RSSCan you come up with a better brand for AOL than 'Aol.'?
By Joe Wilcox | Published November 23, 2009, 7:11 PM
The new, much maligned "Aol." logo has upped its failworthiness. Newest buzz: A 27-year-old with no marketing expertise was the driving force behind AOL becoming Aol.; that has many people wondering what the company was thinking.
Age isn't so much concern as lack of marketing expertise. What was AOL thinking, particularly with the rebranding being so important to a company spinoff planned for early December?
I think Betanews readers could do at least as well, and probably a lot better. So I ask: What would you have done with the AOL brand? Please respond in comments. Be graphic. Be creative. Be critical, if like me you think Aol. spoken aloud sounds like "A-hole."
[Update: Betanews reader Jason Syth submitted the logo above. I'll add others as they come in from other readers.]
Calm down, everyone. I got it!
How about:
"America Online"
No? -=op
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|How about aOL imposed on a background picture of dog crap?
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|Seriously AOL needs a totally different name. While in the early years it was synonymous with being on the internet, it is only good for laughs now, and even more so with the absolutely ridiculous name of Aol. I just don't know how a bunch of people getting paid far more than I do can think that this was a good move.
Sure we all questions Wii when it was announced, but not only was it a new name, but it had a real sense of meaning behind it and only really bad if you thought of what it could mean.
I hear AOL no matter what the letters look and I think of no place I want to be. A new name wouldn't totally bury the past, but it might help jump-start a new future.
Aol. is SOL for any future in my eyes
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|SOL! I like that! :)
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|The gal who came up with this was 12 years old when I first signed up with AOL. Damn I feel old.
Why not just copy everything MSFT is doing and call it .AOL
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|Sure...LMAO! AOL is and has been a joke ever since it's inception...why won't it just die already!
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|LOL@ Aol
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|iAol (hey, adding a lowercase i to the front of the name worked for you-know-who!)
Italian names are popular with cars. How about inLinea (online) or if you prefer French, enLigne
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|They should have embraced the new twitter/facebook hash marker and made it #aol, maybe make the pound sign smaller. Or even @aol. Adding the hash makes it seem like something to talk about..even though we know it's not...LOL
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|Not a bad idea. @aol sounds pretty good.
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|Why not @ol or @OL?
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|There's some good comments here - http://www.guardian.co.u...l-reactions-to-new-logo including a LOLcat version of the new AOL logo
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|I would have call it cybernet. sounds good. its scalable, sounds futuristic for that era, and focuses on the online world, which was the new thing back then. one good thing is that it had the word "online", that was very focused on the fact of getting into the internet. but having the name "America" limited the company to only one country. or one continent. they didn't have the vision that the company could grow to be global.
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|My rebranding would have focused on a rebirth of the company and a shiny new future. It would have emphasized where it has been, the role it has played in our history, and where it hopes to go in the years ahead. The commercials would have included upbeat, peppy songs that would get you excited again about the brand. It would remain AOL (not Aol.). The logo would have included the name in black lettering next to a bright, shining sun. AOL, feel free to hire me. It's not too late to sweep this whole Aol. debacle under the rug.
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|What made AOL appealing back in the day was it's simplicity and the "walled garden" approach. It's funny, I was thinking earlier today how much I missed the AOL I remember back in the 90s, when it was America Online and Steve Case - however goofy - was at the helm. All the FDO interfaces were tight. Now that it's all web based, it's just not the same. It's all about the ad revenue of course, which was necessary to sustain the flat rate membership. In the beginning all those FDO interfaces did not have ads, then AOL added the ads which ticked off the paying members (the "free" ones had no right to b****).
Then AOL bought Bebo and converted a lot of their proprietary services to Bebo services. Sorry, but Bebo sucks. Then in recent months AOL tried to convert their FDO chat interface to web based Chat (Bebo or Interplane, I cannot tell which). So many remaining members complained that AOL brought back the "Classic Chat" option, but made it very difficult to get there.
Bottom line, they got greedy. Now it's about shoving as many ads as they can to their users, driving them off in droves. They care very little about the user experience now, in pursuit of the almighty dollar.
If AOL has any chance of curviving, they should go back to a mix of the "walled garden" approach, as that is what made them so popular back in the day and less web based garbage. They had so many online areas that catered to specific interests, now it's all the same consolidated slop.
Sure, AOL had a bad rap with their original structure, being the "beginners" service and anyone who used it being a "lamer", but face it, it worked. How many millions of members in their hey day? The numbers and facts speak for themselves. America Online kicked ass. AOL does not.
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|I cant imagine who uses AOL anymore. Sure it's a website that you could goto even if you dont have AOL internet service. But why would you want or need to. I Guess they are much like yahoo now. Yahoo is another site i never goto. AOL was king back in the day when dial up was the only real option. But now there time is long since over. They should stick with AOL as there name. And maybe find a way to make there website a place people want to goto. Cause who would really want there internet access. More so who needs it.
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|You would be shocked at the number of people that still fire-up the old dinosaur aol client and access the web that way. Hell my mother-in-law has Comcast internet service and still uses that crap!!
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|I don't know but it seems to infect EVERY client we have one way or another. I have one client who refuses to stop using AOL, I should block it from their firewall! LOL, damn that will just trigger a service ticket!
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|"Hell my mother-in-law has Comcast internet service and still uses that crap!!"
It's the only option many of us have for anything above 20 Mbps.
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|lol
LOL
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|With all the press bemoaning the name at least they are getting publicity and "any publicity is good publicity". I had never any dealings with AOL besides protesting the mountains of CD waste - what else are they bringing to the table besides a name I couldn't care less about?
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|Yes, 'aol.' simple
f*ck somebody should hire me
one doesn't need expertise, Aol. looks awkwarD. much the same way no one says Lol my suggestion looks, well simple, clean and yeah even appealing if you're going to be looking at 3 letters for any amount of time
holy s***, im brilliant...
*takes bow
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