AOL hires Leo Burnett
07 Sep 2009
AOL today said it has hired Publicis Groupe's Leo Burnett in Chicago "to help the company communicate its upcoming reinvention to people around the world."
AOL, which is in the process of separating from Time Warner, has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international of its services.
Earlier this year, Time Warner Inc. had said that its board of directors had authorised the management to proceed with plans for the complete legal and structural separation of AOL from Time Warner. Following the proposed transaction, AOL would become an independent, publicly traded company.
"Leo Burnett has a stellar reputation for creating and reinventing legendary brands based on powerful human insights and that is the primary reason we've decided to work with them," said AOL COO Kim Partoll, in a statement.
The scope of the work and budget were not disclosed. AOL has not had a unified branding push or much significant advertising of late
AOL does not want a complete reinvention but just wants some tweaking, such as a new logo, as the old one is still associated with the dial-up service, which though still valuable, is steadily declining.
In particular, AOL wants to refocus its AOL Advertising brand-the former Platform-A-as well as its other units, including AOL Media, which houses the content side.
An American services and media company operated by Time Warner, AOL was founded in 1983 as Quantum Computer Services.