NYT: America Online Launches a New Ad Campaign

AOL will launch a new $30 million brand campaign tomorrow, featuring a redesigned logo and an eight-point set of commitments that collectively promise to provide a better web surfing experience. The Martin Agency in Richmond, hired only two months ago, did the print work. The new, undoubtedly expensive, logo was produced by Desgrippes Gobé Group. The tag line, however, still remains a point of contention internally.

Often one of the few tactical marketing elements that senior executives feel they must "own," tag lines often get buffeted into different versions over the course of campaign development. In large organizations, this often leads to silly, multiple layers of taglines so as to satisfy all the committees and stakeholders involved in the process.

Very likely, there is a print production manager, sitting in front of a Mac down on Shockoe Slip, waiting by the phone, getting too many nervous phone calls from the account team. AOL has just a few more hours to settle on something, as the ads will break in The New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal tomorrow morning.

[Update 10-8-04: PaidContent.org reports from anonymous company sources that the campaign has been delayed to next week due to "last minute hitches."]