AOL has appointed Carl Costa as its regional business lead for Southeast Asia, working on its programmatic ad technology division AOL Platforms.
As regional business lead for AOL Platforms, Costa becomes responsible for introducing clients and prospective clients to AOL’s ONE, an open programmatic platform that enables marketers to “optimise against campaign goals across all screens, formats and inventory types”.
He will also help educate agencies and advertisers about the benefits of using the technology for programmatic buying.
Costa has a background working for data-driven tech companies and was the part of the original management line-up at Enpocket, a mobile marketing business that was acquired by Nokia in 2005.
Most recently he has been a board member and investor on Statiq, was a regional partner at Torque Data and a director at Asia Pacific Growth Management, while he founded his own mobile gaming business called 24MAS.
Originally from the UK, he settled in Singapore in 2012 as general manager for StrikeAd.
At AOL, Costa reports to Alex Khan, AOL Platforms Southeast Asia’s managing director. The division has also been bolstered by the arrival of Jane Sng, who has joined from Amobee to take on the role of client services manager. She also reports to Khan and takes charge of training clients and helping them optimise their campaigns.
Khan said: “Carl and Jane match our quest in bringing both culture and code to life through our investments in programmatic and video platforms.
“They both understand our technology, know the region and are sold on the opportunity. Together we are committed to providing brands, agencies and publishers with the best in class programmatic solutions across all platforms and the latest hires are a reflection of that.
“Furthermore APAC is expected to account for a third of the world’s digital ad spend this year, and an increasing proportion of that will be video.
“Advertisers will be seeking effective ways of buying inventory and to track effectiveness in real-time. We provide that solution, and we know Carl and Jane will do a great job helping to spread the message across the region.”
