July 20, 2005
By Bob Raynor
Richmond Times-Dispatch

You've got new business!

If you’re The Martin Agency, that is.

Richmond’s largest advertising shop just got some good news: It’s one of three firms that AOL picked to handle a $50 million national marketing campaign.

The ad blitz will promote the introduction of AOL.com as a free Internet portal that will, for the first time, give nonmembers access to the giant Internet service provider’s content, including music, movie and video channels.

Martin will create the offline parts of the campaign, including newspaper and magazine ads, outdoor advertising, radio and some television spots.

"While the magic of this launch is online at AOL.com, we have to reach our audiences offline, too," said John Adams, Martin’s chairman and CEO.

"We want to invite people to AOL.com at various stages in their day to make the point that this could be the 'rsquo;next biggest thing'rsquo; in their Internet experience."

Martin’s work for AOL will break this fall. The agency has handled some smaller project work for AOL in the past year, including print ads.

But the AOL.com campaign upgrades the Richmond agency’s relationship with the huge Internet company, which is based in Dulles and owned by Time Warner Inc.

"Expanding our relationship with AOL is terrific for The Martin Agency," said Dean Jarrett, an agency spokesman.

"AOL is a brand name known around the world, and this is perhaps the most important and exciting transition of its 20-year history."

Carat Interactive in Boston will handle the piece of the campaign aimed at Internet search engines, developing ways to focus online searches on AOL content.

Atmosphere BBDO in New York will create the online advertising component of the campaign.

AOL has seen its membership growth stall in recent years. By opening its content to everyone on the Internet, it hopes to boost ad revenue by drawing more eyes to its extensive content offerings. AOL.com will be supported entirely by ads.

"As the AOL business model evolves — launching what could be the most important venture in — so must its marketing, requiring new and different ways to reach Web users," said Kevin Conroy, executive vice president of AOL Media Networks.

"Our decision to hire three different agencies, each focused on a distinct area, enables us to leverage their particular expertise and mine it fully."

Ruth Sarfaty, an AOL spokeswoman, said a "huge amount of research" went into the decision to make AOL content available free on the web.

The company found that most members said they were buying AOL for services such as dial-up connections, parental controls, e-mail and Internet security. So AOL decided to open up its content to a wider audience — for free.

The site is still being developed. But you can get a taste by going to AOL.com and clicking on "Preview AOL.com Beta" near the top of the column on the left.

Expect to hear a lot more about his — especially this fall.