You have to check out a very positive article about the value of domains, written by Laurie Sullivan for Media Post today.
She wrote in part:
“””Marketing and advertising agencies looking to strengthen campaigns might pay just about any price for a solid domain name if it means building a better relationship with consumers.””
“”Companies can build the greatest campaign in the world, but if no one identifies the Web site domain name with the brand, even the most expensive names become useless. Direct navigation, where people open a browser, type in a name and expect to find the correct Web site and content, remains the No. 1 Web navigation technique.”””
The article widely quotes Jeremiah Johnston, chief operating officer at Sedo, who is by far one of the biggest assets the domain industry has going for it.
Johnston is quoted as saying that “people use domain names like search terms. Rather than entering them in a search box, they enter the name in the browser. So, when a company runs a campaign, they should make sure the domain name matches search terms that marketers would expect consumers to enter into a search query box on an engine, such as Google, Microsoft Bing, or Yahoo. The short, concise terms also position the company as the expert in the field. For example, Calvin Klein owns Bras.com.””
“””Domain names matching search terms that define the business can generate between 10,000 and 30,000 unique visitors monthly”
i subscribe to mediapost and was happy to see that article in my inbox today… as you said, a positive article… nice to see
Having worked with and for a few of the largest ad agencies, I can say with some authority that agencies are among the most clueless in the universe regarding the value of domain names.
Truly mind-boggling stupidity of the highest order. One would think that it’s willful, but, in most cases it’s just plain stooopid.
Multi-multi-million dollar ad and marketing budgets for national clients, and these morons won’t pop (or recommend that their clients) for 10K or 20K for the perfect domain name for their clients.
Of course, most everyone reading this blog already knows this.
Pat…it is called job security for them.
If you have a good solid domain name, why do you really need an Ad agency?
Best domain sales I’ve had to date were domains sold for ad campaigns.
Typical delusional domainer & domainer sound-bite.
The above comments are typical of domainers who likely have never had a proper job or seen the inside of how companies really work.
In short, they talk schit as if they’ve run more than a lemonade stand..
Very wrong. How much did Hotels.com spend over the years on marketing/promoting their company?? $100’s of millions – you can check this in their financials over the years.
In short, as much as a made-up fanciful name like “expedia.com”
If it was down to domainers and their business “savvy”, it’d be a parking page or affiliate page – earning good coin no doubt – but nowhere a company worth > $1 BN
In my experience, the only people outside of the domain circle to really understand the value of domains and willing to pay for them are those that have sold a product or service online profitably. Common with Realtors or if Suzy has sold 3 million dollars worth of handbags at SuzysHandbags.com, she would understand the value of having good handbag domains.
Also it has to be a huge part of their success. So Prada and Gucci who probably sell most their handbags through brick & mortar probably wouldn’t get it, even though it would be beneficial.
Ad agencies are very, very protective of their clients and a great domain name is seen as a threat.
I just had the biggest wine producer and seller in the world turn down an exact domain match for their company for only $122,000 dollars. Their techie contacted me and I put a price on it and he then said it would be forwarded to their “marketing department”. As soon as I heard that I knew it would not sell…..even for $20,000.
They basically saw it as a threat b/c it has so damn much traffic…..LOL. So, they decided it better to shoot their client in the foot instead of having the exact match to their company name. It is a totally generic domain….btw.
Ad agencies / Marketing departments are total domain deal killers. They refuse to act on the obvious. My feeling is this is all about to change in the next one to three years as domains become undeniable assets.
I would like to suggest that the biggest issue that ad agencies have with recommending the purchase of a high dollar domain is that won’t be able to get away with adding/justifying their standard 15% mark up to the purchase price.