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AOL, once one of the hottest brands and brightest stars in the Web constellation, is slowly but surely fading into the background.
Executives, who quietly started executing a plan to launch new products and services without the AOL brand attached to them, are now moving to strip the brand from existing products as well.
For example, in the red-hot video search sector, which is seeing a steep uptick in ad revenue, Truveo – the search engine acquired in 2005 and promptly incorporated into AOL Video – has recently seen the AOL brand suddenly stripped from its product name as it was moved front and center as a standalone site outside the AOL umbrella.
The change in August, leaves the AOL Video product tucked deep inside the AOL complex.
And the AOL brand stripping may expand. When asked if a Truveo-type AOL scrubbing might occur in other products areas, one insider conceded that it is a matter of “open discussion within the company.”
“Whither the AOL brand?” has been a growing question since the company announced over a year ago that it wanted to morph from a Web portal for the masses into a sophisticated company that sells advertising across sites.
The company isn’t ready to talk about whether it would re-brand the flagship site, AOL.com, or the holding company, AOL LLC. A spokeswoman didn’t return messages seeking comment.
AOL has operated properties under different names, like MapQuest, Engadget and TMZ, for a while, but industry observers and press reports suggest it is happening a lot more lately.
The most obvious example was AOL’s decision to call its new advertising division Platform A, which sells ads to third-party sites and to its own properties.
Aside from Platform A, AOL launched Bluestring, a photo-sharing service that is separate from AOL Photos.
Despite a significant shift in strategy, a string of acquisitions and a complete management overhaul, AOL is still struggling to overcome its stodgy reputation as a Web 1.0 company.
That’s quite a comedown from January 2000 when AOL and Steve Case stunned the media world by merging with Gerald Levin-led Time Warner for $164 billion. Almost immediately the bottom began to drop out from under AOL. In 2002, Time Warner excised AOL from the corporate nameplate.
“The AOL name comes with a certain amount of baggage,” said brand expert Robert Passikoff, who is the founder and president of Brand Keys.
More than a few have suggested that the company adopt the Advertising.com name after the online advertising network it acquired in 2004. Advertising.com is the most profitable part of Platform A.
In interviews, Randy Falco, the head of AOL, has compared the AOL brand to consumer products giant Procter & Gamble, meaning that it will be the umbrella name under which a lot of different brands operate.
The way Falco and company are acting now, the AOL umbrella has more than a few leaks.