| Escaping America Online (AOL) isn’t easy these days. After a three-year lull, the online giant has dramatically ramped up advertising spending in an attempt to burnish its brand, plug new products and tout its merger with Time Warner.
On CNN recently, commercials for AOL and the new AOL Time Warner (which owns CNN) aired nearly every 15 minutes. Internet promotions for AOLTV and AOLbyPhone are ubiquitous on the online service’s site.
Always a marketing innovator, AOL recently paid the U.S. Postal Service to put its “You’ve Got Mail” slogan on delivery trucks.
Self-promotion on the AOL site also is growing. In February, AOL ran an average of 631 ads per day for its own products and services, according to Leading Web Advertisers, an ad-tracking company.
Four months ago, AOL ran about half as many ads for its own products, Leading Web estimated. |
