AOL Sells to Kids @ School

Selling to Kids, May 31, 2000

Who else is getting friendly with kids before they become target consumers? AOL hopes to dominate the child-safe portal space with its marketing/distribution muscle, brand familiarity and user-friendliness. AOL@School allows schools to install special software that works either through the AOL service or any existing ISP connection.

When students log on, they are put into one of four portals (grades K-2, 3-5, middle school, high school) that guide them into content that has been selected by a team of educators for those grade levels. Museums, libraries, BOXERMath.com, Scholastic, and textbookrelated content from major publishers are among the links represented. While teacher and parent versions will have school-related purchasing available, no ads or other brand materials will run on AOL@School. Oh, except of course the AOL logo. AOL wisely avoids the in-school marketer status that has relegated other digital content providers like ZapMe! to the realm of evil corrupters of kids. But by getting AOL's logo, along with its email and messaging services, in front of kids on a regular basis, AOL@School has the potential to sear the AOL brand into the next generation of Webizens. (AOL: Tricia Primrose, 703/265-1746)