AOL's beta portal

America Online has asked Carat Interactive, Atmosphere BBDO, The Martin Agency and Hill Holliday to handle the campaign for the official launch of its AOL.com portal, which is set to compete with Yahoo and MSN, reports DM News. The new portal will offer previously subscription-only services freely available to online users, including free email, as well as showcase new video and video-search capabilities.

AOL is expected to spend $50 million on the campaign, writes ClickZ, citing unnamed sources.

Carat will handle search engine optimization and search engine marketing. Atmosphere BBDO is developing online ads, as it has done for AOL since 2002. OMD is in charge of media buying and planning. The online campaign kicks off next month.

The AOL campaign aims to generate new users of the programming available on the portal. The campaign is also expected to attract existing users to visit other AOL sites, such as MapQuest, Moviefone and Netscape, as well as boost the AIM instant messenger service. AOL's intent to move away from a subscriber-based revenue model to an ad-supported one is dependant on attracting large numbers of users.

Martin, which began working with AOL last year, will handle the offline campaign starting this fall, including print, outdoor, TV and radio. Initiative is the buyer. Hill Holliday is the trade agency. BBDO New York remains with the AOL subscription service.