Portals and online destinations around the world are constantly battling for consumers attention, we all benefit as there are better tools (and shiny buttons) that keep us
engaged on their properties for hours. AOL Canada who recently launched their online music destination Spinner Canada has now taken another leap forward with the launch a new AOL.ca home page as you can see from the image to the right (click to enlarge). There aren’t any “major” changes, so I’m going to call this the AOL.ca re-launch “beta”, but they have stated that they will be opening up the homepage to third-party services and content shortly.
AOL Canada is hoping to capture some of the same growth that AOL.com has seen since their re-launch in September 2008, recording a 23% in unique visitors, 34% in total page views and 61% in total minutes consumed year over year (according to comScore). Edward Kwan, Senior Director of AOL Canada adds, “The launch of the new AOL Canada portal follows the tremendous successes we’ve experienced in both the U.S. and the UK, enabling exciting new opportunities for the Canadian market. In terms of advertising, Platform-A Canada will now have the capability to expand its reach across more relevant and media-rich content and channels.”
One feature that is new is the ability for AOL Canada users to check their Google Mail, Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail, and of course AOL Mail from aol.ca. Anther feature that users will appreciate is the integration of social networking capabilities such as update your status or check your profile on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, AIM, Bebo (owned by AOL).
How to advertise on AOL.ca
As previously mentioned, AOL.ca will be opening the door to third party services and content partnerships, as well advertisers can take advantage of the various rich media solutions. Pepsi has signed as the re-launch home page sponsor and has 300 x 600 and 408 x 80 banner placements on the homepage.
Other features on AOL.ca
- Customized backgrounds with multiple new designs from which to choose;
- Ability to add any customized links to the homepage so users can more easily access their most frequently visited sites;
- Users can drag and drop to reorder channel navigation to suit personal preferences;
- Users can add RSS feeds and personalized categories to get content from their preferred external sites.
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