CANNES: Oath, the new media company created from the merger of Yahoo and AOL, does not envisage taking on the internet giants head-to head, but instead intends to seek a "differentiated" relationship with consumers, its chief executive has said.
"Our goal is not to directly compete with Google and Facebook," said Tim Armstrong at an event in Cannes. "Our goal is to open up real relationships with consumers in a differentiated ways."
The first stage of this approach, The Drum reported, is to take scale, assets, data and have a safe and trusted environment to drive the Verizon-owned business. In the second stage, Oath will look to bring in the consumer in a "disruptive way" that will build a two-way relationship with the brand.
The positioning to marketers, according to Variety, is that Oath's brands are "trusted places to do marketing". Armstrong claimed that "we are probably the single largest, cleanest source of consumer traffic and data."
Oath is currently made up of more than 50 media and tech brands, a number that will fall, although specific details were not made clear.
"We want to make it easier for people and not harder for people to buy," said chief marketing officer Allie Kline. "The volume of brands that we have ... will not be helpful, so you can see consolidation from a brand stand point there."
Armstrong added that over the longer term he saw Oath enabling "advertising to become a service" and helping build brands across mobile driven devices for consumers.
"The single largest white space that we are focusing on is how do you create a brand in the digital and mobile age," he said. "That is so much different to what was happening on the internet 15 or so years ago."
"The future of the internet is really going to be about the consumer and their relationship with the brand and that relationship being two-way."
"Our goal is not to directly compete with Google and Facebook," said Tim Armstrong at an event in Cannes. "Our goal is to open up real relationships with consumers in a differentiated ways."
The first stage of this approach, The Drum reported, is to take scale, assets, data and have a safe and trusted environment to drive the Verizon-owned business. In the second stage, Oath will look to bring in the consumer in a "disruptive way" that will build a two-way relationship with the brand.
The positioning to marketers, according to Variety, is that Oath's brands are "trusted places to do marketing". Armstrong claimed that "we are probably the single largest, cleanest source of consumer traffic and data."
Oath is currently made up of more than 50 media and tech brands, a number that will fall, although specific details were not made clear.
"We want to make it easier for people and not harder for people to buy," said chief marketing officer Allie Kline. "The volume of brands that we have ... will not be helpful, so you can see consolidation from a brand stand point there."
Armstrong added that over the longer term he saw Oath enabling "advertising to become a service" and helping build brands across mobile driven devices for consumers.
"The single largest white space that we are focusing on is how do you create a brand in the digital and mobile age," he said. "That is so much different to what was happening on the internet 15 or so years ago."
"The future of the internet is really going to be about the consumer and their relationship with the brand and that relationship being two-way."
Data sourced from Variety, The Drum; additional content by WARC staff
