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Tag: Tina Sharkey

  • AOL launches web `sweeps` contest aimed at women

    AOL launches web `sweeps` contest aimed at women

    MUMBAI: AOL is launching a nationwide search for women who play multiple roles in their professional and personal lives –a segment the company has dubbed “CEOs”, or “Chief Everything Officers”.

    The search is patterned after TV sweeps, with the goal of attracting more eyeballs and luring sponsors. The company says that through research conducted with Roper Public Affairs, the “CEO” title resonated with women who are juggling careers, families and personal lives.

    The search for ‘women who can do it all’ is being sponsored by Dove, said media reports. Said AOL network programing chief Tina Sharkey, “We’re acting like a TV network. This is sweeps on AOL.”

    The new channel, AOL.com/CEO, collects tips, stories and relevant editorial from AOL’s own Coaches and Money & Finance sections, as well as from the Time Inc. titles Real Simple, Health and All You. Also, the site will include several social networking elements, including message boards and blogs on various lifestyle topics.

    To promote the new channel, AOL has initiated a contest aimed at discovering real-life CEOs by inviting users to nominate candidates. Five winners will be selected to attend a luncheon in New York City on 17 May, when they with also receive a $1,000 shopping spree and their choice of several prizes values at $10,000 each.

    The star of ‘Desperate Housewives’ and real-life mom Felicity Huffman is the spokeswoman for the promotion and is being featured prominently on the new site. Huffman will meet with the contest winners in New York in May, the report said.

    Starting this week, Dove will be promoting the “webisodes” in TV, print and online ads. The rules, along with a series of video vignettes starring Huffman, can be viewed on the web site.

    In January, the company had co-launched a similar content channel with Good Morning America (GMA) titled America Takes It Off, which featured content designed to help women shed post-holiday pounds. That section generated 22 million page views in January, with the GMA promotion yielding close to 130,000 registrants who then pledged to lose 4.5 million pounds, according to AOL.

  • Time Inc, AOL back together dishing up food online

    Time Inc, AOL back together dishing up food online

    NEW YORK: They may be taking the name off the masthead, but Time Warner is finally getting around to cooperating with its spurned partner, AOL.
     

    The online service yesterday launched AOL Food, a huge collection of recipe and cooking tips that incorporates Time Warner magazine titles such as Real Simple, Cooking Light and Southern Living. It represents the kind of synergy investors were promised when the companies merged three years ago.

    “Finally! A good idea,” said David Card, a senior analyst with Jupiter Research. “Time Warner is a behemoth with a long history of turf wars. That said, you don’t want a central committee controlling all the business units.”

    After the companies merged, there was speculation that Time Warner would remove its magazines from the general Internet and place them behind AOL’s subscription wall.

    The synergy would benefit both companies, analysts said, shoring up AOL’s rolls and attracting more advertisers to the online magazines. But the migration only started this year, and popular titles such as Sports Illustrated are still on the Web.

    AOL Food, meanwhile, is the first project that was built from the ground up to combine the companies’ expertise. It includes 100 employees from both divisions. “This shines a light on what’s possible,” said Tina Sharkey, senior vice president for life management and community. “You’re going to see more things like this.”

    Some critics blame AOL’s recent subscriber woes on the lack of such exclusive, integrated content. But Sharkey said it takes time to design compelling destinations, and that AOL Food has been under development for most of the year.

    Card also wasn’t sure that AOL Food would have stopped the 700,000 subscribers who have left the service in the past year. “But I do think it’s a partial answer to keeping the subscribers they do have,” he said.

    AOL hasn’t announced what other content collaborations are coming, but Card thinks personal finance is a logical choice. The company’s magazines include Fortune and Business 2.0. “There’s got to be a way they can beef that up,” he said.