Afilias Introduces Campaign to Educate 'Brand Builders' on ICANN New TLD Program

Wireless News
06-24-2011
Afilias Introduces Campaign to Educate 'Brand Builders' on ICANN New TLD Program
Type: News

The Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) approved its long-discussed New gTLD Program.

According to a release, this program allows any brand or community of interest to apply for a "right of the dot" top-level domain. For example, instead of ".com," a brand like Nike could apply for ".nike" to reinforce its brand on the Web.
"The ICANN program creates opportunities for brand builders to re- invent how customers experience brands on the Internet," said Roland LaPlante, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Afilias. "However, there are a variety of challenges in applying for, winning and running a dot.BRAND Web space. One significant issue is time. The program application period starts on January 12, 2012, and will end on April 12, 2012. Once the application window is closed, the opportunity to apply for a dot.Brand TLD is gone. There are no firm plans to accept new applications after this round of submissions closes."

To help global brand builders understand the complex ICANN application process - as well as the many benefits of owning and operating a dot.Brand TLD - Afilias said it has created a video and e-book to explain the program.

"Afilias is ideally positioned to offer this information," LaPlante said. "Afilias is among the world's largest providers of diverse domain registry services, and has supported the applications for and launches of numerous new TLDs under ICANN processes - including the highly successful .Info, .Mobi and .ASsia domains. This also means we are uniquely qualified to help organizations apply for new dot.Brand TLDs as well as launch and manage new dot. Brand Internet spaces."

The Company noted that organizations interested in pursuing a dot. Brand investment will need to act quickly to assemble a team of experts, which will likely include the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), a brand advisor, the ad agency, a trademark lawyer and a domain registry technology partner. Properly assembled, this team will be able to prepare and submit an application that will meet ICANN's stringent requirements and be awarded their own dot. Brand.

Afilias is a global provider of Internet infrastructure services that connect people to their data.

More Information:

www.afilias.info/dotbrand

((Comments on this story may be sent to newsdesk@closeupmedia.com))

Copyright 2011 Close-Up Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
n/a