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Direct marketers join anti-gTLD bandwagon

Kevin Murphy, August 26, 2011, 17:48:47 (UTC), Domain Policy

The UK Direct Marketing Association has added its voice to the collection of advertising trade groups that oppose ICANN’s new generic top-level domains program.
DMA executive director Chris Combemale said in a statement:

Creating a tranche of new internet domain names will be extremely costly to businesses. As well as the associated costs of registering new domain names and spending money to attract customers to multiple domains, businesses face the legal and financial headache of having to contend with cybersquatters grabbing specific domains.
Customised domain names won’t offer brands any enhanced marketing possibilities because consumers can easily search for specific information with the current domain name system.
Companies are already hard pressed to find cost savings in these tough trading times; adding a further financial burden that won’t reap any commercial benefits cannot be justified.

The organization said it plans to formally ask ICANN to withdraw or revise the program.
The Association of National Advertisers, the Interactive Advertising Bureau and the American Association of Advertising Agencies have already made similar calls.
The DMA UK has over 800 members, according to its web site.

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Comments (3)

  1. Gnanes says:
    August 26, 2011 at 6:15 pm

    Did they comment during the commenting period? Or they missed the memo from ICANN.

    Reply
  2. Gene says:
    August 26, 2011 at 6:37 pm

    “Customised domain names won’t offer brands any enhanced marketing possibilities because consumers can easily search for specific information with the current domain name system.”
    This is an identical position to the one held by ANA, IAB, and AAAA, which should lift the hearts of domainers; not because there’s now a very good chance that, collectively, their future plea for an injunction against ICANN to stop the rollout might succeed, but because they’re each explicitly validating the long-term viability of the current system, i.e., that dot-coms will remain at the core of their member’s marketing efforts till the end of time.
    So, the bottom line is that every major advertising coalition has just undermined the endless stream of arguments against the need for domain names (think John Perry Barlow) because of apps, etc.

    Reply
  3. David J Castello says:
    August 26, 2011 at 8:22 pm

    The funny thing is that out of all of this the one thing that is drawing the attention of the mainstream press is that top figures at ICANN have resigned to work at companies that intend to benefit from the new TLDs. While not illegal, it stinks to the high heavens and, in the end, may prove to be ICANN’s undoing.

    Reply

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