NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AOL Advertising today announced that Lateef Sarnor has been named Industry Practice Head for the Multicultural category. Sarnor will be responsible for partnering with sales leadership to execute a national audience-specific strategy working with the team from Blackvoices.com, the number 2 web site in the African American category, and AOL Latino, a top five web site in the Latino category1, to help develop breakthrough ideas and creative solutions for marketers. He will also represent AOL at industry events providing insights and trends in the two industries. He is based in the New York office.
Six Industry Practice Heads, including CPG/Health, Travel, Automotive, Finance, Entertainment and Technology were announced recently as part of the newly formed Industry Development team led by John Burke who joined AOL earlier this year.
“The Industry Development team is the next evolution of our strategy to be the most customer centric sales team in the marketplace,” said John Burke, Senior Vice President, AOL Global Sales Strategy. “The Industry Practice Head brings domain expertise, strategic vision and significant client experience in their respective categories.”
Burke continued, “Lateef Sarnor has incredible experience and a deep understanding of the marketplace’s needs, as well as the ability to translate those needs into saleable solutions. He will be a great addition to the team focusing on the ever growing multicultural market."
Sarnor has more than fifteen years of experience at high profile media and entertainment companies, including BET, Black Enterprise, PowerOne Media and Def Jam Records. He spent nearly four years at BET Networks, most recently serving as Director for the Brand Solutions Group where he oversaw operations of the business unit focused on revenue generating product integrations, branded entertainment programs and high impact advertisement programs across all BET platforms. He was primarily responsible for identifying digital strategies and integration opportunities for BET’s large roster of advertising clients.
Prior to BET, Sarnor worked at Black Enterprise where he coordinated the daily operations of the interactive group, and was a key driver behind the content and user strategy for the website. He also supported the Ad Sales efforts by developing integrated programs for clients in the personal finance, small business and lifestyle verticals.
“I am excited to take on this position at AOL,” said Sarnor. “I believe my strong relationships with key agencies and advertisers combined with my vast experience will help me to lead the multicultural team in a positive direction. I’m eager to find new ways to drive revenue in this expanding space.”
The AOL Huffington Post Media Group recently made three key announcements regarding its multicultural strategy: Sheila C. Johnson is a Strategic Advisor for Multicultural and African-American Initiatives; Derek Murphy is General Manager, Multicultural; and Patch, the network of over 800 hyperlocal news and information sites dedicated to comprehensive, community-specific coverage, will launch “Patch Latino” to serve communities with large Latino populations.
About AOL
AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL) is a premier global media company with a suite of brands and products serving consumers, advertisers and publishers worldwide. The AOL Huffington Post Media Group is a leading source of news, opinion, entertainment, community and digital information comprised of a wide range of destination websites, including AOL.com, The Huffington Post, TechCrunch, Moviefone, Engadget, Patch, AOL Music, StyleList and MapQuest. The AOL Advertising.com Group includes Advertising.com, ADTECH, Pictela, Video, inclusive of AOL Video, goviral and 5min Media, Content Solutions and Sponsored Listings and serves a combined content and advertising market at scale through video, brand advertising, content and ad serving. AOL is focused on engaging consumers and providing online advertising services and solutions on both AOL Huffington Post Media Group destination websites and third party websites, in addition to serving consumer platforms including AOL Mail, AIM, about.me, and mobile experiences. AOL also operates one of the largest Internet subscription access services, which serves as another distribution channel for its consumer offerings.
1 comScore Media Metrix Data April 2011.
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