If you’re not already aware, for several years now ICANN (the organisation that controls domain names on the web) has had plans to allow organisations to register new top-level domains.  (A top level domain exists at the highest level in the domain naming hierarchy - think of it as the last part of the URL. So .com, .net, .biz and .uk are examples.)

Well, today is the day that the floodgates open - companies can now apply to register for .anything. This could be their brand name or something more generic, such as a product or category.

So, in future, we could end up with URLs such as http://eat.walkers.crisps or http://wear.superdry

No longer will the internet just be restricted to 20 or so top-level domains - ICANN’s new rules just created an explosion of potential domains!

Is this good or bad?

There are some who believe this will give brands greater control over their online presence - and prevent potential phishing or fake sites popping up. Would you be more reassured that you were on NatWest’s website if the URL was http://my.natwest ?

Personally, I believe this move will predominantly create consumer confusion. What’s the benefit to the consumer? At the moment, there are conventions that help consumers navigate the web - typically URLs are <brand name>.com or (here in the UK) <brand name>.co.uk.  With the new ICANN proposals, more guessing will be needed -  is a brand’s site at <brand name>.com or <something>.<brand name> or even <brand name>.<product> or <brand name>.<category>?

Apply now

With a hefty price tag ($185,000) and a bunch of risks and responsibilities of registering one, time will tell whether the take-up is significant. A few companies such as Canon have already come out & said they’ll register their own brand names as new top-level domains.

If you want yours, get your checkbook out and get your application form in before 12th April when applications close.  For more information, head on over to the new ICANN gTLD website where there’s a useful video which explains how it all works.

Your thoughts?

Good or bad for the internet? A new gold-rush? Or something that’ll never catch on? What do you think? Let me know in the comments below.

UK websites have been granted one year by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in which to comply with new legislation concerning the use of cookies. It requires website owners to obtain ‘positive’ consent from users, before a cookie is used to retrieve information about their online browsing behaviour.

The revised EU e-Privacy Directive, which becomes law today, means that websites will be moving from an ‘opt-out’ to an ‘opt-in’ in terms of a user’s acceptance of website cookies. We are in the process of finalising a plan of action for complying with the directive; this will outline a number of steps to be taken in the interim, to ensure that our clients’ websites are fully compliant by next year.

We commonly use Google Analytics to track the performance of our websites and online activity through the use of cookies. Using an analytics package (and therefore cookies) is essential for us to be able to determine performance, identify areas for improvement, set goals and ultimately improve our clients’ websites and users’ experiences.

The UK  Government is currently working with leading web browser manufacturers including Microsoft (Internet Explorer), Google (Chrome), Mozilla (Firefox) and Apple (Safari) in order to identify how web browsers could incorporate a more prominent method for users to ‘opt-in’ to cookie usage. This would be the ideal solution to minimise disruption to the user experience.

The work environment has changed immeasurably during my career. In my first market research job as a graduate we created slides of results, and printed them out onto acetates, which then had to dry, before being slotted into holding frames. Any changes and you had to do that slide again. Printers took 5 minutes to produce a single slide.

Tools to ‘enhance productivity’ are rife. We can integrate reporting across multiple platforms. We can create ‘decks’ with far more flexibility and creativity than before. We obsess about animation and builds, about ‘the message’. Death by Powerpoint and Analysis Paralysis are phrases born in the last generation.

But these tools often inhibit and distract us from more rewarding, direct, and meaningful interactions. Why not talk to each other, face-to-face, rather than hiding behind a presentation or an email. Powerpoint comes with built-in protocols and assumptions how charts should be laid out: titles and bullets, graphs and commentary. The Marketing profession has created its own language and terminology, at least partly because…

• marketers are innately aware and guilty that our ‘profession’ is largely Applied Common Sense, so we create ‘technical’ language to lend it more credibility (noone likes to admit this)
• as in other spheres, the jargon is a defensive mechanism to hinder or prevent ‘outsiders’ from realising that marketing is largely Applied Common Sense (see above)…

In marketing parlance, it’s a strategy to create barriers to entry in order to add value to our own core proposition and thereby add value. See what I did there?

Take (for example) two very common marketing strategies, and an alternative description…

Drive Penetration = get more people to buy some

Build AWP / FOP / Loyalty / Share of Requirement etc = Get some people to buy more

But by speaking in tongues, by overlapping objectives, strategies and plans, surrounding ourselves with TLAs, we get bogged down in our own process. Clusters and segements don’t buy brands and products, people do. And all these tools, applications and acronyms simply isolate marketers from the people they claim to want to understand.

As Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign famously realised, the election was about the economy. Well, marketing is about people. If we can get past the jargon, we can start talking as people, in human terms, about what people want and why they want it. Then we can start thinking about how we can give it to them, and make them feel better.

Everything is going online, apparently: grocery shopping, newspapers, music, booking holidays. We use Facebook or MSN to talk to friends rather than telephoning, and I’m not sure when I last bought an envelope…

But the largely unstoppable momentum of e-banking, e-shopping, e-everything seems increasingly driven by companies trying to drive down cost without passing these benefits back to their customers.  I haven’t had a paper electricity bill for nearly 3 years, since they suggested I did everything online, in return for which I would get a £15 annual saving on my bill. Not much, you might say, but definitely more than nothing.

Those generous days seem to be long gone. I’ve banked with First Direct for nearly 15 years, and handled most of my transactions online for the last couple. But every time I log on, they smack me in the face with this…

No hint of  ‘what’s in it for me’, nor a word about the savings FD will make from not having to process, print and despatch 12 monthly statements. Hmmmm.

And only last week, my mobile phone provider (from whom I also get broadband) wrote to inform me

More and more customers have asked us to provide full details in their bills, so we’re replacing the summary bill with itemised one for everyone. You’ll now be able to see exactly how you’ve used your phone - down to the time, length and cost of each call.

As it costs more to provide you with these itemised paper bills, these will cost you £1.47 per month.

I seem to remember a few years ago, when I was first a customer, I had itemised bills as standard. It was a great help for deciphering business vs personal calls. But now I have to pay for the privilege. I was going to shame them with a clue, but nothing rhymes with their name. Hmmmm.

Not everything is better online. The Argos and Ikea catalogues are staple items in households across the country. Glossy magazines and weekend newspapers help us create small windows of tranquility. Paper bills delivered through our letterbox can be important reminders to review what we’re spending, a useful event each month that makes us feel secure, or at least enables us to take action.

Online accounts put the onus on the customer to do the work, so I logged onto my electricity account for the first time in ages yesterday and discovered my account is in credit by over £100. They evidently thought I didn’t really care that I’ve effectively been overpaying and they’ve been sitting on my cash for months. So I’ve taken action on that.

Online relationships with brands can be more convenient and easier for all parties, but they should still be a dialogue, they need work, and they should not be taken for granted.

While we’re always keen to explore new ways of connecting brands with their audiences, it’s doesn’t always have to be complicated. Evoking an emotional response with a simple idea will always resonate strongly. Traditional media carry ideas just as well, often better.

Occasionally I read about a campaign or idea that prickles the hairs on my neck, makes me wish I’d been involved. Or in recent weeks, two campaigns. Their aims of these campaigns are noble, and the executions are genuinely exciting and moving.

The first is an Australian campaign for the UN from 2008 using interactive posters to alert people to the stories of minorities and other marginalised groups. It adheres (almost) to the age-old rule of posters of ‘5 words and a pack shot’, a simple, arresting headline “Listen to me” and striking full-face image, commanding the viewer’s attention. While waiting for your bus, simply snap a picture on your m0bile of the poster, which ‘rewards’ your engagement with a phonecall, putting a voice and a story to the face. It’s a clever use of traditional media with interactive technology (the cynic within wonders whether there wasn’t enough money for TV!). But if there wasn’t, good. This is way better than any preachy, very-worthy-but-most-likely-very-dull TV campaign could have been.

The other campaign is an even simpler, more striking use of posters, where the medium for once really is the message. The Zimbabwean ran billboards of worthless Zimbabwean bank notes to raise awareness and promote readership of the newspaper, and recently won the Cannes Lions Grand Prix award for outdoor advertising.

The ads outline how the regime of Robert Mugabe had introduced a 55 per cent import ‘luxury’ duty on The Zimbabwean, making it unaffordable for the average Zimbabwean. The campaign went further, distributing trillions of dollars worth of Zimbabwean money stamped with provocative messages and a call for support for The Zimbabwean.

There are further images on The Zimbabwean’s Flickr photostream.

Be amazed at what Macintosh can do!…