• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, October 10, 2005

The final components of America Online's estimated $50 million ad campaign promoting its free portal service are expected to launch this week, with outdoor billboards in New York, Los Angeles, and several other cities, the company said.

The vast majority of the ad spend is devoted to online efforts, including search marketing and online display ads. Carat Fusion worked with AOL to develop search optimization and marketing strategies, while Atmosphere BBDO developed the online display spots, which are running on about 100 sites including CNET sites, eBay, and ifilm.com. The campaign also includes larger integrated promotions, including the possibilities of microsites and roadblocks, with eBay and other large online properties.

With paid subscriptions declining, AOL has made its content available for free, in hopes of increasing its appeal to advertisers by upping its audience share.

AOL also is running print ads in Time Warner magazines, but no television spots. OMD handled online media buying duties. Print and billboard ads were created by The Martin Agency; Initiative purchased the offline media.

Online spots, which use PointRoll technology, carry the tagline "The new AOL.com, open to everyone." Clicking on the ads takes users to the home page of particular AOL channels. For instance, the landing page for the entertainment ad is entertainment.aol.com, which features celebrity news and gossip, as well as news about the entertainment industry. That page also has a search bar, where users can look for content AOL has created or aggregated about music, movies, television, and other information.