Bartle Bogle Hegarty is launching a multimillion pound national press and poster campaign for Excite.

The campaign urges consumers to "get excited" and aims to build Excite UK's brand awareness among existing and new internet users. Press ads kick off on October 11, with posters breaking on October 26 and runnning until the end of the year.

The advertising has been developed for the UK consumer market and aims to communicate how the UK portal can bring excitement to consumers' lives whatever their interests.

The campaign introduces four different characters, namely the "superfly guy", the "female footballer and child", the "Japanese rocker" and the "scuba diver". It is backed by trade advertising, already running in specialised marketing and new-media publications.

Lorraine Thomson, senior marketing director of Excite Europe, said: "Excite is already one of the leading online European brands. We want to demonstrate that it is relevant for everyone, no matter what their needs are, how individual, what age, how basic their internet skills. Everyone can get excited on our site."

According to MMXI Europe, Excite.co.uk attracted 1.2 million users in August 2000, a 23% increase on January of this year. Excite UK claims its average number of daily visitors has reached 179,000, 226% higher than AskJeeves and 156% higher than AOL.co.uk.

Excite UK is a joint venture between British Telecommunications plc and Excite@Home. It offers free web-based email, online shopping and access to 15 different channels covering shopping, travel, music and sport.