Smart Domain Acquisition Strategy & Global Branding
When you see this logo, do you think soccer.tv, football.tv, futbol.tv, calcio.tv? Perhaps this sport goes by another name in your country, and you would use an IDN to find the site. Regardless of what you call the sport depicted in the logo, Michael Schneider has it covered because of his smart domain strategy. Michael acquired nearly every single worldwide language variation of the word. The branding is unique, and he doesn’t have to worry about losing visitors due to language differences.
By doing what Michael did with his portfolio of related domain names, he can have wonderfully unique branding that many others couldn’t match. Had Michael just registered one or two versions of the term, it’s likely he would have lost visitors who entered a different term into their browser box.
Other companies have also done what Michael is doing with their brands. Playboy, Apple, and the NBA have spent billions of dollars branding their logos and imaging, and they are able to use an icon to signify the domain name. Michael has spent 7 figures acquiring his soccer/football related domain names, but the logo clearly shows what users will find when they enter their familiar keyword with .tv.
Just imagine you are watching a game..they can then freeze/pause on the ball…just add a www. to the left of the ball, a .TV to the right of it and you just ’spoke’ to the whole world during the game with what carries most sentiment – the ball.
I think this is a smart domain acquisition and global branding strategy.
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Comments (9)
Sai
September 8th, 2008 at 11:24 am
Great insight Elliot! CNN can literally attract the attention of everyone on the planet if they redo their logo/branding for Money.com using this strategy.:-)
Frankie
September 8th, 2008 at 11:51 am
On the soccer thing, I personaly think any serious branding without first acquiring the .com is futile except of cause you want to pay dearly for it later because you will if you ever become successful.
Alfie
September 8th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
@ Frankie
From what I know of the .TV extn penetration, it is globally recognized. TV is of course a global word that doesn’t need translation.
It depends what the strategy is, if it is based around for example, live soccer screenings on the net it makes more sense than the .com in my opinion.
And being realistic no amount of $ could acquire ALL the equivalent .com’s – smart move I say.
Jon
September 8th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
This particular situation may work, but only because football is a rare exception with how popular it is worldwide and how it works with tv. I would not use this example to illustate anything else.
DCMike77
September 8th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Funny that you used .tv as an example. I don’t want this to become another thread about .tv, but you just mentioning it gives it more credibility. If the same case were with .pro or .mobi I don’t think you’re point would’ve resonated with anyone.
Thanks!
~another .tv fan
***UPDATED BY ELLIOT***
I think .tv works well in this situation. I personally don’t own them, but in the case of a sport, the .tv can work.
claude
September 8th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Sorry. I am unable to agree on this being an effective brand. If the goal is to drive a prospect to a website. Spell-it-out. We live on a planet with 6 billion. That’s 6 billion interpretations. Try this, ask two friends to describe a hot fudge sundae to you in one minute. You will get two completely different versions of a hot fudge sundae. And that’s just two. IM humble, yet advertising experienced O, spell it out and focus on .com.
Michael
September 8th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
The thing is with this global branding strategy he has access to anyone that can access the internet out of that 6 billion people. Video does not always need to be translated.
I think when you consider the global popularity of the sport and how popular soccer highlights and videos are, he has an excellent vision here.
Adam
September 9th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
was just thinking . . . does he own soccerball.tv ?
LoMain
September 12th, 2008 at 11:16 am
The soccer domain strategy is fantastic the logo works very well and PlayBoy works well, but the logo’s for both NBA and apple are unique and I personally find them clever. That said… I do not think they work. I feel people will not associate the logos with .TV -Some might, but not all…
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