Grace Meiners' posts

Think it's getting hot in here? That's because the first ever Devil Awards are open for voting!

As AOL's Project Devil turns two and the Devil Network continues to blaze a trail across the web, it's time to celebrate the best of the best in a great competition! Now it's up to you to vote for which brand you think should be crowned the Most Beautiful Ad, Most Engaging Ad, Best Pages to Parking Lots Ad and the Smartest Devil Ad.

The AOL Sales team has submitted what they think are the best ads in the following categories, and now we're opening it up to the public to decide who should be crowned:

• Most Beautiful Ad: The best use of image and video galleries hosting eye-catching photos and videos
• Most Engaging Ad: The best use of interactive ad elements like hotspots, quizzes and polls
• Best Supporting Devil: The best use of Devil ad units in a larger campaign
• Best Pages to Parking Lots: The ad unit that best sends users to offline commerce with the online ad campaign
• Smartest Devil: The best use of Smart Apps technology that synchs user actions in one application within the ad to another

So now, go to devilawards.aol.com and vote for your favorite ads in each categories! Winners will be announced October 1 2012. Until then, continue to vote and tweet the following phrase for a chance to win a Roku Connected TV device: "Who's your favorite Devil? Vote now at devilawards.aol.com #DevilAwards"

Who's your favorite Devil? aol.it/SfA2X7 #devilawards

- AOL PR (@AOLPR) September 21, 2012

An AOL Advertising display ad campaign was named Best B2B Branding Campaign in the 2012 Digiday Awards this week. The "Environment Matters" campaign ran online and offline, targeting ad agencies and brands and highlighting the importance of the online environment in which their ads run.Digiday covers online media, marketing and advertising.

Based on AOL's proprietary research, we've found that ads perform better when placed next to quality content. To help highlight this to the agency world, the AOL Advertising team came up with the "Environment Matters" campaign. The beautiful -- and now award-winning -- campaign and its messaging were well received by the industry! Check out Digiday's site to see the rest of the winners.

AOL also picked up six Telly Awards honoring the best in film and video productions, Web videos, commercials and films, local and regional and cable TV commercials, programs and segments. Last year, the Tellys received more than 11,000 entries from all 50 states and five continents. And the winners are...

Winning Content and Category:

SILVER (highest honor):

• Unscripted, 'Muppets' – Talk Show/Interview category

BRONZE:

• Sessions – Music Video
• GMC Trade Secrets – Promotional Branding
• Beyond the Battlefield – Documentary
• You've Got – Motivational
• Translogic – Automotive

Watch all of these videos and more by visiting the AOL On Network.

.@AOL Earns @Digiday Award and Six @TellyAwards aol.it/KknuGb @AOLAdvertising

- AOL PR (@AOLPR) May 17, 2012

AOL's groundbreaking original video research has been selected to be presented at the 2012 Advertising Research Foundation's conference in New York, June 12. And it's quite the feat, considering over 120 entries were submitted for consideration!

This past December, AOL Video conducted research to figure out just how online video viewers watch, share and complete original video. You may remember our webinar titled "People Like Cheese" that discussed the research results in depth.

The study was conducted to help make sense of the mad science-like original video space, with marketers, agencies and content creators all looking for the secret formula for engaging audiences.

If you can't make it to the conference, or can't wait to see the results, this groundbreaking study that gives marketers, agencies and content creators the secret formula for engaging audiences can be downloaded here!

Where's the one place that journalists, advertisers and hilarious Internet memes gather each Spring? Internet Week New York, of course! This year's conference will be held May 14-21, and in the spirit of the open web, IWNY is putting the power in the hands of the people.

As part of their extensive schedule of programming, IWNY has held 8 panel slots open allowing industry experts to Make The Stage by submitting their own panel ideas in the following areas: Advertising, Entertainment, Fashion & The Arts, Impact, Mobile, Social Media, Start Ups and Technology.

This year, AOL has submitted two panels that are up for voting:

• "Building Social Content & Taking It Places" - A look at how AOL is uniquely positioned to create social content by mixing premium content and conversation with AOL's Senior Vice President and Head of Sales Strategy, Marketing and Partnerships Janet Balis.
• "True Tales From The Interest Graph: Big brand perspectives on how to leverage what people like" – Join AOL's Social Media Director Matthew Knell, along with Katie Richman from ESPN, Katie Morse from Billboard Magazine and Katy Kelley, VP at Cohn and Wolfe, for a panel called focused on how big brands are starting to use the new generation of interest graph sites (such as Pinterest, Tumblr, and Instagram) to focus their communications on things people like.

Now, we'd love YOUR help to make these panels happen! The panels that receive the most votes will secure spots on the Stage at Internet Week NY.

To vote for "Building Social Content & Taking It Places", click here.

To vote for "True Tales From The Internet Graph", click here.

Please note, you will be required to create a login/password and users are allowed to vote only once.

Learn more about Make the Stage and Internet Week 2012 here, and stay tuned for more news about AOL at Internet Week NY in coming weeks.

Help @AOL "Make the Stage" at Internet Week aol.it/HusycN

- AOL PR (@AOLPR) April 9, 2012

We're continuing to wrap up 2011 by taking a look at the big trends that affected marketers and advertisers this year. The AOL Advertising Blog explores what was big in 2011 for consumers and advertisers in different industries.


2011 was certainly an eventful year for the Finance industry. There was fee frenzy, record volatility on Wall Street and a movement to 'Occupy' anything and everything. Before we turn the page to 2012, here's a quick look at the most important sub-category trends that we saw in Finance this year including brokers, banks, insurance, credit cards and taxes. To learn more about these trends click here.

In 2011, shoppers got social, used multiple channels, and sought out a good deal. Brands listened to shoppers and responded with some innovative marketing efforts! Find out why online coupon usage was up and view the other stats supporting these trends.

In 2011 we also saw the Auto industry back on the road to recovery with most expecting the Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR) to be between 12.5M-12.8M units, well above the low of 9.32M in February 2009. Production issues due to Japan's earthquake and continued economic uncertainty have no doubt impacted the industry, making this year's projections even more remarkable. Find out why consumers looked to mobile, video and social solutions when choosing a car here.

In 2011, consumers embraced wireless as never before. According to the CTIA, there are now more wireless subscriber connections than there are people in the United States. At the same time, more and more consumers are migrating to smartphones – with Nielsen reporting that smartphones now represent 44% of the market. Learn more about the wireless revolution here.