Definition6: New Top-level Domains and Branding: Lessons from Weinergate - Chris Wojda

In the wake of Weinergate I39ve been thinking a lot about the idea of personal branding That said I39m sure you39re about as tired of Weiner39s wellamp8230 weiner as I am so I won39t really go there too much in this post except as a point of reference as there39s a lot that brands can learn from the falling or perhaps by the time this is posted fallen congressmanThis is especially true when considering the June 20 2011 move by ICANN that will allow certain brands to acquire customized TLDs or toplevel domain extensions Various keywords places and even brand names will be made available in lieu of the typical com net insertyourcountrycodehere etcHaving these options will certainly open the doors of Internet addresses to a whole group of people who missed out on acquiring the com version of their desire But will they want to This will certainly be a test to the almightycom and it will be interesting to see how it plays outBrandchannel has an interesting article about all of this here As they explainamp8230ICANN will open the application process for between 400 and 2000 new toplevel domain TLD extensions in keywords like sport and law cities like NYC and brands like MTV in a move that has been in the works since 2004amp8230quotIf I were CMO of say MTV with thousands of websites I can unify them under MTV under one family It helps me build my umbrella brand off of the back of consumer brands people are familiar with like JerseyShoreMTVquot commented Crawford to MediaPost quotIf you are Barclays it39s as easy as telling consumers that 39it39s only Barclays if it says barclays39quot There are many great points with this move and personally I39m sold on the idea At my agency Definition 6 we39re all about unified marketing So in that respect this is greatBut before marketers get too excited it39s time to look back and think for a moment about our good friend Anthony and remind ourselves thisYour brand isn39t your name well in his case now it kind of isYour brand isn39t your websiteYour brand isn39t even your product or serviceYour brand is simply where you live in the hearts and minds of people These TLDs are a fascinating concept and a good idea for numerous reasons But they won39t necessarily strengthen your brand especially at the beginning when everyone is still expecting to hearread quotcomquotEven still in some cases the new TLDs may even weaken your brand Again I39m a huge proponent of unified marketing and I39m lucky to live and breathe it as a planner at a marketing agency But like anything how and when you unify your brand is key Blanket strategies never work The lack of any real meaning behind com is actually nice in that it does provide a level of separationamp8230 and for some brands this is important A few years ago after discussing the fact that both Axe a brand famously good at reminding straight men why they love to look at women and Dove a brand famously good at reminding women that they are much more than the objects of straight men39s desires are owned by Unilever with fellow planner Rye Clifton the idea of demonstrating this hypocrisy in a video was born A few days later Rye had put togetherhttpwwwyoutubecomwatchvSwDEFw4rJkI would argue that axeunilever and doveunilever would in fact be bad for both brands and not necessarily healthy for Unilever either In cases like this the unified domain extension is a bad ideaTwo points in summary1 Never forget your name or domain name is only a reflection of your brand your brand is where you live in the hearts and minds of people amp8211 actions speak louder than everything2 If you39re going to unify all of your brands under a single umbrella congratulations that39s a bold and modern moveamp8230 just be sure they39re all in context when rubbing shouldersAs Director of Brand and Experience Planning at Definition 6 Chris Wojda oversees the agencyamp8217s brand consumer and cultural insights practice Through a mixture of primary qualitative including ethnography quantitative secondary and syndicated methodologies and sources the insights that come from Wojda and his group fuel the design and experiences created by Definition 6 Chris can be reached at chriswojdadefinition6comRead all Chris39 MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Defining InsightsCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerMediaBizBloggers is an openthought leadership blog platform for media marketing and advertising professionals companies and organizations To contribute contact Jackmediadvisorygroupcom The opinions expressed in MediaBizBloggerscom are not those of Media Advisory Group its employees or other MediaBizBloggerscom contributors Media Advisory Group accepts no responsibility for the views of MediaBizBloggers authors

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Definition6: New Top-level Domains and Branding: Lessons from Weinergate - Chris Wojda

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