ICANN joins Google in putting boot into brands

Jonathan Bowers, June 27th 2008, 5:21PM

What is a brand worth? Well, a couple of months ago a lot more than it is now thanks to Google and ICANN.

Successfully building a brand identity costs a lot in time, thought and money but the rewards are massive. A recognised brand is great advertising in its own right, it can instantly convey quality or suitability and alike. Ultimately it identifies your company and your products so the consumer is in no doubt about whom they are dealing with.

Well that was until Google and ICANN came up with their bright ideas for the ‘improvement’ of the internet experience.

Take for example hair accessories company GHD. Its ‘GHD’ brand is so strong that the company gets vastly more internet traffic from searches on its brand than for searches on the generic term ‘hair straighteners’. This is very unusual and it reflects just how strong the GHD brand is.

Unfortunately Google and ICANN’s new rules will undermine all of GHD’s hard marketing work.

Back at the start of May Google changed its Adwords rules to allow anyone to bid on any term. As a result companies have been able to position themselves at the top of Google search listings for their rivals, thus undermining the value of rival’s hard earned brand position.

Now ICANN, the US-appointed guardian of internet domains, has decided that it is a good idea to have a free for all. So just about anything is possible after the dot now. For example, .nyc for websites that want to be associated with New York City or .zoo for zoos maybe.

All very sensible and useful, but the decision, as I understand it, also opens up the possibility of firms registering domains under their rivals’ names, for example Asda using .tesco or Toyota using .honda. So yet another opportunity has been created for a brand to be high-jacked.

Reported by Brand Republic, Jonathan Robinson, the chief operating officer of NetNames, agrees. He has described the move as “the equivalent of opening a can of worms in terms of online infringement and cybersquatting”.

Then there is cost to consider. ICANN is a non-profit organisation but the reseller market will make millions out of the rule changes with the most popular suffixes literally going for millions each.

So when the changes kick in in 2009 it will be even harder and more costly for companies to protect their brands from online high-jacking, while users are likely to have a poorer experience. Nice work ICANN!

Tags: adwords, domain_names, e-commerce, internet, search_terms
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UEFA boosts profits with bigger online presence

Jonathan Bowers, June 26th 2008, 2:10PM

European football governing body UEFA will no doubt be delighted with the quality of the on-pitch spectacle at this year’s tournament. However, Platini and co’s greatest delight will probably be reserved for their online profits.

According to the BBC , overall profits for Euro 2008 are about 35% higher than for Euro 2004, due in part to a major increase in ecommerce, and with a full week of the tournament still to go UEFA had reported 1 billion hits on its Euro 2008 website, far exceeding the total number of visits to its official site four years ago.

These impressive figures reflect the fact that European football’s governing body has now fully realised the commercial power of the internet. While in the past a website was seen as a secondary thought to pay lip-service to the online medium by an industry focused on broadcast revenue, now UEFA has cottoned on to the fact that a good website can deliver financially.

Take a look at the Euro 2008 home page , the commercial opportunities are everywhere. A sponsor’s banner adorns the top of the page in prime view. There are additional, dynamic adverts on the page and features are also sponsored (i.e. ‘Castrol Stats’) to add a further opportunity for companies to get their advertising in.

Then there is UEFA’s own revenue driving content. Naturally there is an online store, but the most interesting addition this time around is the Pay-per-view facility. This is a real departure for UEFA as it looks to take advantage of the modern broadband age. With this service visitors can pay to watch live games or replays streamed through the official website.

The live streaming in particular is interesting because it shows just how powerful the internet has become as UEFA is willing to irritate its traditional broadcast partners to pursue online revenues.

The internet has evolved past eye-catching novelty, past a begrudging support role, even past an established complimentary commercial endeavour. The internet is now a powerful sales tool in its own right, surpassing traditional mediums in many ways. UEFA has now appreciated this and it is reaping the rewards by maximising the considerable commercial potential of its Euro 2008 website.

Tags: internet, marketing, media
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Is the BBC website good value for money

Jonathan Bowers, June 11th 2008, 9:52AM

Here’s a thought – As the BBC website is available to the world and therefore can be read by non-licence fee payers, should it be funded by the license fee?

This is a pretty contentious point. With the validity of the licence fee as a whole already a hot issue, the idea of Jonny foreigner getting a service for free because we are already paying for it is likely to make some blow a gasket. Furthermore, the fact that new revelations have shown that the BBC overspent £36m on its website in the year to March 2008 certainly doesn’t make the sell any easier.

But should licence fee payers be unhappy? Or should we see the BBC website as an asset for putting UK plc in the global shop window and therefore great value for our money whatever the cost?

In reality the funding situation is not as black and white as suggested above. In fact, foreign IP addresses that bring up bbc.co.uk actually see adverts on the pages. This is because the BBC is allowed to generate revenue from foreign use of its website. So we don’t pay alone for overseas users’ benefit.

However, to be honest I wouldn’t mind if we did because the value to us in the UK is worth the expense.

First and foremost this is because the BBC website, and for that matter the BBC, is a great ambassador for the UK as a whole. Having the BBC website broadbanded into foreign homes spreads the word about UK productivity at its best. The BBC is still revered around the world as the best broadcasting network and it is therefore a shining beacon reminding the world of the fact that some things are still done best in the UK. The reflected glory can benefit us all.

Secondly, the BBC website provides a conduit to other companies in the UK. That is to say it can effectively operate as an indirect advertising medium for UK business. Consider a news story about a UK firm’s great new invention or a feature article on why the UK is becoming a hub of web hosting. Such articles that indirectly promote UK business will be read by overseas users. So the BBC can help to connect UK business to a wider customer base.

Finally, and most directly for our interests at UKFast , the spanking new BBC website shows that the UK internet industry is a world leader. It demonstrates that we as an industry are amongst the very best at designing, building, functioning, marketing and hosting the world’s fastest growing business and information medium.

But what about the overspend? Well at a total price of £110m the BBC website still only costs £5 per licence fee household and when you consider that Eastenders costs about £250,000 per episode, the BBC could easily afford its website if it cancelled the limp London soap!

So, I think to spend what is still a small portion of our licence fees on the BBC’s online presence is money very well spent.

Tags: advertising, internet, news, websites
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