AOL is in the midst of a large shake up with the assignment of Tim Armstrong to the role of CEO, a re-org at the top as Armstrong forms his team and the impending spin-off from Time Warner. One thing AOL is criticized for is their sprawling collection of brands.
The breadth of brands seems so disconnected that one of the largest initial projects since Armstrong’s arrival has been to get a handle on creating a brand graph. In a recent video interview with AdAge Armstrong mentions that it has been quite the task and includes many people since no one person really knows all that AOL is doing.
Turmoil aside, this is stopping from AOL to continue their never ending launch of new properties. Their Media Glow group is targeting 30 site releases this year and Where Its At which is a combo of user generated content and social media tie-ins starting of course with Twitter.
Where Its At is sort of like those guys that sell maps of stars homes in Hollywood. Leveraging MapQuest the property is basically taking the concept of what Live, Google, Yahoo Maps does with their map API’s and is creating a brand around categories covering all things entertainment. Being part of the AOL Entertainment Network the property will have tie-ins/links to AOL Music, Moviefone, AOL TV as they hope to capitalize on the user base of ~33 Million the network already has.
I don’t expect things to just come to a stand still as Armstrong and company map out the next couple years but it seems like a tough road ahead for the ex-Googler who is being held up to high expectations.
With the MediaGlow group adding around 30 new properties this year alone the sales teams will have some trouble getting their price points to the premium level that Armstrong wants with continual moving targets.
