Do Not Miss the Cramton Associates Applicant Auction Workshop

Posted on October 15, 2012 by Joe Alagna

Note/Update: (I have no affiliation with Cramton Associates and do not mean in any way to discount other auction providers offering services. Please feel free to send me links if you provide similar services; I’ll post them here.)

I attended Cramton Associates Application Auction Workshop at the Novatel Hotel on Esplenade

This is a very important workshop that all applicants who are in contention should attend.  Peter Cramton has done auctions for wireless spectrum worldwide as well as in many other industries.

There are a ton of issues to consider in auctions like this that are not so obvious.  I was greatly awakened at the workshop and want to encourage ANYONE who has an application in contention for a new TLD to attend.

There is value for both large and small applicants. Mr. Cramton actually did mock auctions in the domain space using real examples and compensated college students in a clinical environment to simulate the domain auctions

He went over a process they’ve developed based on their extensive experience in high-stake, global, public auctions.  They are developing a model that consists of Auction Design, Auction Consultation, a Mock Auction, and then the Actual Auction

I came away from this workshop feeling that any applicant in contention who does not at least consider this program would have to be foolhardy (sorry; it just makes so much sense).

About the Workshop

http://www.cramton.umd.edu/aa/applicant-auction-workshop.pdf

Workshop Schedule

Monday

11:00 AM to 12:30 PM
1:30 PM to 3:00 PM
3:30 PM to 5:00 PM

Tuesday

9:00 AM to 10:30 AM
11:00 AM to 12:30 PM
1:30 PM to 3:00 PM
3:30 PM to 5:00 PM

About Cramton Associates

  • Peter Crampton – Chairman since 1990s
  • World leader in design and implementation of high stake auction markets
  • High stakes: assets valued at tens of billions of dollars
  • Global enterprises in US, Canada, UK Australia, Germany
  • Many industries including wireless spectrum, diamonds, etc.

 

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Do ccTLDs Matter In A New gTLD World?

Posted on October 12, 2012 by Joe Alagna

If you read the industry press about domain names and ICANN it’s easy to assume that the entire industry is all about new gTLDs. There are articles upon articles about new TLD applicants, the process, the programs, the progress, and more. But there is a lot more to our industry. Besides .com and the other sponsored and generic TLDs, there are already 252+- ccTLDs that often go unrecognized (not including IDNs).

Do ccTLDs Still Matter?

The answer is definitely, yes they do. Here are six reasons why.

1.) .Com Is Taken – The .com domain has been “mined” to the hilt. People can argue about the “availability” within .com but it can’t be argued that the number of sensible keywords and names under .com are very depleted. .Com will likely always remain the world’s most popular single gTLD but there are plenty more opportunities for growth within the ccTLDs.

2.) They Are Here And They Are Now. – ccTLDs are available now! Many ccTLD operators are opening up and freeing their registries to more and more registrants. They are also improving their technology and connecting with registrars around the world. There is no vaporware in established ccTLDs.

3.) They Matter To People Within Their Countries – People are patriotic by nature. They love their countries. They intuitively understand what their ccTLDs mean and they often prefer to visit and use websites that use their localized ccTLDs. In fact, reports suggest that websites using ccTLD domain names are more trusted by constituents of those countries.

4.) They Matter To Brands – Brands want to capitalize on the ccTLD’s consumer acceptance within their countries. There is a convenience and gravity that comes with marketing their brands using a country’s ccTLD (over .com) within each respective country. More and more brands are beginning to recognize this and moving their marketing efforts (within each country) to the local ccTLD.

5.) They Matter To Registrars – Products don’t move without the support of a good channel and there is no channel like the registrar and domain name reseller channel to grow the success of valuable ccTLDs. Registrars recognize all of the issues above and are more willing than ever to grow their sales base using ccTLDs.

6.) They Can Often Be Re-purposed – Some ccTLD registries have chosen to repurpose their domains with great success. Examples include .tv, .la, .am, and .fm. But there are more ideas just waiting to happen around the world

Please Visit Us At ICANN 45 In Toronto This Week

CentralNic will have a booth at ICANN’s 45th meeting in Toronto from October 15th through the 19th. Please come and visit our booth and ask for me.

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6 Agencies Plan Toyota’s Tagline; What About Their New gTLD?

Posted on September 17, 2012 by Joe Alagna

The Importance of Business Naming – Toyota Introduces ‘Let’s Go Places’

Toyota Creates a New TaglineThe article didn’t state how much, but I suspect that Toyota spent millions of dollars coming up with their new tagline, “Let’s Go Places”. I’m sure they had focus groups, internal meetings, external meetings, collaborations, and studies galore. If you look at the comments below the article making this announcement (link shown below), it appears that many readers think it’s not worth it.

My view is that it is worth it. Business naming is at the very foundation of advertising and promotion.  The lack of planning on behalf of most companies introducing products and new services is surprising. There is an example here… I’m still surprised that in spite of spending millions of dollars coming up with a tag line designed to ring well with hundreds of millions of consumers for the next several years, no one thought of buying the matching domain name (letsgoplaces.com). This domain seems to be registered by a defunct travel agency (at least that was what I was able to determine in a time limited space; I don’t care to spend too much time on this). You’da thunk that they would have researched that since they will likely spend many millions more making that phrase famous. I’m sure they could have bought it for as much as they spent on the ad agencies (or likely, much less).

(NOTE/UPDATE 2013… It appears that Toyota now does control the URL, LetsGoPlaces.com. As of October, 2012 that the domain was taken over by Toyota.  There are no reports of the sale / transfer being public.  Hopefully for Toyota, they made this deal before they made the announcement that they spent 6 million dollars coming up with the campaign.  There certainly was no indication that they did when I wrote this article.)

On the other hand, Toyota IS applying for their own new gTLD, .toyota.

So, if they want to, starting next year, they can begin advertising this new tagline as:

“LetsGoPlaces.Toyota”   (They wouldn’t need the .com version as badly then and certainly wouldn’t want to advertise it once they own .Toyota).

If they do that, they’ll be taking advantage of the new Internet paradigm, where big brands will no longer make .com famous and valuable.  That doesn’t mean that .com will lose value right away (or maybe they will; no one can predict this).  But at least brand advertising dollars will be focused on their own brands, not brands that end in .com. And that will be good for brands and trademarks.

Or, if they want to, in addition to their new customized tagline domain, they can create a forwarding sub-domain like:

“LetsGoPlaces.Toyota.com”    (forwarded to their new gTLD domain, “letsgoplaces.toyota”).

It’s going to be fun to see how this plays out. Maybe they’re already planning their new gTLD strategy! Here’s the article about their new tagline:

Toyota Introduces ‘Let’s Go Places’

The Toyota brand is changing its U.S. advertising tagline to “Let’s Go Places,” replacing “Moving Forward,” its slogan since 2004, Automotive News reports.

“It is energetic, aspirational, inclusive and very versatile,” Bill Fay, Toyota Division general manager, said in a statement…

Toyota worked with advertising partners Saatchi & Saatchi, Dentsu America, Conill, Burrell, Intertrend and Grieco Research to create the tagline.

Read the story… | Source: Ad Age | Date posted: 9/17/2012

Posted in Domain Name News, Domain Names, New Top Level Domains, Plain Interesting, Registries, Trademarks | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on 6 Agencies Plan Toyota’s Tagline; What About Their New gTLD?

Four New gTLD Applications Withdrawn

Posted on September 7, 2012 by Joe Alagna

Doug Isenberg reported on four new gTLD applications that have been withdrawn. Three of them were applied for by Google. I can see why they changed their mind; they don’t really seem sensible for use as a top level domain. There may be other reasons but .are, .and, and .est struck me as not really useful right from the start. I think they made a good decision in these cases.

Here Are the First Four New gTLD Applications That Have Been Withdrawn

Nearly one month after ICANN announced that three of the new gTLD applications had been withdrawn (and on the eve of a webinar on the “Application Evaluation Progress”), ICANN’s online database finally has been updated – to show that four applications have been withdrawn.

They are: .and, .are, .est and .ksb.

Interestingly, the first three of these listed above were all applied…

Read the story… | Source: Isenberg on Domains | Date posted: 9/7/2012

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