AOL Canada has hired Leanne Gibson as its new director of ad products.

Gibson’s job will be to work locally and with AOL headquarters in the US to bring new ad products to Canadian advertisers.

AOL has recently acquired Pictela, a platform for distributing branded videos, photos and applications in real time in a range of formats across online advertising and social media.

The company has also announced in the US the new Project Devil display ad format, which is expected to be available in Canada in the new year.

‘It’s the first stake in the ground,’ Gibson says of the new format, which incorporates video and social media without viewers having to open new windows. ‘AOL is talking about redefining brand advertising in the digital space and Project Devil is really the first example that we’re releasing of how we’re able to do that. You think of how much things have changed in the digital space, ad formats really haven’t, and that’s what Project Devil is setting out to do.’

Video and mobile are the other two areas Gibson says she’s most interested in building up.

She has experience in those areas from her time with Olive Media, where she was responsible for building and monetizing ad products. Before that, she worked in sales and business development for Yahoo! Canada, Excite Canada and Quebecor Media.