New gTLD strategy; Misunderstood Opportunity, or multinational power-game.
ICANN’s spring decision to allow some limited number of new gTLD’s has stirred the moods of internet and domain stakeholders in many countries, but mostly in the USA. The decision has been discharged as a Thoughtless act, a no go, a "fault pas". And it achieved what we so seldom see; an industrial group, the majority American, coming together to lobby against what some others say was a genius move of ICANN to shake up the internet and reach the set objectives; i.e. restructure its use, the creation of more safety, more speed, transparent and standardized use, in the hands of many in order to innovate use, and intensify competition.
In the process of building its new mash technology based Magazine platform UDT staff interviewed Multinational decision makers and experts to bounce of the pro’s and Cons of its currently closed down, Magazine platform, in those days running in a semi closed version under the name of "Balaton Today".
Following a interview with the Heineken responsible executive in Hungary, it learned some very important things; The new ideal platform is open, even for the competition, it reaches more visitors, it has an objective approach in the mind of the target consumers, it is safe, globally standardized, and provided an answer can be presented for the ever continuing chicken and the egg discussion about the cost of content generation, the concept would be winning.. In fact the Heineken slogan "open your world today"…. Says it all.
But even though Heineken is in the forefront of internet marketing worldwide spends large sums of advertising money on its own rather static single content websites and its Facebook approach, it still does not reach its objectives as so clearly stated by its executive.
Traffic is key on the internet websites, returning visitors are fundamental for continuity and growth, objective quality content production and choice for the visitors proves ultimate consumer satisfaction and loyalty, yet most current sites all provide for a single purpose use, is usually single channel use and does not objectively push quality news and information to the forefront, and many Multinational users acknowledge this. Yet, they all keep on spending billions of advertising dollars on banner advertising, on single use websites for reasons that mostly stem from the fear not to control.
UDT’s .today new magazine platform, is however giving each and every party the chance to create an "own environment" for each consumers need; now, today and in the future. Like "Paris Today, is not only a website for the tourist industry in around Paris, but with its multi channel approach, for every interested party that offers services or products in and around Paris. By doing so, Paris .today becomes a virtual world, clearly reflecting the real world in which brands and companies are all and constantly competing over consumer attention. And in that world Quality rules and consumers make there own comparisons.
As with the old print media, the creativity of the message and the quality of the placement of it, determined the success of how well do we get our message across. The idea that we can blind consumers with brand –owner-only-information and products, avoiding constant comparison is like buying a burger from a single hamburger stand in a blind alley in the middle of nowhere, telling the buyer that this is the best burger in the whole wide world…
The moral of this story,?! Open your world today, practice what you preach, give consumers the opportunity to decide on quality of information and the number of channels offered, become part of the virtual world of your consumer, rather than forcing your consumer to close their eyes and try to make them believe that your brand, your product is the only one.. When its good enough, and when it feels as comfortable as daily choices made in the real world they will come back, and will include you into their life, their lives, rather than the other way around, because that seems to be a hope short lived.
Having said that, it is time for multinationals to weight their chances and to maybe reconsider their options rather than rally against ICANNs vision. The UDT platform provides many what probably the internet needs, and surely what consumers seek to keep them loyal and engaged.. If Creativity becomes important again and technology is a given, than quality of the use and application of it all decides the winner. A reel fair proposition… and who can be against that… Follow the rise of creativity… by Ultimate Digital Technologies.
Theo A.C. Migo
Strategic Advisor
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