AOL Canada is in the midst of an out-of-home campaign that marks its return to consumer-focused advertising after a two-year hiatus.
The Toronto-based campaign, which promotes several AOL websites such as Engadget.com, Spinner.ca, MovieFone.ca and WalletPop.ca, includes transit shelters, subway stations and outdoor boards.
“We are making a bold re-entry into the market, so this is a kick off… We expect to be in the market quite frequently in 2011,” said Laura Pearce, director of marketing, AOL Canada.
The hiatus was due in part to AOL’s decision to re-prioritize its business, which led to the downsizing of offices in Canada and Europe, said Pearce.
In August however, the company hired Graham Moysey as general manager. Moysey moved from Canwest Global Communications where he spent just over two years as senior vice-president, general manager of digital media.
At the time of his hiring, Moysey told Marketing his plan was to shift the company’s revenues from its Internet-access past to content assets such as Engadget, Mapquest and AOL Health.
He has since grown AOL’s business development and sales teams by 10, including Pearce who started in October.
While the ads focus on the sites’ content, Pearce said the campaign is also meant to demonstrate to agency customers that AOL Canada is “back in the marketplace.”
The effort is “a consumer push but also a signal to advertisers [that] we’re serious about being in this market and actively promote these products, so it’s a good destination for their advertising,” she said.
Artists from across North America were commissioned as part of AOL Artists initiative to create the vibrant and colourful “canvases” that have been used in the advertising.
Rather than use one logo across all brand executions and expecting all of the advertising for these sites to conform to one brand identity, AOL decided to utilize these original pieces of art, thanks to the creative concept developed by Wolf Ollins.
Moving forward AOL Canada will continue to focus its advertising around specific content from its individuals sites. “You shouldn’t expect us to look and feel like a portal,” said Pearce.
