Via Event Marketing and Web Usability:
“How many details can you remember about a commercial you just viewed? Chances are not very many. Getting the viewer to remember your domain name should be one of the main objectives of any form of advertising. A domain name is far easier to remember compared to numerous other details. One of the fundamentals behind web centric marketing is to get people back to your web site where they can digest the information at their own pace.”
An essential point for TV advertisers, as well radio advertisers. Should advertisers go with generic domains, short, long, brand names? I like unique domains for TV advertising for the sake of track-ability. .TV is a great fit here, matter of fact, the more I think of it, the more I like it.
Five years ago I dated a director who produced some very successful infomercials. Her most “famous” was one for a tooth whitener that can still be seen late at night.
Her biggest complaint was that the public was having trouble remembering the company’s domain name displayed at the end of the informercial. There were far more people calling the 1-800 number than visiting their web site. A simple generic domain would have done the trick.
>> A domain name
>> is far easier to remember
>> compared to numerous other details.
not just a domain name ,
it may b better to be a
short-plus-simple-plus-real-easy-for-human-memory.com ,
;–^),
when ‘t comes2mobile ,
then,
the real mobile domain may b or in-deed must b
short-plus-simple-plus-real-easy-for-human-memory.com ,
;–^),
peace sorry ThANKye 2w
Yet another strong argument for both IDN and the default extension “Dot Com”!
This also highlight the value of Single easily spelt words or even single characters.
You are just taking the telephone test to another level.
I come back to my three fundamentals:
1. Recognition
2. Recall
3. Reproducibility
1) Means your target audience being able to log the domain in the blink of an eye, whether on TV or on a Billboard or even in a magazine. This is a very strong vector for IDN.
2) Means being able to accurately remember the Domain Name so they are in a position to accurately reproduce it. Length, obscure extensions, foreign languages and scripts, unusual spelling, all prejudice your chances of success. Another very strong Vector for IDN.
3) Means being able to use your keyboard or other input device to get the Domain in to the address bar of your browser. This is where ASCII scores heavily and thing like Dingbats or other obscure characters fall down. Most IDN cannot compete on a global basis with ASCII at this level All keyboards have the ASCII character sets. , but function perfectly adequate on a regional basis. IDN, however, functionally perfectly well on a user by user basis. It is of course no use whatsoever if your target audience cannot get past 1 and 2. That is why there is never effectively going to be such a thing a Global Anchor Site. The World just isn’t that simple, and those that take the simplistic solutions are going to be disappointed.
It would be beneficial for the TV commercials to show the website (domain name) watermarked from the beginning throughout to better remembering.
I run Internet Radio for a living, I can’t tell you how true this is. With no visual along with the ad, the actual domain name is the single most important element in addition to what the product or service promises. If anything just saying the name on the radio should instantly and automatically describe what the business is about, and where it is.
There are at least a few things to keep in mind if selecting a name for radio only (although most would apply to TV as well):
1) Pick a name that is not hard to spell (this should be a redundant statement, I know). Last thing you want to do is spend your money advertising a name such as “Incredulous Web Design .com”. While it sounds okay, and may work okay if linked from somewhere - from audio only a number of people will scratch their head at how to spell your brand. They may end up spelling it right, but if they wonder even for a few seconds that’s a lot of people abandoning their motivation to even try it.
2) Pick a name that doesn’t suggest for your targeted audience to check out your competition. For example if you were to advertise a business such as “Great Wine Offers .com” and the listener would actually be interested - you are running a high risk to that person ALSO checking out “GreatWineOffer .com” (singular), “WineOffers .com”, “GoodWineOffers .com”. Or you could have Wines.net, and people will go and check out Wines.com. People love to compare before they commit with their wallet, this just calls for a disaster of a campaign. Good luck on securing Wine/Wines.com though
The same
- Ari
I have been keeping a list of national brands using non-brand domains in major advertising campaigns. I now have a list of almost 250 examples here
http://searchdomainsforsale.com/creative-domain-marketing.htm
I’m not sure they are the most memorable names but for some reason, there is a major trend to use what I call “Creative Domain Marketing”.
This reminds of back in the day when people started using 800 numbers that were words, i.e. 1-800 Cool Tie (don’t call it, I just made it up). Studies found that these attempts to make phone numbers easier to remember actually hurt sales as callers struggled to convert the letters into numbers when dialing.
Now if you pitch CoolTies.com, it’s super easy. And look at that- capitalize the words in the url, leave off www, no hyphens and dot com only!
Keep It Simple Stupid- KISS still rules in advertising…
This is why the .TV extension is the sleeper hit of the year and next. So many great memorable names are available for branding and that are easy to remember.
There are hundreds of what Enom likes to call premium names that may cost you $500.00/$1000 a year or more, but if your spending thousands of dollars a month or more on tv/radio ads then it is well worth the expense.
Also lots of great regular names available for $24.95/year
More and more large companies are starting to use the .tv extension to promote video sites and are promoting them on commercials as well.
Nice to see you warming to the .tv extension, Sahar you are certainly a bright domainer and entrepreneur. There is no doubt that TV is the most recognizable abbreviation worldwide no matter what the language.
Infomercials like JohnBeck.tv use the extension and there are several other Infomercials that use the .tv extension.
PS Is there any place safe from Wrixon pumping IDN ? WOW
And many aren’t even going for the premiums but using solid reg fee generics in .tv.
The public can be trained. Over time it has been done over and over and over. Simple generic .com names are the Holy Grail- and most can not touch them. You can’t keep preaching to the choir about getting a generic .com name for your business, as it is usually not attainable. I think we are confusing domainers/businesses/users with this. It’s great that Frank and Rick have done so well with their parking lot business- but the names they have- THEY have. It’s irresponsible to lay that down that kind of pressure. And it is insane to think the public will only react to a .com name. Don’t get me wrong, I invest in .com as well, but I can see the overall underlying value .tv has. The internet is moving towards internet tv and video. You couldn’t have a brighter red carpet laid out for you.
The biggest misconception of .TV is that it can only be applied to terms relating to TV and this is false. If you think of .TV and video or commercials then it applies to almost any product and service. A commercial is just that. One can say, Loans.tv, hmmmm, that makes no sense. However, if you really think about it it makes absolute sense in an age where streaming media has caught or is catching up to the net. Loans.tv can be a site for commercial use with videos explaining products and services much like commercials used on television today. There are many available generic terms available today and while some carry heavy renewals it is well worth it for business and branding. In 2008, Next.TV will launched by HP and basically be marketed to 20 million or so HP pc users and this is not hype. Sahar, I am very glad to see this post. Advertising is shifting and right now there is a huge opportunity for business and investors alike. .TV is an opportunity to BRAND, BUILD and drive traffic, imo.
.com shall always remain The King of Extensions, but .tv continues to attract attention from domainers to Fortune 500 companies.
It is probably the most logical extension for today’s video centric society given that the two letters, T & V, when placed side by side (TV) create the most powerful and well-recognized abbeviation in the world.
While .tv is a ccTLD, hundredsd of thousands of .tv domain names have been registered by people around the globe and the extension continues to attract attention from businesses.
The competition for real estate on the Internet will only continue to increase because the Internet is only going to grow (not shrink).
.tv may not be for the average domainer trying to flip a domain in the next six months, but it offers an unparalleled opportunity to as an excellent opportunity to promote their brands and products.
Great read!
If you’re a business, $500 or $1000 .TV registration cost is peanut to advertise your products and services. The .TV domain name is to provide depth advertising to your business. Some businesses also buy taxi ads, local newspaper and other form of marketing to introduce their business.
I think it is important though that Enom stop advocating child pornography. The names they are selling as “premium” and profiting off of (high school and teen porn names) needs to be removed off of the premiums list. This is really a disgusting way to make a buck and it brings down the overall integrity of the premium tv names. And more than that, they should not even be involved in selling teen porn names. They have been listed since day one so they are more than aware of them. They charge more than enough to profit well from other names- they need to remove these and get their profit driven heads out of the toilet.