• by John Gaffney , March 9, 2003

It’s a safe bet that the next campaign for America Online will not use “You’ve Got Mail – Faster” as its tagline.

“Yes, we have some early thoughts on what you’ll see from us on this account and we will make consumers think of AOL in a totally different way,” said Bill Katz, president-CEO, BBDO Worldwide, New York. “This is a great product and service that is absolutely spectacular when connected at a high speed.”

Katz made his comments on Friday after BBDO secured the $75million-plus AOL broadband account. AOL’s broadband service has been deemed critical to the company’s AOL’s future because consumers pay a premium for its high-speed internet connectivity. It is also critical to AOL for another reasons. High-speed connectivity and wide bandwidth will enable it to take advantage of the huge TV resources it has available as well as music resources. Music downloads – free or paid – are hard to sell to consumers who insist on paying lower rates for slower dialup services.

Late reports Friday said the initiative marked the first time AOL spent money specifically on Broadband. Still up for grabs is an AOL corporate branding assignment. BBDO along with Weiden and Kennedy are reportedly the finalists for that account.

With the AOL win BBDO is off to a hot start. It also recently won Lubriderm and last week announced the formation of a health care division. It hasn’t made Katz automatically bullish on 2003.

“It’s very hard to be bullish when you can’t see what’s in the pipeline yet,” Katz said.

He also said he is not concerned with placing any of the AOL projects – current or future – in the expectedly hot upfront TV market. “That’s one of the benefits of being with a client that has so many allied media properties,” he said. “I don’t see any concerns there.”