Lean Mean Fighting Machine beats cdp-travissully to AOL

by Jennifer Whitehead,, Brand Republic 11-Jun-04, 08:00

LONDON - AOL has appointed digital creative agency Lean Mean Fighting Machine to handle online business-to-business advertising, after a pitch against cdp-travissully.

The agency, created by former Tribal DDB executives Dave Bedwood, Sam Ball, Tom Bazeley and Dave Cox, will now launch a creative campaign to persuade media buyers and brand managers that they should be spending more money on online advertising, particularly through AOL.

AOL is putting its money where its mouth is by increasing online spend from about 10% of its business marketing budget to between 25% and 35% this year.

Bazeley said that there are rational obstacles, such as value, reach and demographic, as well as emotional obstacles that need to be overcome before people buy in to online advertising.

"We wanted to tackle the rational concerns head on, but in such a way that their emotional hesitation is appeased along the way," he said.

The appointment of Lean Mean Fighting Machine was made by Greg Paine, director of strategy for interactive marketing at AOL UK.

Cdp-travissully was appointed to the ISP's business-to-business creative account in February 2003, adding online to its responsibilities late last year, when it created a campaign designed to drive traffic to AOL media space. The agency will continue to work on print campaigns for AOL.

The new campaign will run on media sites starting from next week.

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