Lessons Learned
Making AOL more L.O.L.
AOL had a two-fold challenge. First, they wanted to drive traffic to their site via ‘listicles’ (top-ten lists that summarized the past year in fashion, food, pop culture, and so on). Second, people tended to view them as stuffy, not savvy, and a bit obsolete.
Our solution was to create (or highlight) the stories behind the content, so each execution tells you something you didn’t know, and gets you excited about the rest. Because of the vast number of lists, our campaign was quite large: 3 films, 4 radio executions, and dozens of banners.
Success was measured not only in click-throughs, but also in forum posts, which consistently mentioned how impressed users were that AOL was doing something entertaining.
