideView format allows the polite introduction of greater video consumption by offering ads at the side of screens that automatically resize and pin next to content for up to 90% viewability.

AOL is debuting two video ad formats today it says will be more viewable for advertisers and more user-friendly for consumers.

The formats are meant to help build out the company's "end-to-end" platform that launched earlier this year under the name ONE by AOL: Publishers. Since 2010, AOL has spent $1 billion acquiring technologies and companies to improve engagement and monetization of one of the fastest growing areas in advertising, it says.

"Ultimately for publishers, I think this is a great opportunity for them to access more video spend by taking a step toward viewability and creating more inventory on their website," Robert Leon, AOL's head of publisher product commercialization and solutions, told Adweek.

One of AOL's new formats, its Out-stream player, is an in-article video format that only starts playing when at least half of the video is visible on the screen.