The team has just refreshed our AIR-based Top 100 Video widget with a great new Intel-sponsored skin. Download the latest version to apply a groovy new Intel desktop to your computer. To get to the desktop file click the in-stream Intel ads that appear at the bottom of the videos. Several performance improvements were also made to this release.

As if that were not enough: the FUZE "unbreakable" campaign microsite has just launched within AOL Music. Conceived in a brainstorm with Coke's online media agency, this advertiser program shows just how advantageous it can be to wrap great programming around a rich advertiser experience. The Flash site was built by the development team within two weeks (!), after a design gestation period of approximately three weeks (that is concept to sketch to approved design). We were fortunate in that the work was accepted by the clients very early in the process. They were great partners in that regard and helped us make the deadline by expediting approvals and empowering the AOL team to make it happen.


Check out the hammer and try to find the hidden clues :-)

There are few examples more startling of the transformation going on here at AOL than this viral ad created by the Marketing team. Whether or not you think it is funny and tasteful (everyone I have shown it to has laughed so far), the contrast to the bland customer-service-centric TV ads of two years ago is dramatic. Is this our company finally "getting" how to leverage the viral Web for marketing? I'd love to know your thoughts. My take? I am excited to have marketing attention on our websites, especially work this creative and unexpected. Let us know what you think...

As part of the recent IAB Mixx Conference on online advertising I had the chance to face the cameras and discuss content and user experience strategy. These videos have surfaced on about.com, including some interesting interviews with other presenters at the conference.

Be on the lookout for an online ad campaign geared to drive traffic into AOL Programming websites over the coming weeks. Just yesterday I screen-captured this simple flow that is actually quite effective in its execution. (A) is a simple and irresistible ad banner I stumbled upon while playing online games with my kids on Miniclip (they got suspicious of me when the adult declared we just HAD to click the ad on Scandals of the Year!). You then arrive at an AOL News page with a great Scandals roundup gallery (B) embedded on the page, but then (C) is the most interesting part of the flow. An AOLNews branded widget sits under the gallery for one-click adding to your google dashboard. Overall the simplicity of the experience is actually quite refreshing and it's great to see a team that has been doing such great work over the years be finally supported by a simple yet innovative marketing campaign. This is progress. Now we just have to convince everyone it is ALL FREE. Let me know if you spot the others live.

After many years of very well written purely typographic ad's (ok so they did use a light bulb a few times) the Economist has gone for an illustrated approach, I think AMV BBDO, London did an amazing job of keeping the integrity of the brand but offering a new spin on the execution.

"The World Revolves Around The Sun. The world revolves around the sun. Not the British isles. The Economist"

"100 000 Brain Cells". 100,000 of your brain cells die every day. Make sure it's not from boredom. The Economist"

"Know Everything. You can't know everything about everything. But you can give it a good go. The Economist"

"Six Years Old. Because it isn't only 6 year olds who don't want to be left in the dark. The Economist"

"Dissection. Good if you're a story. Bad if you're a frog. The Economist"

"Follow The Herd. Looking for the herd? It went thataway. The Economist"