AOL hires Microsoft's Peck for Euro ad role

by Tristan O'Carroll, mediaweek.co.uk 26-Oct-09, 09:55

LONDON - AOL has appointed Christian Peck as vice- president of European advertising products and operations.

He will spearhead AOL's numerous products across Europe including creative solutions, behavioural targeting, sponsored text listings and display advertising.

Peck reports to Kate Burns, head of AOL's European Advertising Sales.

He joins AOL from Microsoft, where he was partner solutions director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Prior to that, he held roles at Atlas Advertising, most recently as vice- president and managing director of the company's EMEA operations.

Peck has spent more than a decade in media agencies, his last role was group board director at Zed Media, part of Publicis Groupe.

Last month, AOL Advertising ditched two of its high-profile brand names, Quigo and Tacoda.

AOL will continue to use the technology that underpins Tacoda, its behavioural targeting offer, but it will now sit under the AOL Advertising banner.

In addition, AOL is ditching the brand name for its contextual ad platform Quigo, which it acquired for $300m in November 2007. Quigo will now be called AOL Sponsored Listings.