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Envisioning Your .BRAND New WorldA Field Guide for Brand Builders
Means to Succeed in a .BRAND New World
On June 20, 2011, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) unleashed a new
era of competition, designed to expand the possibilities of Internet domain names and create a more
global and innovative Internet.
During the next few months, anyone with the necessary resources and qualifications can begin the
process of applying to own a unique Top-Level Domain (TLD). A TLD is the suffix that is “right of the last
dot” in an Internet address, as in www.Apple.com, www.ICANN.org or www.Afilias.info.
Afilias created this guide to help brand builders like you understand the issues, opportunities and
challenges to apply, win and secure your own TLD … and to help you envision building next-generation
brand models, platforms and applications to control your .BRAND space.
So long, dot.com. Hello, dot.BRAND!
Afilias is one of the world’s most experienced
registry services provider. We are the largest provider
of diverse domain registry services, supporting 20
million registrations across 15 different TLDs.
We’ve already helped launched more new TLDs
than any other provider, and our new TLDs are more
successful than other new TLDs.
We are already operating a registry solution that
complies with ICANN requirements and will
complement your new TLD. This means that we
are uniquely qualified to help you to apply, win and
secure your new .BRAND TLD, and then successfully
launch and manage your new .BRAND space.
Over the last five years, Afilias has built the capacity
to serve the large influx of new TLD applicants and
customers expected now that ICANN has launched
its new TLD process.
M any New TLD Experiences. One World- Class Exper t ise.
The standard ICANN application for a new TLD
can take more than two months to complete.
The application must contain a well-thought-out
business plan and demonstrate that your new TLD:
• Has the required technical, operational and
financial requirements
• Complies with international standards for TLDs
• Is supported with due regards to stability and
security
During the summer months of 2011, organizations
will be assembling their .BRAND TLD application
teams, which may include the CMO, the CIO/
CTO, trademark lawyers, brand consultancies, ad
agencies, and a registry services partner -- like
Afilias. ICANN guidelines favor serious organizations
who partner with experienced, proven players.
The application and ownership of a new .BRAND
TLD is expensive. Firms can expect to invest over
US$500,000 during the first year, then US$50,000
or more, annually after the first year, depending on
usage and other factors.
The biggest cost to your firm, however, could be
the opportunity costs of failing to secure your new
.BRAND TLD. When the three month application
window closes, the next ICANN application
window for new TLDs may not open again for
several years or perhaps a decade.
Given the high-stakes, the short timeframe to put
together a strong team, and the work required to
build a winning proposal, the time to act is now.
Afilias can help you tame the complexities of the
ICANN application process in a timely manner that
is neither expensive nor difficult.
The ICANN Application Process is Challenging
Why I nvest in a .BR AND TLD?
According to eMarketer, 99% of online retailers currently deploy or plan to deploy a Facebook page to
promote their brand. If you are working to leverage outlets like Facebook and Twitter, consider how
much time and money you are now spending in driving your customers away from your website to
these outlets.
Two years ago, Toys “R” Us spent $5 million to secure toys.com to promote their brand. What if they could
have secured .TOYS instead? They could have had millions of exclusive names like www.christmas.toys or
www.train.toys to use for less than 10% of the $5 million that they spent.
For a more direct, personal way to interact with consumers, what is better than an entire piece of the
Internet devoted only to your brand? That is exactly what your organization will have with a .BRAND TLD.
The bottom line: a .BRAND TLD lets you control your own brand destiny and brand space.
Benefits of a New .BRAND TLDC o n t r o lRegardless if your website is on a .com, .net or other domain, you are captive
to registry rules that you don’t control. These rules tell you who, when and how
to register your website, how you can — and can’t — protect your intellectual
property, and what else you can do with the Domain Name System (DNS). You
can also fall victim to criminal attacks. If a TLD goes down because of a denial-of-
service attack, so do you. With your own .BRAND TLD, you control the policies and
who can get a .BRAND name.
Want to block spam? You can authorize which emails will be allowed in your TLD.
Want to prevent “phishing”? You can require verification of registrations before
they are allowed to get to an address in your .BRAND TLD. Better protection for
you; better protection for your customers. It’s all up to you.
P e r s o n a l i z a t i o nA new .BRAND TLD gives you the opportunity to reinforce your brand with every
Web address, whether you decide the address is only for your organization to use
or whether you’d like to open it up to your customers and the public. Imagine
the viral possibilities of an army of fans with blogs, email addresses or websites, all
promoting your .BRAND.
B r a n d e d C o n t e n tAre you a new media organization or newspaper still evolving your
Web and advertising strategy? A new TLD is a great addition to
ensure the visibility of your media brand and for intuitive navigation.
Customized address like technology.nyt or financial.wsj provide for
easier searching and indexing of content for subscribers.
S o c i a l M e d i aDoes your social media network allow corporate profiles? How do you
manage multiple account contacts? Intellectual property disputes?
Transferring ownership of account names? All of these processes are built
into domain management.
Using a TLD as a custom address for social media accounts can provide a
premium service as well as a more intuitive and proven process. And as
more corporations use Facebook and Twitter to share links, what could
be better than a private URL shortener that communicates your brand
with every tweet? Instead of bit.ly/123 you could use my .BRAND/123 to
reinforce your brand with every retweet.
I n n o v a t i o n
Don’t be limited by the standard uses of the Internet for websites or email. The DNS can be
used for new and valuable applications. Technology-specific applications may make great
domains, for instance a .mail, a .skype, or a .aim. By adding verification to domain owners, you
could offer a more secure online payment system.
If ING owned .ing and controlled every address registered, it could own a banking Web space
free from phishing. Luxury brands like BMW could launch new services tying a .bmw email
address to a new vehicle purchase and communicating service updates directly to the car.
I d e n t i f y i n g A G r o u pAffinity groups, professional associations or reseller networks — what ICANN calls “communities
of interest” — can also use a .BRAND TLD for a private, verified Web space to conduct business or
to show affiliation. Such organizations could also sell personalized, branded addresses to verified
members. Distributors could issue domains to their authorized reseller networks (for example,
reseller1.ibm) to ensure consumers know that they are doing business with approved vendors and
add confidence online purchases of their products.
S e c u r i t yWith customized registration rules, you can protect your TLD from
phishing or “man-in-the-middle” attacks. You can use your .BRAND TLD
for internal communications like private email systems or intranets
to increase your security. Advanced solutions like Domain Name
System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) should be deployed to improve
the security of your Web space and because ICANN will be requiring
DNSSEC capabilities on all new TLDs.
N e w R e v e n u eThe most traditional use of a TLD has been second-level domain name registrations (the name
that is “left of the dot.”). If you want to own TLD for a “generic” category like .car, .sport, .coupon,
you will want to apply early.
If your business has a fan base, you can look at the revenue opportunity of selling personalized
pages (such as .nfl for football fans). Organizations with distributors could sell unique addresses
as a preferred status for sellers (like mystore.ebay), or launch new advertising channels with
monthly ad placement for premium names like games.ebay or movies.hulu.
Envisioning Your .BRAND New WorldOnly Brand Builders, who secure their own .BRAND TLD in the next few months - and who
actively invest in partnering with visionary strategic partners and their most progressive
customers - will be in a position to imagine, build and benefit from new and never-before-
possible .BRAND models, platforms and applications.
Imagining new and innovative .BRAND applications today can be difficult. Few firms have
the foresight to define and control these new .BRAND spaces. Firms that own valued
brands will be in an enviable position to engage their customers in new innovations and
create one-of-a-kind, brand-centered communities.
To paraphrase Albert Einstein, imagination is more important than knowledge. And in
that same way, envisioning and building your new .BRAND space will require imagination,
perseverance and a customer-centric worldview.
Your journey to a better, more profitable .BRAND new world begins with your first step.
And for that first step, contact Afilias.
About AfiliasAfilias has already created a registry solution built to exceed the most
demanding technical standards, comply with ICANN requirements and
complement your new TLD. We also have extensive experience in applying for
and winning a new TLD, and can help you navigate the ICANN process. We can
guide you on ways to research, envision and build your .BRAND new world.
Afilias’ expertise is based on actual experience supporting registries for some of
the world’s largest TLD managers, like PIR (.ORG), dotMobi(.mobi), and DotAsia
(.asia). We also support the managers of 10 country code TLDs, such as India
(.in) and Montenegro (.me), representing a wide range of policy, technical and
operational challenges.
Further, Afilias has helped successfully launch more TLDs than any other
provider. This multi-faceted background makes Afilias the best possible choice
for a registry services partner for your new .BRAND TLD.
Maximize your chances for a successful application and launch by selecting Afilias as your registry services partner.
Afilias’ proven offerings include:
• Turnkey, “ready to go” registry system with a 100% reliable DNS infrastructure with state-of-the-art security against attack and abuse
• Advanced ICANN-compliant, IPv6 ready technology that is flexible, reliable, secure and scalable that enables your .BRAND TLD to be available within minutes of registration
• Internationally known expertise in IDNs (“internationalized” domain names in scripts like Cyrillic and Chinese), DNSSEC, Internet security, TLD applications, domain launches, and more
• Immediate access to global domain name distribution channels to help make your new TLD a success
Contact us for more information:www.afilias.info/[email protected]
Trademarks used for illustrative fair use purposes only, and not intended to indicate that trademark owner’s interest in filing a potential TLD application.