AT&T launches massive Web ad campaign

It will be hard to escape the Web messages about the "new" AT&T. The company today is launching the largest Web advertising campaign in the history of the Internet to include ad spots never before provided on notable sites such as ESPN.com and Investor.com and an expected total of 1 billion ad impressions this year, hitting half of the U.S. online audience in January.

The new campaign will include “roadblocks”--use of all ads on a given page--on Yahoo!, MSN and AOL, according to Shelley Almager, director of advertising at AT&T. ESPN.com agreed to sell AT&T its first-ever full-page intro ad--surfers accessing www.espn.com will see an AT&T ad across their screen for five to seven seconds before entering the site. Investor.com is allowing AT&T to sponsor Open Access Week, a week of free premium investment advice, in another Web first.

Additional homepage “roadblocks” will run on CNN.com, weather.com, Cnet, ESPN, WSJ.com, Marketwatch and NYTimes.com. Also, there will also be takeover ads on ABCNews.com, WSJ.com, MarketWatch, Bloomberg, Reuters and Forbes.

“The ads are being tailored to each different site,” Almager said. “Each one addresses an AT&T solution for a given market. They are all tied to our new tagline, 'Your World. Delivered.'”

Depending on the site’s targeted audience, for example, the ads will highlight a specific AT&T solution, such as its approach to telecommuting, blogging, stock information or network management. The ESPN takeover ad features an animated football player and the tag line "Home Team. Delivered."

“We want to promote the awareness that SBC and AT&T have come together--we are the new AT&T,” Almager said. “AT&T had moved out of consumer services and Internet access, and we want to communicate with consumers that we are back.”

Open Access Week at Investors.com is Jan. 9-15 and will provide users with “unprecedented access” to that site’s investment tools, according to AT&T.

“This is the first time they’ve allowed a sponsor to give free access, so we feel honored,” Almager said. “The ESPN ad is another coup.”