Domain Sales Presentation to Blue-Chip Co

[netfleet]

OK I have a great generic financial domain. It is the exact description of the product a big financial product is about to launch.

Eg if they were about to launch 'car insurance', the domain would be carinsurance.com.au

After a bit of work I am getting the chance to 'pitch' the domain to two senior marketing execs (prob on phone conference rather than face to face unfortunately).

Whilst I thing I can sing the virtues of quality generic domains, I really need to back it up with hard evidence.

I would really appreciate some help in how I should present my case esp if anyone can help with:

1) hard examples or surveys that prove an effective domain can increase ROI for advertising (esp how promoting a URL like carinsurance.com.au will result in much better ROI than thebigfinancecompany/carinsurance)

2) examples of where big companies have bought generic domains & experienced success

3) anything else you can think of.

The prospect is a household name & will no doubt be spending $X,XXX,XXX promoting this product (maybe heaps more I really don't know. However you'd expect it to be regularly on prime time TV, newspapers radio etc).

Many thanks guys

David

 

[DomainTalker]

As a fellow Aussie, congrats on giving yourself the opportunity to pitch a great domain, personally, to top execs of a major organisation.


This is not directly relevant to your question, but, recent experience of The Bank of America launching their mobile banking arm - using Bofa.mobi - might be useful additional info during your pitch, at some point.


I don't have exact figures (they could probably be found)...The word is that, when BofA launched its mobile phone banking service - using bofa.mobi - they went from zero mobile banking interactions to 1 million mobile banking interactions within 6 months of bofa.mobi's launch. That's outstanding...


This is not a comment about .mobi, but about strategy, positioning, and perception - The useful point for you maybe is that its a powerful example of a financial services organisation launching a new product using a directly relevant domain to the product they were launching...


The domain didn't say: 'We're Bank of America - and we also do mobile'....The domain said: 'Bank of America is mobile'.


...After all (you may say to these people, in your pitch)...

"Why primarily promote the architect of the building (the designer), when what you are actually selling is household furniture (the product you want people to buy)...?"... (if you get what I mean).

.

 

[dbtbandit67]

it would help if you told us what the actual domain was

 

[netfleet]

Thanks DomainTalker - some great advice there, much appreciated.

I guess it can't hurt to give the details.... domain is debitcard dot com dot au

Bank is biggest in australia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Bank_of_Australia

They are about to launch a debit card for the first time later this month. If anyone has any further ideas in light of this, I'd be very grateful

 

[soggyindo]

check out the "domain king"'s blog. i don't think he updates it any more, but he was the king of at least spinning the benefits of generic domain names. lots of examples on there - soup.com, etc.

 

[scorpion]

While you've prob thought of this already, I think that even if you can't obtain the concrete figures you want, you can show how "big companies" are starting to think alike, purchasing generic domain names.

DNJournal, of course, has this link:

http://www.genericdomainnames.com/info/Generic-Domain-Name-Ownership/i=9

It shows how Bank of America, Barnes and Noble, Carl's Jr, etc. have obtained generics.

This "wisdom" of "big marketing minds" in large companies has got to point to something. So even if you don't have the figures, by inference from the names the big players have, it must make good financial sense to have these generic domains.

Do note though that apart from a straight sell, you could become creative, like Rick Schwartz, and sell in a variety of different ways.

I like to see people do well, and I hope you'll make a great sale on this.
Best of luck to you!

 

[maxeaus]

Well done mate on the prospect of a nice sale. .au domains are very strong here in Australia. I think you are in a very strong position, with the .au domain. Let the commonwealth know just how Aus consumer friendly the .au domain is.

 

[DomainTalker]

That's a great name, netfleet - and a great opportunity, with the CBA launching a card of that name...


Btw, not listed on the generic list of big company generic domains owned are additionally:


Finance.com - owned by Citibank
Snackbar - owned by Nestles


'Finance' has about 600,000 type-in searches per month on Search Engines...Its reasonable to assume that a large proportion of that clicks on Finance.com - and, that name directs to Citibank's main website.....So, Citibank will get a good return on that domain.


But, your offer to CBA is a no brainer for them, I'd say....I mean, how good would it be for them to brand their Debit Card service with their big launch $$$'s...

...And, be able to use the tag line:


'(blah, blah, blah)....Just go to DebitCard.com.au...'


You must report back to us how you go - after you get a decision...!!....

.

 

[netfleet]

Thanks guys! Really appreciate the advice & support.

I certainly will let you know the result!

 

[scorpion]

This bit of info from Traffic may help too:

"The first Thursday seminar at 10:30am - A View from the End User - was one of the best of the conference. Brad Geisen of Foreclosure.com was there to explain why purchasing that domain for a little over a million dollars turned out to be a great bargain. The man he bought it from, Kevin Wood (ByOwner.com), was also on the dais, along with Rick Schwartz who recently signed a deal to sell Geisen a 90% interest in Property.com in a deal that Schwartz said will rank among the biggest of all time.

When Geisen started his online business, he didn't believe a domain name was worth much and passed on a chance to buy Foreclosure.com for just $50,000. After that, every time he decided he should get the name, he went back only to find out the price had risen dramatically from the previous offer. That happened several times before he finally realized (after spending hundreds of thousands dollars on ads to bring traffic to his site) that he would save money by paying up for the category killing domain name.

At one point in the session Wood revealed that he had originally bought Foreclosure.com for just $1,600 on Ebay in 1997, causing Geisen to exclaim, "I didn't need to know that!!!" Everyone, including Geisen, laughed. Geisen now has no regrets. He said, "No one can comprehend how big the Internet will be in 10 years. It will dominate everything."

(http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2008/october-page2.htm)