International posts

The AOL Advertising team in the UK is celebrating another jump in the bi-annual Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) Digital Media Owners Image Survey.

Today the IPA announced that AOL Advertising has jumped to third place overall in the Spring 2012 survey, quite a feat seeing that 24 months ago the business was ranked in fourteenth place. In fact, during that period we rose from fourteenth to sixth to fourth and now third. This great jump can be attributed to a dedicated advertising team that works closely with our agencies and clients to not only understand campaign objectives, but deliver results driven campaigns where the agency is front and center in everything we do.

The latest survey results led Nigel Gwilliam, Head of Digital for IPA, to say that we were the "...most consistently improved performer..."

As well as coming in third overall, the UK team scored highly in the grand majority of categories, including:

• Understanding client objectives
• Providing high quality responses to briefs
• Professionalism in dealing with dispute resolution
• Easy to contact the sales team,
• The team that engenders a real sense of partnership with agency

.@AOL Advertising UK Jumps to Third Place in @IPA_Updates Spring 2012 Survey aol.it/H1l28m

- AOL PR (@AOLPR) March 28, 2012

Today I'm delighted to announce the launch of HuffPost Sport, the latest channel on our ever-expanding site.

With London gearing up for The Olympics, and Euro 2012 only a few months away, it couldn't be a better time for us to add Sport into the mix of topics we cover.

While our latest recruit, reporter Samuel Luckhurst, will be updating the site with all the latest sporting news, thesection's whole raison d'être will be those who play, love and follow sport, inviting debate, comment and opinion from the UK's most passionate fans, whether it's the premiership or Six Nations that gets your heart beating faster.

Being British, we fully expect there to be plenty of footie written about in our blogs, however, we're also aiming to be a destination for niche sports, where everyone from synchronized swimmers to curling champions can debate the merits of their favorite pastime with other dedicated fans.

In keeping with this wide range of sports, we have a real mix of voices from different walks of life blogging for us today, including Lord Coe on the Olympics, Gary Kemp from Spandau Ballet on cycling, WWE's Zack Ryder on wrestling and Kevin Cahill, founder of Sport Relief, alongside Will Carling and Andy Murray.

The Huffington Post UK partnered with the WIE Network (Women: Inspiration and Enterprise) for its inaugural London symposium at the Hospital Club yesterday, coinciding with International Women's Day.

The symposium is now an annual event in New York, which Arianna Huffington co-hosted last year as well as its first year in 2010. The London partnership further strengthens ties between HuffPost and WIE.

This dynamic conference is designed to inspire and empower women by bringing together prominent leaders from politics, business, fashion, philanthropy, media, entertainment and the arts for a full day of lively panels, workshops, master-classes and an inspirational awards ceremony.

Speakers today included fashion designer Vivienne Westwood, Home Secretary Theresa May, fragrance creator Jo Malone, comedian Ruby Wax and handbag designer Anna Hindmarch.

HuffPost UK Editor-in-Chief Carla Buzasi chaired a lively session entitled Telling Women's Stories - Women in Film, TV, Media. The panel featured inspirational women including Celia Walden, journalist and novelist; Shohreh Aghdashloo, Oscar-nominated actress; Rosario Dawson, actress and philanthropist, and Hannah Pool, journalist and novelist. The session covered everything from boardroom quotas for women to their own experiences working in media, tips on how to succeed and female camaraderie to help all women succeed in their chosen fields.

The evening capped off with a cocktail reception and awards ceremony.

.@HuffPostUK Gets WIE Symposium Talking aol.it/yzAmzr

- AOL PR (@AOLPR) March 9, 2012

Congratulations to creative agency BETC London for winning AOL UK's DareDevil challenge, earning a campaign for their client port brand Cockburn's. The challenge was run in association with leading creative advertising trade publication Campaign.

The campaign features a branded video and a Facebook module.

BETC beat tough competition from a number of other agencies and brands who entered the completion which launched at the Campaign Media Awards in late 2011.

The campaign, worth £30,000, is now running on AOL UK sites. You can see the winning entry and finalists on the DareDevil site.