Producers of Master Chef Smartly Acquire MasterChef.com

Elliot Silver
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MasterChef TVThe British production company behind the BBC hit Master Chef has masterfully secured the rights to the domain name MasterChef.com, a show currently airing on BBC One and soon to be aired in the US on Fox. Television commercials advertising the show feature well-known Chef, Restaurateur, and Hell’s Kitchen / Kitchen Nightmares star, Gordon Ramsay.

The domain name is currently registered to stealth domain acquisition company, Tenpenny Group. Ten Penny is believed to work on behalf of large companies like Google (Lively.com registrant prior to Google) and Microsoft (H1N1Symptoms.com registrant prior to MSFT).

Television production companies and movie studios are notorious for not securing the rights to .com domain names that match the name of their shows or movies, which may either be related to the generic nature of their titles or their unwillingness to spend a lot of money on a production that could be short lived. It was smart of this company to get its .com domain name, especially when it had aspirations to become known worldwide.

Two Liquor Company Follies

Elliot Silver
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WeLoveWodka.com

When I go out with friends, I am generally a beer drinker, but if I am drinking liquor it’s usually a Ketel One and soda or Ketel and Red Bull. If I am having a “tropical” drink, it will usually be something with Captain Morgan’s Spiced Rum.   I want to share what I think are a couple of liquor company domain name follies with you.

Captain Morgan is known for its Spiced Rum. They have other products of course, but if you ask for Captain and Coke, you’ll probably get a Spiced Rum.   Smartly, Diago, the maker of Captain Morgan products, owns SpicedRum.com, and when you visit SpicedRum.com, you’ll be forwarded to CaptainYourHalloween.com. I assume this was for a short term promotion, but they never changed it back. To make things worse, CaptainYourHalloween.com is a parked page.

I emailed the Chief Marketing Officer of Diageo back in January of 2009 to let him know of the issue.   We exchanged a few emails, and he put me in touch with the Director of Digital Marketing. It’s now over a year later, and the domain name still forwards to the same default parked page.   Someone is making money on it, and it’s probably not Diageo.

The second liquor “faux paux” (in my opinion) comes from a company called Wodka Vodka. The have a large billboard on the Henry Hudson Parkway in New York City with a call to action, encouraging drivers to visit WeLoveWodka.com.   As you can probably guess, WeLoveVodka.com is owned by another company. It wouldn’t be so bad if the W and V didn’t look so similar, but if you’re passing it at 50mph, chances are good that there will be a lot of people who visit the wrong domain name.

Two liquor companies using domain names poorly and should probably hire a domain consultant.

“Mingle Sticks” are Hot, But Company Doesn’t Own Matching Domain Name

Elliot Silver
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Mingle SticksAn article appeared on CNN today talking about a product called “Mingle Sticks,” which are very hot at big conferences and other gatherings. According the company that produces them (Mingle360), a MingleStick is “a small, inexpensive keychain device that allows people to exchange identity information with a simple click of a button.” Pretty cool device if you ask me.

What’s not cool is that this company, whose main product is now more well-known than the actual company name, doesn’t own the exact match domain name MingleSticks.com, although it does own the singular MingleStick.com. Since people are probably as likely or more likely to look for the plural rather than the singular, they dropped the ball on this. If you are wondering, MingleSticks.com was registered after the singular in 2008, and it’s now parked.

It’s my opinion that a company should register its main product domain names, both singular and plural, to protect its brand online (at the very least). Whether the company opts to use both or not is something that should be discussed with a search engine optimization expert and web developer, but it’s critical to at least control the domain names.

Instead of simply forwarding the plural domain name to the singular as they could have done if they bought it, the company will now end up paying Google or Yahoo to send them the visitors – a whole lot more than $8.00/year for the domain registration.

EverythingEverywhere.com Reportedly Sold for 1,900 GBP ($2,806 US Dollars)

Elliot Silver
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6

According to Sedo’s weekly domain sales report, the domain name EverythingEverywhere.com was reportedly sold to the new T-Mobile and Orange entity for 1,900 GBP, or roughly $2,806 US dollars.   As discussed here and elsewhere yesterday, some people thought the owner either left a lot of money on the table or was hosed by Sedo for some reason.

After seeing the sales price for the domain name, I think the owner got more than a fair price for it.   I don’t think many people would have valued it on its name merits only at more than the price that was paid. Of course the company that bought it may have had to pay more if necessary, but I think close to $3,000 US Dollars is damn good for a domain name like this.

Interestingly enough, the company also purchased EverythingEverywhere.net from Buy Domains for $788 back in March. Perhaps if the owner had looked at the other domain registration, he would have known to ask for more, although the registration appears to be private and doesn’t show as being registered to the actual company.

Incidentally, The Register news article mentioned that the domain sale was completed the day the news broke, so perhaps the company was waiting to finalize the sale prior to making the announcement. If that’s the case, it was a very smart move that probably saved them quite a sum of money, considering the fact that the former owner thought the 1,900 GBP price was “nominal.”

EverythingEverywhere.com Domain Sale Isn’t So Bad

Elliot Silver
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Earlier today, I wrote about the re-branding of T-Mobile and Orange into a new company called Everything Everywhere. I mentioned that the company also acquired the domain name EverythingEverywhere.com in private, and The Register had a story in which the domain owner revealed that the domain name was sold in private (for a “nominal sum”) via Sedo just before the news was announced.

Owen Frager had an article about the sale, laying the blame squarely on Sedo doorstep, “Sedo Throws Domainers Under the Bus,” and I don’t agree with this at all. Sedo doesn’t and shouldn’t personally interact with all buyers and sellers. In fact, I can’t remember one completed purchase or sale that I’ve been involved with that had a Sedo account representative involved during the negotiation process.

With hundreds of domain sales a month, it wouldn’t make sense for Sedo to monitor all domain negotiations. I could understand the anger if they misrepresented who the buyer was, but if an agent acted on behalf of the buyer, Sedo would have no reason to know if it was a huge conglomerate or a mom and pop shop. Likewise, if the buyer and seller negotiated using Sedo’s automated system, there would be no reason for a Sedo representative to be involved.

As badly as the former domain owner must feel about possibly leaving money on the table, I think he needs to take a step back and realize that he got the price he wanted. Someone else may have wanted more and possibly gotten it, but it is what it is.   The former owner probably bought it for registration fee, and if he sold it for a few hundred dollars, it’s more than he had before.

This reminds me of the ChatRoulette.com sale where people commented about the “poor guy” who sold the name to Adam Strong for under $1,500 only to see it sell for $151,000. At least in this case, there will be no further sale of the domain name, so the money left on the table is all imaginary and doesn’t exist.

Congrats to the former owner for thinking of and buying a great domain name. There are plenty of people in the advertising and marketing business who would love to know their idea for a big brand was used.

For the future, domain owners may want to consider checking other extensions to see what companies own those and may give an indication of who would want the .com.   Interestingly, EverythingEverywhere.net was owned by Buy Domains as late as March 23, 2010 before Melbourne IT bought it.

T-Mobile and Orange Team Up to Form Everything Everywhere & Buy Matching Domain Name

Elliot Silver
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Everything Everywhere

Telecommunications giants T-Mobile and Orange recently announced a merger, and instead of leveraging either company’s hard earned name recognition by taking the brand name of one company (or merging the two brands), the company opted to completely re-brand as a company called Everything Everywhere.

Up until April 29, 2010, the matching EverythingEverywhere.com domain name was owned by a London-based design firm, Ted Kelly Design. Just a week ago on May 4, 2010, the domain name was transferred to the ownership of Melbourne IT, and the new website indicates that the newly formed entity has acquired it. Interestingly, EverythingEverywhere.co.uk was previously registered in August of 2009 and is registered to the same entity as the .com.

Although the terms of the domain sale don’t seem to be public (at least not yet), I have an email in to the former owner seeking comment. If/when I hear back, I will update this post. It would be interesting to know the purchase price, as the domain name is wouldn’t be considered a prime generic domain name, but the company was probably under quite a bit of pressure to acquire the name immediately, as once the merger became public knowledge, the acquisition price would presumably increase dramatically.

With a combined 30 million customers across the world, owning the .com is critical.

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