According to the Oxford Dictionary, an oath is defined as “A solemn promise, often invoking a divine witness, regarding one’s future action or behavior.” This definition also accurately describes a mission which CEO Tim Armstrong envisioned for Oath, a Verizon subsidiary which builds brands. Tim explained at his seminar on Tuesday that Oath aims to construct a connection with people; to be a brand that has a deep meaning.
Oath was founded in April of 2017. Its portfolio includes AOL, Yahoo, Tumblr, Huffpost, Flickr, and TechCrunch, to name a few. Between all the brands underneath Oath’s umbrella, over a billion people are reached. While Oath itself may not be recognized by an everyday customer, most everybody has heard of, or is familiar with its brands.
Tim listed three things upon which Oath is focused: mobile applications, mobile content and media overall, and a singular proprietary ad system which will help with monetization. He would later note that the mobile aspect is Oath’s single biggest advantage, as it leads to a bounty of valuable resources, data, and distribution.
Google and Facebook have a massive stake in the world of data, which some would see as a threat to competing companies such as Oath. However, Tim sees this as almost being an advantage. According to Tim, “Sometimes the place to be is in the shadow of the giant.” He elaborated upon this notion by saying that advertisers have tended to come to Oath in order to flee problems or issues that arise from Facebook or Google. Tim said that there is an unbelievably high retention rate for advertisers such as these.
Most inspiring was when Tim listed the two most important values at Oath. One of them was “Put consumers first.” This is self-explanatory, as the consumers are the ones supporting the brands. Tim said that the second value used to be “Pay it forward.” However, this has changed to become “Call to action.” According to Tim, he found this to be a more fitting value because he wants Oath to be seen as a leader; a beacon of light in solving issues such as diversity and sexism that occur both within the company itself, and also outside the company in society as a whole.
Before coming into this seminar, I wasn’t sure what exactly to expect from this company. I thought I would be merely hearing about its strategies and about making money and optimizing profit. While I was interested to hear some of this, I was surprised and pleased to hear that Oath sincerely cares about each and every consumer, from all walks of life. Oath is a company filled with passionate people, who can use their position to initiate change for the good of society.