Owen Frager takes Goodby, Silverstien and Partners to task in his post, “The Duh Factor,” where he is critical of Hyundai’s advertising agency for directing consumers to thebigduhsale.com rather than an easier to remember domain name like bigduh.com or an even better one-word generic domain name for a campaign that is now in market. Although they were able to register thebigduhsale.com for around $7 compared to paying considerably more for a name in the aftermarket, they will never know how much revenue was lost due to customers’ confusion.

Having worked at one of the largest direct marketing agencies in the world, I know advertising agencies are reluctant to suggest buying a domain name in the aftermarket, fearing the added expense would doom the entire pitch. Agencies need to start looking at the big picture and think more like consumers rather than marketers. While at NYU, Dr. Marjorie Kalter, the director of my program, taught us that we need to think like direct marketers AND like consumers when we are creating good direct marketing.

If Hyundai’s agency thought like the consumers they were pitching, do you think they would find it easier for a consumer to remember and navigate to thebigduhsale.com? I think the answer is pretty clear, and Hyundai’s advertising agency missed the mark.

Incidentally, the domain names Rebate.com and Rebates.com sold in the DRT Auction for $1 million. These domain names could have been used indefinately for current and future marketing efforts had this agency inquired. I don’t know who won these great domain names yet, but hopefully it is a company that can fully unlock the power of these great names.