NEW YORK -

AOL Autos has rolled out a new program that can help dealers connect with shoppers searching for the top deals on cars.

Through the Best Deal Auto Buying Program — which is powered by TrueCar— shoppers can go online to create a virtual order for a car and obtain several upfront price quotes immediately from dealers.

Then, when they so choose, they can print out a price protection certification, which they can bring to the dealership and lock in a price.

AOL Autos says it will be refund the difference if the customer ends up paying more than the locked-in bid. And with the partnership, AOL Autos taps into a network of more than 5,000 certified dealers.

“Buying a car is typically a great source of stress and anxiety for consumers, so we are delighted to launch a program that will help our users through the process to guarantee they find the best deal possible,” said Justin Wolf, the general manager of AOL Autos.

Stewart Easterby, the general manager of TrueCar’s car buying service, added: “We are very excited to be working with AOL Autos, an automotive power-house. The synergy of AOL’s rich automotive content and our premier auto-buying platform provide AOL users with an unparalleled car shopping experience.”

Dodge Examined in Digital Branding Study with AOL

In other news, AOL recently worked with IPG Media Lab for a study comparing the effectiveness of IAB Portrait ad units with traditional display advertising. One of the three IPG clients involved in the six-week study was the Dodge brand.

During the course of the study, researchers delved into the effects that display advertising has on consumers in this marketing-message-heavy digital world.

Researchers say their initial findings indicated that IAB Portrait ad units are significantly more effective quantitatively and qualitatively than other options (300 by 250 and 300 by 600 ad units).

“While our internal data proved what we knew to be true, that a larger more interactive, integrated, and visually beautiful ad would be more engaging for consumers, this research data is off the charts,” said Jeff Levick, president of AOL Advertising.

“These results prove that the ad unit is probably the most effective brand ad unit on the Web. All measures of interactivity, visual attention, emotive response and overall ad effective metrics increased when consumers viewed the IAB Portrait, creating an emotional connection between brands and their consumers,” he added.

Delving more specifically into the findings, officials noted that an IAB Portrait is “far superior” to a standard 300 by 250 unit. It generates attention twice as fast, they found. An IAB Portrait is viewed four times more often and is viewed four times as long as a 300 by 250 unit.

“However, size is far from the whole story. When a 300 by 600 unit was also included in the testing, the Portrait ad still far exceeded performance,” officials noted.

Their findings are as follows:

—The time it takes Portrait units to attract attention is 35 percent shorter than competitors. Portrait units attract 81 percent more attention, and the length in fixation is 95 percent higher.

—Based on live media metrics, interaction rates are between 4.5 times and seven times higher for Portrait units.

—There was also a large spike in how influential the Portrait unit is. There was a 46-percent increase in the number of users claiming they would recommend the brand or product to their friends/family and a 49-percent spike in the number of users saying they would visit the brand site or Facebook fan page.

—There was a 263-percent hike in purchase intent.

—Based on the study’s facial recognition analysis, it was discovered that Portrait ads lead to almost a 40-percent drop in negative emotions.

Officials also noted that: “Proper context drives fixation — relevant content drove users to view Portrait unit 35 percent faster and 30 percent longer."

Additionally, they went on to note that one reason why the IAB Portrait did so well is that it overcome “banner blindness,” which is where visitors can’t see the ads.

“The eye tracking portion of the study showed this rather explicitly – where eye fixation on IAB Portrait ads rivaled the content itself,” officials stated.

Offering some feedback specifically from Dodge, Chrysler’s head of media Susan Thomson said: “At Chrysler Group, we consistently look at how we can engage our consumers in a unique and interesting manner which can be a challenge in the digital space where the customer is flooded with information.

“The information gathered from the AOL/IPG study enables our media team to better understand how we can interact with our consumers in ways that captures their attention quickly and provides them with the key information they want on our products,” she added.