New TLD companies pile on for awareness campaign.
How should ICANN spend the $240 million it has raised by auctioning rights to new top level domain names?
Last month, ICANN asked the community for feedback on initial ideas for how to allocate the money. It was primarily interested in some of the mechanisms and procedures for allocating the money.
So far, however, all of the comments are from new top level domain name operators backing an idea that .Club put forward to allocate 15% of the money to an awareness campaign for new TLDs.
Hey, it’s worth asking. After all, ICANN has already decided to skim $36 million off the top to plug budget shortfalls.
Perhaps the lack of diversity of comments is why ICANN decided to extend the comment period by two weeks.
Snoopy says
Given the program has been a big flop what is the point in throwing good money after bad?
How is it Icann’s role to do advertising for the new tlds that registries have applied for?
If this were to go ahead should Icann also been spending money to promote .com given Icann has received several hundred million from .com via 20 cent fees?
John says
I have to agree with Snoopy here. It’s well known in business that you don’t keep throwing money behind a losing venture, product, or service, unless it is growing and there is a justification for it, such as a business plan that projects profits at a later date. This is not happening with new TLDs. They failed and everyone in the domain industry pretty much knows it now.
New TLDs are not growing at all, in fact, are shrinking from being dropped, so there is absolutely no business justification for any money whatsoever being allocated for new TLDs in any fashion, including marketing.
Brad Mugford says
This would essentially just be a handout to new registries. I don’t think these companies with bad ideas, business models, unrealistic projections, etc. should be bailed out.
It is also highly unlikely that some minor marketing effort is going to change consumer behavior. What is the compelling argument to register a domain with less awareness at a higher cost? There is a reason most of these extensions are struggling, the value proposition is not there for consumers.
Brad
Green Jobs says
Very well said Brad.
mike says
.Club is just going to hire some has been rapper who is so out of it he is going to end up endorsing .com again.
These companies can’t be trusted, they have gamed every step of the gtld process from reserves, to drops, no more money for these fools, they have wasted enough.
Use it to build out internet to 3rd world economies, like I need more domain inquiries from Nigeria, and India, but I feel this will serve mankind better than lame duck marketing from these gtld operators who have wasted their millions, and now want to waste this public pool.
Kev says
Perhaps they should put the money towards closing down the gTLD program which is lackluster and has not resulted in any type of success. Use it to politely clean up problems it created, for which everyone now clearly knows there was not a need for, and is only costing lots of money to defensive registration holders. They should have called this whole expansion dTLDs as in “Defensive Top Level Domains”.
JOTHAN E FRAKES says
I am surprised to see this being called ‘marketing’. It is not marketing. It is AWARENESS.
Walking around Barcelona last month at the ICANN meeting and seeing about 40/40/20% mix of .ES, .CAT, and .COM (respectively) used on TV, Billboards, Windows, Cars and other display media, it thins out a perspective of ‘big flop’. At least in that geography.
Let’s set aside newTLD-hater rhetoric – Set that aside for a second and consider that awareness is part of the growth of industry.
Awareness of the benefits of domain names and today’s namespace. We have seen the valuation of domain names increase as the awareness and market grows and more people join the industry as they learn more.
The more people understand domain names, old, new, red or blue, the more interested they are in them and this lends itself to seeing their value and their benefits.
Awareness does not need to be immediately viewed as a newTLD-focused activity. Yes, many of those commenting in support of the DotClub proposal are registries, and Yes, they are doing so with the hope of it having impact on the bottom line, but this is a ‘good for all’ and not a ‘good for me’.
There is a difference between AWARENESS and MARKETING, and this is a large difference that seems to get conflated and confused.
AWARENESS is educational efforts and communication. Not pitches to sell.
The auction proceeds are there, sitting.
Awareness of the benefits, value and innovation enabled by the crucial Internet technology of domain names is something that is beneficial to all domain owners.
Grow the awareness – the more awareness grows, the more the industry grows, the more innovation happens, and the more benefit there is to early adopters and folks who invested early and saw the potential in domain names.
Don’t make this about resistance to marketing new gTLDs because that is not an appropriate label.
mike says
10 BILLION dollars cannot bring awareness to this program.
It is never enough for these people, they did the opposite of what this program was designed to do. The whole point was there was no good .com’s available, or they all cost to much to acquire.
So what did these clowns do they reserve all the targeted names, and put high premiums on the others. I have seen premiums as high as $60,000 per year on some names, what do these clowns think.
They are going to expense marketing expenses to pay their car payments, with a bumper sticker, and mortgage on mansions they call offices.
IT IS ALL A FRONT!
Snoopy says
Hoping for a piece of the pie?
Brad Mugford says
“Marketing” vs “Awareness” is just semantics. It is not ICANN’s responsibility, nor should new extensions be given any special treatment over legacy extensions.
There is no justification for any money going to this unless a proportionate amount goes to the legacy extensions like .COM and .NET that have generated hundreds of millions and funded ICANN since the beginning.
Brad
James Kite says
An awareness campaign for the new TLDs would be beneficial to ICANN if it promotes uptake because that places more coin in their coffers, on an ongoing basis.
Providing .com an equivalent boost is idiotic if your claim is .com is king because the king doesn’t need promoting unless you think .com is failing?
Snoopy says
The only groups it would benefit is the registries and their associates. These extensions are failing and now they want handouts. It makes no sense to promote a product the market has rejected.
Brad Mugford says
Any of the new registries either individually, or a group collectively are welcome to start an “awareness” campaign. The issue here is that they want a handout to do it. Fund it yourself.
Even if this happened it would likely change very little when it comes to demand.
Sorry, the problem is the product itself.
Maybe if the registration/renewal prices were not ridiculous there would have been more demand. Maybe if there was price stability that would have helped (ex. Uniregistry raising prices dramatically).
The registry owners can only blame themselves for letting greed get in their way. That is the free market.
Bad products, with limited demand, should be allowed to die. If you can’t make it without a bailout then so be it.
The registry operators lining up asking for a bailout is rather pathetic. There are a lot better charitable uses than corporate welfare for registries.
Brad
Andrew Allemann says
It’s worth noting here that the registries aren’t asking for some random money from ICANN. They’re asking for money that they contributed as part of the auction process.
Snoopy says
They bought those tlds with that money, it is not their money any longer.
If I go an buy some stocks or get some website designed and things don’t work out down the track it doesn’t mean those sellers somehow owe me favours or kickbacks. These registries made bad decisions, they chose extensions that there is very little demand for and it isn’t up to Icann to do their marketing.
Ivan says
A well executed awareness campaign would boost all extensions would it not? If a .club is doing better, wouldn’t the .com also be worth more by extension since it is the most developed and recognized (valuable) TLD out there? The question is more of what would such a plan look like? I would be in favor of hearing the details of any such plan and then judging accordingly. I think our industry participants are too quick to declare something dead or bad in its entirety. Yes, there have been some very questionable TLD launches, but that doesn’t mean the entire concept is a bad idea. I’ve yet to see innovation or change in any industry go without some level of failure.
elliot noss says
as someone on the CCWG, this comment is inappropriate as this is about the structure of how to deal with proposals NOT the start of a call for proposals. just another opportunity to make this point I guess, but it will not be part of the discussion at this point
Colin Campbell says
Elliot,
I understand your point. “The Initial Report of the new gTLD Auction Proceeds Cross Community Working Group” report states “…the CCWG will not decide, nor provide recommendations on which specific organizations or projects are to be funded or not.” Got it!
However, the report further states: “The following list of examples is intended to be illustrative of the types of projects that
MAY be considered eligible to be funded by new gTLD
Auction Proceeds.”
With respect, in section 12 of the examples in the report comments were made in regards to an awareness campaign that it was “inappropriate use of the funds, smells too much like marketing”.
The report also states “Although a noble cause, the CCWG does not consider this type of project consistent with ICANN’s mission” . This statement goes too far in rejecting the notion that an awareness campaign should even be considered.
The community has responded to this report and it’s clear there is overwhelming support that a global awareness campaign should be considered in the future. Specific proposals can come later but we believe at this stage an awareness campaign should not be taken off the table.
Thank you for your feedback on our proposal.
Colin
Snoopy says
“The community has responded to this report and it’s clear there is overwhelming support that a global awareness campaign should be considered in the future. ”
What community? The only group that support the idea is new tld registries who want their marketing paid for. Do your own marketing Colin. If you tld is successful as claimed you should be able to afford it.
sass says
Just to clarify, the proposal to use 15% of the auction proceeds toward an awareness campaign is not specific to the “new” TLDs, but rather to promote and benefit all domain extensions and domain name usage. It also does not suggest handing any money over to any registries, but rather having a qualified steering committee RFP, then hire and manage a professional and established agency to execute the campaign.
In any event, continued discussion is welcome, and thanks, Andrew, for posting.
Snoopy says
Everyone with an internet connection knows about how to use a domain name. Spending $10million on that won’t change anything.
sass says
For those doubting the need for better global awareness of the variety of domain extensions and how domains work, just watch Rudy Giuliani’s Twitter fiasco today… If only he were more aware! #FreeTheFunds!