Greg Rogers is the CEO of Pictela, a high definition brand content platform that was acquired by AOL in 2010. We recently spoke with Greg about Pictela’s newly released ad formats.
The Makegood: Pictela recently released new ad formats that enable marketers to serve premium advertising across browser, mobile, and tablet, through one work-stream. Can you tell us how this works?
GR: Today is the culmination of a vision that began three and a half years ago when we founded Pictela. Our goal was to create a digital advertising platform that could deliver premium formats across multiple screens in real time. The example I used to give our investors was to imagine a future where one framework delivered and controlled ads across display, mobile, tablet, and beyond and with the press of a button, the ad experience changed across all screens at once. I told them to imagine a future where the basis of performance across all those screens was apples to apples and a brand’s story could be optimized depending on where it was being viewed.
When AOL bought Pictela to power Project Devil, that future was accelerated. AOL supplied us the scale and resources needed to escape the one-screen barrier. Today we are announcing that the Pictela platform can now deliver and manage in real-time Devil ads (content-based formats) across the browser, mobile, and tablet environments. And we are aggressively moving beyond the walls of AOL to provide this service to agencies and publishers alike.
The way the platform works is on the basis of one work stream. Because our founding principle is that brand content makes the best ads, it starts with uploading a brand’s content. There are no limits — as much high definition video as the marketer has. Then the process begins to automate, guiding the user through a selection of apps, ad sizes, and ad screens, seamlessly deploying an integrated ad campaign. Our motto is “Simplifying Premium,” and if you’re curious as to how this all looks in real life, I invite you to watch the first video on our website (www.pictela.com), titled “The Revolution Begins.”
The Makegood: As technology evolves, people are consuming media on multiple devices. How do Pictela’s new ad formats enable marketers to better reach their target?
GR: The reality is that people now move across screens in a fluid fashion. Thus it stands to reason that the delivery and management of digital ads should be just as fluid. With brands becoming publishers of content, Pictela gives them the means to serve and optimize their brand story centrally.
The Makegood: How does Pictela’s new offering differ from that of competitors?
GR: We differentiate across three characteristics: performance, scale, and screens. If you watch our website video, you will notice that all the Pictela ads regardless of size and screen have a similar look at feel. This brings two advantages. First, we did extensive research and testing on how an ad should display brand content to maximize user engagement. Second, formatted ads bring scale and production efficiency. Using our platform, AOL has launched over 700 premium format ad campaigns in the last 12 months in a fraction of the time of custom rich media. And finally, to my knowledge there is no other content-based ad platform that can manage and serve across three screens in real-time.
The Makegood: Do you have any initial results that you can share?
GR: Pictela ads were designed to be user-friendly and intuitive to navigate. Like we have seen with our Devil ads for display, initial testing shows that once someone engages with one of our mobile and tablet units, they interact at an astonishing rate with the brand story. The better the brand story, the more interesting the content, the more the consumers connect with it.
The Makegood: Thanks, Greg.
