You might put your little one’s safety to sleep before reading this ghostly tale of a company that just spend cold hard cash to promote its new domain name W3ddingDJ.com
A Press Release was put out by Seward Park Tech, “a DJ and Lighting company servicing the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut otherwise known as the Tri-State area” or otherwise know as the number one media market in the US.
So what did this company acquire to make their mark on the Internet in the biggest media market in the United States?
Why would a company pick this domain, well they explained in the PR that the “3” is the letter “e” inverted so they in fact basically acquired WeddingDJ.com
“Our Marquee DJs have years of experience spinning at the most elite night-clubs around the country, and the Lighting designers have designed the lighting and special-effects for numerous movies and theater productions around New York City.
“The lighting, special effects and music are combined to bring the magic of theater into weddings and other special events.”
“Founded in 2010, Seward Park Tech has come a long way, earning dozens of 5-star reviews across the board and winning prestigious entertainment awards such as ‘The Knot’s Best of Weddings’ and ‘Wedding Wire’s Bride’s Choice Award.’ Seward Park Tech is also a member of the very exclusive Style Me Pretty’s Little Black Book.
I know its hard to believe but the domain name was actually available for registration back in the end of July when the company went ahead and registered it for $10 at Godaddy.com
For those that don’t know the cost to get a press release out is several hundred dollars and up plus the cost of getting someone to write the release so in this case the company spent 30X-70X more on a single press release then it spent to acquire the highly valuable domain which it is now promoting and planning to do business on for eternity.
Now that’s a truly scary tale
Give your children an extra hug tonight as they are about to fall to sleep and whisper in their ear that the number “3” is not a reverses of the letter “e”.
That would only word as advertising on the front of an ambulance that you view from your rear view mirror. However that would make the 3 an E but the rest of it….. sometimes just when I think I’ve heard it all
Today I saw a realtor advertising their services via one of those trucks which has a rotating billboard on the back. The design looked professional so it likely cost some money to do this promotion. I don’t recall the realtor’s name or phone number though I guess if you were looking for a realtor in that area you could make note of the phone number. The ad did NOT have a web address though a memorable name might have been easier to recall than a phone number. I have no idea how long this driver drove around but I doubt this effort was particularly effective compared to online alternatives. Perhaps this might work a little better on a Saturday.
“Acquired” or registered? Did they actually buy this domain from someone?
They’re advertising http://www.Your.dj on some slider images… it redirects to w3ddingdj.com
Interesting topic for Schwartz vs. Schilling 😀
this is sadly true for so many companies. they have no trouble spending five or six figures for advertising but when they hear you want more than $100 for a domain that’s just crazy when according them, you can buy domains for $10.
Both MarqueeDJ.com and MarqueeDJs.com are available to register too!
Though not extreme premiums both are at least better (for the sake of costumer confusion on the 3) than w3ddingdj.com 😯 😆
JayJay you are absolutely right. 😀
cmac – Which is why competition for names like weddingdj.lighting will be absolutely FIERCE.
I think w3ddingdj.com is a good domain:
1) it is dot com
2) it has, “3d,” in it
3) it distinguishes itself from the generic, WeddingDJ by the, “3,” which is easy to remember.
4) it is short.
5) Go look at WeddingDJ.com. No, twitter, facebook, pinterest page
6) W3ddingDJ has its own, exact match twitter, facebook, pinterest.
7) it is brandable, trademarkable – am I mistaken?
8) you just wrote about brandables.
I see whoever took over WeddingDJ and used software to make it a directory/lead gen site with no personality, no social.
Google puts more emphasis on social than exact match domain or extension in its ranking, according to current thought. As you said, this company put $$, and knew what it was doing, registering the twitter/facebook exact match. Someone has the twitter.com/weddingdj site, and someone has the facebook.com/weddingdj site. You could argue, these are more valuable than the dot com, weddingdj.com, though they point to different urls . . .
Louise
Its not a brandable domain
HireaDJ.com is a brandable domain
Okay, thanx for that.
You view it as simply a typo?
Hire a dj – isn’t that generic?
I am stunned anyone would ever think this is a worthwhile domain. People just don’t think that way unless you’re chaning letters for numbers as part of a password sequence. Even DJWedding.com would be better, even though it’s backwards. We’ve had these discussions with ad agencies, and it blows my mind that the brand versus generic question still nags people.
@Louise: Look, HireADJ.com is a good generic. It’s so perfectly generic that people who know nothing about a brand would look there, first. Once they land on the domain name, they can see the branding. But much like Best Buy decided not to use LCDTV.com, avoiding a generic to keep a brand “holistic”, as Jackie what’s-her-name once said, gives the competition the opportunity to become associated – FOREVER – with the generic. You might think of a Ford before you think of the generic “cars”, but when you think of Ford, you’re thinking of a car or truck, and you want the Ford brand.
With a generic, you get both. If Ford had bought cars.com, they’d own the channel on the web forever. Anyone looking for “cars” would find Ford, first.
Same with hotels. If you know the Hilton name or the Courtyard name or the Doubletree name or the Waldorf name, it means nothing if you’re searching for a hotel in Dubaii. I don’t know which BRANDS operate there. But DubaiHotels.com is a solid generic geo. Strip the geo, just go with hotels.com, and you own the entire channel online. Nobody at any hotel chain got this, which Rick Schwartz has been observing – he even spoke directly with Madison Avenue advertising companies, directly on this point – that “all the geniuses” couldn’t figure out how much traffic and business they’d get if they just spend the money to buy the generic. Then everyone who ever went to hotels.com would be finding themselves booking a reservation with ONE BRAND.
Since the brands missed the point, wanting to remain “holistic”, as Jackie what’s-her-name said (I think she’s such an idiot, which I why I drive home this point), now all those hotel companies have to continue competing with each other on Hotels.com. They could have owned the entire channel, but their genius escaped them.
W3ddingDJ.com has 3D in the name, but it doesn’t have anything to do with 3D at all. People are looking for a wedding DJ, not a television or movie. The domain can not be branded as anything worthwhile at all, in my opinion.