Web Site "Domain Names" to Match Branding

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Web Site "Domain Names" to Match Branding

Postby jon » Tue Jul 15, 2014 8:28 pm

Picking Domain Names (for example, joefm.ca) isn't Rocket Science. So, why haven't these Branding Geniuses in Corporate Head Offices given more thought to the matter?

Surely, if they had, they would have realized that the moment they decide on a new "brand" that they should buy up the best domain names for it. For example, for Fresh FM, why didn't Corus buy 5 domain names and they would have been covered worldwide for all possible uses of the branding on the FM band:
  • 1fresh.fm
  • 3fresh.fm
  • 5fresh.fm
  • 7fresh.fm
  • 9fresh.fm
Then Edmonton's 92.5 Fresh FM would have their web site at 92.5fresh.fm

Which brings me to the more basic question: 15 years ago, it looked like all FM radio stations were going to move to the .fm "ending" for their domain names, instead of .com or .ca. Now you don't see any stations using .fm domain names. Weird.
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Re: Web Site "Domain Names" to Match Branding

Postby xwdcatvb » Wed Jul 16, 2014 3:46 pm

jon wrote:Picking Domain Names (for example, joefm.ca) isn't Rocket Science. So, why haven't these Branding Geniuses in Corporate Head Offices given more thought to the matter?
Which brings me to the more basic question: 15 years ago, it looked like all FM radio stations were going to move to the .fm "ending" for their domain names, instead of .com or .ca. Now you don't see any stations using .fm domain names. Weird.


Well, first off there's a snag in that <.fm> is the country abbreviation for the Federated States of Micronesia. I think a similar situation would arise if television outlets wanted .tv as Tuvalu has the assignment, though the gummint in both locales could possibly make some money?
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Re: Web Site "Domain Names" to Match Branding

Postby Howaboutthat » Wed Jul 16, 2014 4:12 pm

xwdcatvb wrote:
jon wrote:Picking Domain Names (for example, joefm.ca) isn't Rocket Science. So, why haven't these Branding Geniuses in Corporate Head Offices given more thought to the matter?
Which brings me to the more basic question: 15 years ago, it looked like all FM radio stations were going to move to the .fm "ending" for their domain names, instead of .com or .ca. Now you don't see any stations using .fm domain names. Weird.


Well, first off there's a snag in that <.fm> is the country abbreviation for the Federated States of Micronesia. I think a similar situation would arise if television outlets wanted .tv as Tuvalu has the assignment, though the gummint in both locales could possibly make some money?


Doesn't seem to be stopping stations -- just one of many examples (and for .tv) that's easily googled/found

... www.power104.fm
Houston, We're dealing with morons!.
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Re: Web Site "Domain Names" to Match Branding

Postby Aaron » Wed Jul 16, 2014 5:08 pm

Then Edmonton's 92.5 Fresh FM would have their web site at 92.5fresh.fm


Because nobody but the biggest web-geeks would understand how to enter that.
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Re: Web Site "Domain Names" to Match Branding

Postby xwdcatvb » Wed Jul 16, 2014 5:39 pm

Howaboutthat wrote:
xwdcatvb wrote:
jon wrote:Picking Domain Names (for example, joefm.ca) isn't Rocket Science. So, why haven't these Branding Geniuses in Corporate Head Offices given more thought to the matter?
Which brings me to the more basic question: 15 years ago, it looked like all FM radio stations were going to move to the .fm "ending" for their domain names, instead of .com or .ca. Now you don't see any stations using .fm domain names. Weird.


Well, first off there's a snag in that <.fm> is the country abbreviation for the Federated States of Micronesia. I think a similar situation would arise if television outlets wanted .tv as Tuvalu has the assignment, though the gummint in both locales could possibly make some money?


Doesn't seem to be stopping stations -- just one of many examples (and for .tv) that's easily googled/found

... http://www.power104.fm


I had a 'feeling' about <.tv>. And hate to quote Wonkypedia but:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.tv>

And under <Verisign>, the gummint has gotten its fingers into the money pie. The dollar amounts might not sound like much to us, but four million a year in that neck of the Pacific is more than chump change.

A quick similar search on .fm doesn't generate much info... though the payback to the Federated States would have to be way higher than Tuvalu to be comparable... mebbe the FM people were hoodwinked?
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Re: Web Site "Domain Names" to Match Branding

Postby albertaboy4life » Wed Jul 16, 2014 8:26 pm

100.3 The Q! and The Zone@91-3 still have .fm web addresses - theq.fm & thezone.fm
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Re: Web Site "Domain Names" to Match Branding

Postby Doug » Sat Aug 02, 2014 12:12 am

Good post on a "lesser known" topic as usual, jon.

For stations that rebrand a lot, that adds up to quite a lot of domain names!

I've actually wondered why they don't use their corporate radio brand domain names for the individual stations and use like "1015ezrock.bellmedia.ca" or "cilk.bellmedia.ca". With the right search engine optimization, title names and other meta data, does it really matter what the URL is? I think using a .ca definitely helps from a localized SEO perspective than .com (though it is probably worth owning, say, bellmedia.com, .net., .org, .biz and who knows many other names now that many of the new gTLDs have launched).

Speaking of new gTLDs, .radio would make a lot of sense, I think. However, it may be awhile as it's "contested", with Afilias, Donuts, the European Broadcasting Union (is that like the ITU!?) and a French radio consortium bidding against the original applicant, BRS Media. (https://gtldresult.icann.org/applicatio ... viewstatus)

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