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Rivals face off in massive Internet-service blitz
AOL TIME WARNER'S America Online and Microsoft Corp.'s MSN square off this week in an estimated $580 million marketing battle for consumers' attention as they trumpet the latest versions of their Internet services.
The media blitz for AOL 8.0 and MSN 8-a mix of TV, print, outdoor, online, e-mail, retail promotion and guerilla marketing antics-- is expected to be so vast that most people will find it hard to ignore.
AOL will spend an estimated $30 million in media to launch 8.0, plus $100 million for other marketing activities. MSN will spend $300 million through June 2003 doubling last year's outlay, but exec utives declined to specify how much of that is dedicated to media.
AOL's campaign for 8.0, its most extensive ever for a product launch, will run through early January. The torrent of media includes online promotion across the AOL service and the AOL Time Warner stable of Web properties to the tune of 12 billion impressions; distribution of 8.0 software at 40,000 retail...