This week, our friends at Advertising.com Group launched a blog that will feature shared industry insights and knowledge from the collective leadership of the team. Ned Brody, CEO of Advertising.com Group, kicked off the blog explaining the vision of the group and what the blog will cover:
"The vision of the Advertising.com Group is 'to simplify digital advertising at scale.' As a company, we are focusing on that vision by building a unified suite of tech products and services to provide simpler, easier-to-manage solutions serving publishers, marketers and everyone in between.
We are excited to begin publishing weekly blog posts covering issues that surround core ad technologies, formats, buying opportunities, regulatory themes, publisher monetization and other critical and often confusing topics."
Today's blog post, written by Delia Biddison, VP of Publisher Services, covers the OMMA RTB Conference, where Biddison participated on a panel called "You Call This 'Premium?': Publishers Face the RTB Question." Read Biddison's recap of the conference to learn about display and data targeting, as well as RTB strategies and practices.
Learn more about the Advertising.com Group and read future blog posts by clicking here.
On Tuesday, AOL was excited to be part of our first-ever Digital Content NewFront. In front of a crowd of hundreds of guests including digital marketers, agency representatives and friends of AOL, we presented new offerings and original programming from AOL Video, and the latest innovations from The Huffington Postscheduled to debut later this year, including the launches of "Huffington.", a new iPad magazine app, the Huffington Post Streaming Network and "GPS For The Soul", an iPad app designed to sense your tension level and provide you the right content to lift your mood.
We wanted our NewFront experience to be unique, so we decided to do things a little differently. Splitting the audience into two groups, we created separate experiences for the first half hour, with each panel repeating for the other audience after the half hour was up and the groups switched.
Experience #1, kicked off by AOL's SVP and Head of Sales Jim Norton and led by Janet Balis, SVP & Head of Sales Strategy, was called Powering Ideas, and explored the ways that digital is at a crossroads, and AOL is uniquely positioned to take advantage of this opportunity. Janet shared how AOL builds valuable partnerships to drive results that can move clients' brands forward. Janet took a look back at the content behind Powering Ideas in a post from earlier this morning.
Experience #2 was called Powering Brands, and focused on how AOL is powered by its amazing collection of brands.
After an introduction by AOL Chief Revenue Officer and President of AOL Advertising Ned Brody, Jim Stengel, former Chief Marketing Officer of Procter and Gamble, member of the AOL Board of Directors, and author of "Grow", led a conversation about brand ideals that featured AOL and Huffington Post Editors Michael Hogan (Entertainment), Susan Kaplow (Life and Style), David Kiley (Autos), Christina Norman (Black Voices) and Tim Stevens (Engadget). The editors explained the power and value of brands created through their content.
Next up in Experience #2, Arianna Huffington, President and Editor-in-Chief, The Huffington Post Media Group, gave an update on the growth of the Huffington Post, and highlighted 4 new Huffington Post product launches:
Huffington. - A new magazine app that takes the best of the Huffington Post and presents them in the perfect mobile setting.
HuffPost Streaming Network - a 24/7 livestreaming network that will combine Huffington Post's editorial philosophy and strong community into a uniquely social video experience
GPS for the Soul - an app that will measure your stress level and connect you to content that you need to "restore your balance".
Causes - connecting the Huffington Post community brands to help drive awareness of what really matters, through programs like Global Motherhood, in partnership with Johnson & Johnson.
In the final session, led by AOL CEO and Chairman, Tim Armstrong, we introduced The AOL On Network, a new video platform that offers premium content across 14 content channels including food, business, entertainment, style, tech, travel, health and others, and reaches nearly 57 million U.S. consumers.* Read more about The AOL On Network in our blog post from yesterday.
During Tim's session, we were joined by an amazing group of guests on stage:
Nina was joined on stage by fashion designers, and AOL On Style Curators, Erin Fetherston and Rachel Roy, who talked about what inspires them as they create their collections.
Vuguru founder and Chairman Michael Eisner, who spoke about the value of original web content.
The cast of Little Women Big Cars, a new series coming to AOL this summer, Julie Warner, Kristy Swanson, Amy Yasbeck and Romy Rosemont.
Amy Harris, writer of Sex and the City, joined us to talk about her new project called "Fetching", which stars a young woman who quit her job as a lawyer and ended her engagement in hopes of pursuing her dreams of opening a doggy daycare store.
We then capped off the event with a special surprise. Through our partners at Ford, we were able to give away a new Ford Mustang Convertible to a lucky attendee of the event, and pledged to donate $1 for every mile the winner drove in their car for the next 5 years on behalf of our friends at St Jude's Children's Research Hospital, for whom our friend Marlo Thomas is very passionate about.
All in all, it was a great day for AOL and we hope it was for our attendees as well. Read what the social web was saying in our Storify recap by clicking here or viewing it above.
Today we announced that Janet Balis will be rejoining the AOL team as the Head of Sales Strategy, Marketing and Partnerships for AOL Advertising. In this role, Janet will be primarily responsible for developing the strategy for AOL Advertising's products and services, driving marketing and sales strategy across the full sales offering including video, social, premium display and mobile formats as well as playing a critical role with top clients and agencies. She will report to me and be responsible for contributing to advertising partnerships that bring forward new, innovative opportunities for brand marketers, with a focus on integrated, cross-platform solutions.
We are thrilled to welcome Janet back to AOL to become a part of the advertising leadership teamas we continue to partner with our clients and agencies to create cutting-edge strategic marketing solutions. Janet is an award-winning professional in the industry known for driving creative large scale ideas, and has been a strategic partner to many world-class brands. (She was named a 2010 Women to Watch by Advertising Ageand a 2006 Crain's Top 40 Under 40.) Janet has years of experience in marketing and sales strategy, as well as sales management and creative development. Her expertise is a strong complement to our advertising leadership team and will undoubtedly be an asset for our business.
Today we announced that Janet Balis will be rejoining the AOL team as the Head of Sales Strategy, Marketing and Partnerships for 
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