.tv Do They Get it Or Not? Conde Nast

[DU]

So Wired.TV is owned by Conde Nast.

They run Wired magazine - or own, manage, or whatever the right term is. Anyway, this month they announced their brand new re-branding and they will be going heavy on the Video!

I know they bought Wired.TV. It's a great .TV moment!

They are using Wired.TV for that? Aren't they? Of course they are, right?

Simple answer. Yes, No, Maybe.

They are branding it as - yes, you heard this right - TV.WIRED.COM.

Wow! A subdomain! In other stupid moves they are calling it that but then actually also referring to it as video.wired.com....

What about Wired.TV?

That's never mentioned but also redirects video.wired.com.

So what's my point?

Those who say that WiredTV.com is the right answer are wrong!
Those who say that Wired.TV is the wrong answer are are wrong!
Those that say it's a mixed up world and really it's too much talk about nothing? They are right!

Here's the reality.
Wired.TV was a nice profit and vacation for someone and his family so who cares? Anyone who still thinks .TV is going to make them a millionaire is bonkers.

But most of all... if digital media publishing companies DON'T KNOW the answer.. why do domainers pretend to know the answer?

I, luckily, do know the answer.

Whatever works, works. Whatever standard you are trying to cling on to regarding namespace, name type, tld is just educated guessing and part of an overall investment strategy that works or doesn't.

You win some. You lose some. You let it go.

Make of it what you will.

Wired.TV failure or no?

Ask the seller.. he's happy last time I checked.

 

[DU]

Side note on thread tags:

Tags can be useful - albeit rarely.
Tags can be funny - quite often.
Tags can be offensive - but maybe that's the same as funny?

Then some tags are too self representative and a waste of time. I wish the easily bored (boring) were more creative.

yawn

The protection of tag anonymity protects you from the revelation that you, the tagger, is yourself a big version of what you tag *yawn*

 

[LinM]

If the seller is happy who gives a shit what conde nast do. Big corps are notoriously the biggest morons going when it comes to domains and using the ones they already own let alone acquiring the ones they "should" own.
I bagged 4g.tv the other day and soon after noticed that 02 telecoms (part of huge corps Telefonica) own 3g.tv . Yep you guessed - its parked !

 

[GoneWalkabout]

Everyone 'gets it' different...

...and every brand event is created for it own purposes and in its own world as seen by the marketing/ad exec of the moment.

Volkswagen, for instance, at this very moment in time own VW.tv - but choose, in Germany at least, to run a high profile ad campaign using golf-gti.tv as the web address.



The case with Wired may be that they don't want to 'waste' the TV brand just right now. It's entirely feasible that Wired.tv may have been acquired for a longer term project which may begin when xx% of their audience are measured to have 'superfast' broadband - in the meantime a launch of the TV.Wired.com address may simply be the precursor/warm-up to that next phase. It could equally be that they are thick as sh^t and one department don't even know another department own the name.

When the dotcom craziness of 98/99 was at its height one organisation I know very well simply acquired the land they needed without doing anything. They then sat and watched all of their competitors do all the high cost development work. They then saw what worked best and launched their own version with the bulk of their money going on marketing and promotion. Their brand is now massive.

A different marketing exec on a different day would have a different view. B&Q, for example, prefer to use DIY.com instead of their actual name - other companies hardly ever use their web address (assuming you will google it). Others prefer to show their facebook address and some their twitter address. Some charities use .org while some use .com - I even heard that many government visitor info sites actually prefer .travel to .com as it gives it more gravitas in the net-savvy world

Good luck to wired whatever route they take - at least they understand that all options are available and understandable by their audience.


Personally, I think Celebs.tv or lads.tv would be better names, but what do I know?

 

[DU]

Everyone 'gets it' different...

Nailed it in 4 words.

...and every brand event is created for it own purposes and in its own world as seen by the marketing/ad exec of the moment.

Volkswagen, for instance, at this very moment in time own VW.tv - but choose, in Germany at least, to run a high profile ad campaign using golf-gti.tv as the web address.

The case with Wired may be that they don't want to 'waste' the TV brand just right now. It's entirely feasible that Wired.tv may have been acquired for a longer term project which may begin when xx% of their audience are measured to have 'superfast' broadband - in the meantime a launch of the TV.Wired.com address may simply be the precursor/warm-up to that next phase. It could equally be that they are thick as sh^t and one department don't even know another department own the name.

It could be any of those things and all are valid - interesting comment regarding the wasting of Wired.TV. That could also be true, after all, videos and TV are not the same thing

As for VW...They are German and they are known for their weirdness and failure to adhere to acceptable domain standards.

My statement "stupid moves" was less literal a comment on CN and more just a reference to my own personal taste, or should I say distaste, for subdomains. That may have been lost in translation.

Good luck to wired whatever route they take - at least they understand that all options are available and understandable by their audience.

I originally had posted that both buyer and seller were happy.. but I realized I can only speak for one half

The bottom line is that CN were smart enough to buy this in the first place thereby giving them a choice and a plethora of directions. I just see the online marketing and branding world being hugely fragmented and at such an early stage that no one really understands. The local tv market is kind of tracking the same way .. there are lots of things going on but no clear winners.

I honestly thought it was interesting that Wired.TV was EVEN USED even as a redirect. The rest was to head off all the comments that typically follow a siting: "great for .TV" or "just a redirect" etc. I think it's great for Wired.TV and Wired magazine that they are engaging in this way. It doesn't have much relevance to anyone investing here because things are so messed up in the online world right now.

To emphasise and use your words: Everyone gets it different.

Personally, I think Celebs.tv or lads.tv would be better names, but what do I know?

More than most, my friend, more than most.

I prefer lads if it matters- has instant visual meaning to me.

I'm still very much pro .TV. I still think it's an incredibly positive branding option and the channelization of Youtube does provide a great opportunity - you can have your own name and use another platform. I don't see many .commers becoming millionaires either anymore so that was just a general domainer comment.

That said, I'm dropping a fair few names

---------- Post added at 02:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:01 PM ----------

If the seller is happy who gives a shit what conde nast do. Big corps are notoriously the biggest morons going when it comes to domains and using the ones they already own let alone acquiring the ones they "should" own.
I bagged 4g.tv the other day and soon after noticed that 02 telecoms (part of huge corps Telefonica) own 3g.tv . Yep you guessed - its parked !

I don't adhere to the belief that big corps are biggest morons when it comes to domains. I actually believe that more often than not, domainers are the biggest morons when it comes to understanding marketing and brand dynamics.

To me 3g 4g are all just moments in time. The best thing I can say about 4g is that it has instant "sexual undertones" in commercials.

Who can forget the "4g wonderland"?

4g is already meaningless without LTE imho. Then again... many pov... you might prove me very very very wrong as you have before.

 

[LinM]

DU yep definitely I agree to an extent that "some" domainers might well be the 2nd biggest morons - no doubt including me!
Forgive my naivety really genuinely I am completely unaware of any adult overtones of the term "4g" so Id sure appreciate to know this link. The big money use of this term tho notwithstanding any adult use is pretty clear I think. I did an experiment earlier in a typical pub not 100m from where that rather unpleasant business last week unfolded in my humble home town of Woolwich and asked about LTE.
Not one single person, even several members of the Royal Regiment of Signals knew off the bat what this is much less that it means Long Term Evolution.
Almost everyone figured that "4G" was "better than 3G or something" and a few even whipped out their (crap) iphones to show me. Sure LTE is the geek term but socalled normal people call it 4G :D
Rubbish irrelevent sampling I know but still, I go with my guts on this business and I can still afford my own pint!

Jimbo yeep no everyone does get it differently and thankfully not all big corps or even medium ones are such morons and my accusation to the same is not intended to be all encompassing.
Some do actually get it get it. I guess we all wish it was more. We're all also darn lucky it was less cos many of these were around before we were born and we got there first and now they pay our bills :D

 

[DU]

Forgive my naivety really genuinely I am completely unaware of any adult overtones of the term "4g" so Id sure appreciate to know this link.

T-Mobile had a commercial for walking in a 4g wonderland. It sounded a lot like the cute girl was down for a little more than a chat on the phone - many thought it was a little subliminal "four g" sounding a lot like "orgy".

 

[LinM]

Thanks for headsup on the (rather spurious) adult connection there. Im a tv'er but dont even own a telly so thankfully that piece of rather clumsy marketing passed me by. phew.
Its true that 3g and 4g are moments in time, thats why I bagged 5g too a few months back :D
Moments in time but its my time, our time, right now.