Yahoo!, Microsoft, AOL in New Display Ad Agreements

Yahoo!, Microsoft Corp. and AOL have announced new agreements aimed to improve the process of buying and selling premium online display inventory. The agreements will allow ad networks operated by Yahoo!, Microsoft and AOL to offer each other’s premium nonreserved online display inventory to their respective advertising customers.

While agencies and advertisers can continue to choose to partner across Yahoo! Network Plus, AOL’s Advertising.com and the Microsoft Media Network (each of which is differentiated by its capabilities around data, optimization, packaging and inventory), this partnership will also offer the efficiency of buying premium display inventory at scale to reach customers and audiences.

Simultaneously, the partnership should enhance the demand for and value of each party’s display advertising offerings as well as provide better yield for both participating publishers and advertisers.

By integrating one another’s real-time bidding (RTB) technologies to facilitate the availability of nonreserved inventory by early 2012, Yahoo!, Microsoft and AOL expect to have the opportunity to access each other’s nonreserved 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.

Under the terms of the nonexclusive agreements, each company will continue to make its own decisions, differentiate its offerings and set its own controls for how it operates any exchanges, ad networks or other aspects of its display businesses.

They will actively compete with each other for both advertiser spend and publisher partners based on their own product differentiators.

Effective in the United States, 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. It was stated Tuesday, Nov. 8th.

Photo courtesy: Yahoo! Inc.