Sedo’s Report From The Dmexco Conference: 90% Visitors Never Heard Of New gTLDs

Sedo published a report on the dmexco 2014
Digital Marketing Exposition & Conference that was held in Cologne Germany. The conference had 32,000 visitors and Sedo along with representatives from Famous Four Media, Donuts, DotClub, NicAT, and Denic attended it.

Jodie Chamberlain had this to say about her interactions at dmexco: “While dmexco participants were knowledgeable about traditional domain endings, I’d say that 90% of them never heard of the new gTLDs. But they were online marketers, so it just took seconds for them to understand what opportunities new gTLDs can bring them.” 

Here is the complete report:

The goal:
Create awareness among 32,000 international visitors from the digital industry about the importance of having a good domain name along with a distinct domain name strategy, inform them about the new gTLDs in the market, and advise and provide guidelines on how to identify high quality domain names that will synch beautifully with their portfolio and business models.

How:
In collaboration with our partners, those with representatives at the Sedo booth such as Famous Four Media (.webcam, .trade, .bid), Donuts (.reisen, .email, .media, .events),  DotClub (.club), NicAT (.at), and Denic (.de), we were able to expose the dmexco audience to how large the domain industry presence is in the online marketing world and provide useful information from all of our sponsors including PIR (.org), Uniregistry (.sexy, .link, .photo, .pics), Nominet (.uk), domain.me and Regiodot (.ruhr). We also demonstrated that our industry is bolstered by a huge network consisting of Sedo, Registries and Registrars. We want to extend a big thank you to all our partners who supported this idea, attended the show, provided marketing materials to share with visitors and for being great sponsors that understood the importance of communicating the main goal of the industry: your domain is your home!

Reactions:
The idea of giving away free Frozen Yogurts with toppings named for TLDs such as .sexy, .uk, .club and more was simple, and SO effective. More than 2,000 frozen yogurt cups were served up to visitors to our booth. While choosing their topping combinations of TLDs, it was the first time many were hearing that these aren’t just fun names; they are real TLDs new to the market and are available for them to snatch up for their businesses.
Jodie Chamberlain, a domain industry event expert with vast experience in large-scale event planning was a fantastic supporter of this effort, never shying away from talking all about domains to our many visitors. She had this to say about her interactions at dmexco: “While dmexco participants were knowledgeable about traditional domain endings, I’d say that 90% of them never heard of the new gTLDs. But they were online marketers, so it just took seconds for them to understand what opportunities new gTLDs can bring them.”

These discussions were turned into sales leads as 20 Sedo sales representatives were busy taking over the conversations to go into greater detail about domains. “The high level of knowledge the Sedo representatives had at the booth about the domain industry and new gTLDs exceeded my expectations. They know exactly what the end user’s needs are and how they can impart this knowledge and turn it into sales leads,” said Colin Campbell from Dotclub.

Our partners, having been to numerous conferences already, were clearly surprised by the large scale of dmexco with its immense and diverse target groups and stakeholders, all within reach at one place. “It was wonderful to see so many different companies from within the domain industry working together to promote the importance of domain names. Dmexco proved a great opportunity to educate marketers and consumers about new TLDs and moreover the fantastic branding opportunities a relevant, specific, and memorable domain name can provide to businesses of all sizes and varieties. We’re really grateful to Sedo for making that happen and were very impressed with how everything turned out — from the conference to the booth, all of it was first-rate,” said Amy Repp and Jenny White from Donuts Inc.

Challenges and main talking points with the press and visitors:
It was important for us to not only create awareness for the new gTLDs, but also for domains in general. While some may think the biggest challenge is new gTLD awareness, we know from our involvement with end users that in many cases we need to go back and start from square one. For example, in Germany every sixth business still has no company website. Even some of those with a website for their business use a general Yahoo, Gmail or GMX email address instead of using their own domain names and branding in their general communications. Try to estimate how many businesses that have a website, but not a “good” name? The number is very likely a higher one. It’s not that these decision makers are ignorant or not willing to spend money on a better domain – a lot of them just aren’t aware of the benefits a quality name can afford them. All of this is not new information for domain sellers, but we are truly grateful to have had the opportunity to talk to people directly at dmexco and show them all the possibilities for success with the right domains.

With almost 1,000 new gTLDs coming, companies need to make sure they understand the world of domains and how they can get the best results. Tech, PR, marketing and advertising agencies are often the first point of contact for companies when it comes to a new product launch and/or campaign or business ideas. These agencies are stakeholders and need to be knowledgeable about domains, the options available, and what goes into a domain name so that they can consult with and support their corporate clients in a sufficient and innovative way. Dmexco was the perfect place to meet these stakeholders, share ideas all while in a fun environment giving them the chance to play around with keywords, TLDs and much more. Now these 2,000+ booth visitors know exactly where to start when they are creating their domain strategy to stay competitive in the digital future!