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July 22, 2009
AOL—Dominating Niches, Keeping Consumers Engaged
I spoke with Jeff Levick, President, Global Advertising and Strategy for AOL, this morning. I wanted his view on how the new strategy for AOL would affect PR people and their clients. Levick told me that one reason he left Google for AOL because “there is an opportunity to start sites in niche areas of content where there are small numbers of quality players, then move the AOL traffic to get to #1 or #2 position in category within weeks of launch.” This will allow audience aggregation for marketers as advertisers, but also a compelling destination for PR folks hoping to attract “consumers who understand needs of other consumers. We want to be the largest single source of premium content on the web. Today, we already have more than 70+ individual sites already operating under our roof.” Here are highlights of my conversation with Levick:
1) Top brands in category—Among the leaders under the AOL banner are Engadget, BlackVoices.com, TMZ, Asylum.com, Spinner, Moviefone.
2) Cross-marketing—Editors of these sites are increasingly visible on other media (example is editor of Engadget on Jimmy Fallon show last month) as a way to extend the brands.
3) Full environment—AOL research indicates that consumers visiting one site are now becoming part of a community who go from one AOL property to another.
4) Open loop—AOL may be the content originator and owner but takes in feeds from other media or consumer generated content so that it can offer a depth of content unmatched by competitors.
5) New brands—The speed of new brand development and acceptance is stunning. PoliticsDaily.com, focusing on the daily scrum in Washington DC, has already overtaken Politico.com in unique visitors within seven weeks of launch.
6) Vox Populi—The brand, WalletPop.com, is a financial site offering consumer information on how to spend or save money. It does not compete with Yahoo Finance on stock quotes or market insight.
7) Top-class journalists—There will be small numbers of full time reporters at each site. “We need excellent journalism to make the claim of premium content on the web.”
8) Sponsor Ideas—AOL is open to sponsored content. One of the 70+ sites, Paw.nation.com, grew out of a promotion with a pet food company. “We do have real interest in custom solutions for marketers.”
The AOL strategy is different in conception because it understands the power of top-class journalism to establish brands. It is true that aggregation of audience is important but users only remain loyal to content providers who are consistently offering insight and innovation. PR folks will have to include the AOL sites in their media plans to do a complete job for clients.
Posted by Edelman at July 22, 2009 3:53 PM |
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