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 category, 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.
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.
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.