BroBibs.com: Win a “Bro Bib!”

I think How I Met Your Mother is one of the funniest shows on television these days. The show’s producers also happen to be pretty savvy when it comes to domain names (read about Canadian Sex Acts to see an example), and they just dropped an awesome integrated marketing campaign.

Back in the day when television characters mentioned phone numbers, they would use a 555 or other fictitious phone number. If you dialed the phone number that was mentioned, it wouldn’t work. These days, phone numbers have given way to domain names. With a domain name, there is less of a chance of confusion, especially when using .com and no hyphenation.

As any descriptive .com domain owner can tell you, when people hear about a product, many instinctively type it in to their browser and enter .com, hoping to end up on a related website to buy the product.

On tonight’s episode of HIMYM, they mentioned a product called “Bro Bibs.” As you might have guessed, BroBibs.com is a fully functioning website, although all products are listed as “out of stock.” They also link to another  humorous  website, DudeAprons.com, which sells “dude aprons.” When you click on the “click here to win one” link, you’re taken to the CBS website where you can enter a contest to win a Bro Bib… what a great marketing plan!

BroBibs.com was registered back in September and DudeAprons.com was registered in October. The domain name registrant is Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, and they used Mark Monitor to register the domain names.

Kudos to 20th Century Fox, CBS, and the writers at How I Met Your Mother. Visiting these websites is like finding an “Easter egg” on a DVD or video game, and it makes watching the show even more fun.