I was running on the treadmill at the gym yesterday evening when I saw something pretty cool on television that I wanted to share with you. The Wheel of Fortune “prize puzzle” revealed the phrase, “tubas, trumpets, and trombones,” and the prize had something to do with the puzzle.
My immediate thought was jazz music and my second thought was that the winner would win a trip to my favorite US city, New Orleans. Not only was I correct, but I almost fell off the treadmill when I saw that it was sponsored by my friends at NewOrleans.com. I later learned that NewOrleans.com also sponsored a prize on The Price is Right (video above).
I spoke with Don Jones, co-owner of NewOrleans.com, and he offered some information about the sponsorship and its effect on traffic. “We get a great deal of lift from these national programs with exposure to many millions of folks that watch regularly. With a great, branded top-level Geodomain it works even better. The basic sponsorship is reasonable and the company also has to pay for airfare, hotel, and dining.”
I think this is a great opportunity for companies with descriptive domain names, especially geographic domain names in tourist-friendly cities. Not only does it help build the brand in the United States, but it also tells local businesses the company is intent on promoting the city of New Orleans. Seems like a win/win.
The caveat is this isn’t a short-term or one-off deal. The company, together with its Vegas.com partner, has a long-term deal to offer vacation packages on these game shows.
Don offered to provide more details, including analytics when he has them. It’s a unique marketing and branding opportunity that might be interesting to explore.
Elliot, it’s OK to admit that you’re a regular Wheel of Fortune viewer. You don’t need to concoct a story about how it happened to be on the TV in the gym.
Clearly, one of the best US geodomains. I love NO.
Great find……Eliyezer.
One day we’ll do one for GreenwichVillage.com
We need to do lunch soon, i guess you got an email from Jodi too.
See u soon.
@ Steve
Let’s do lunch next week… have plans Wed and Fri… How does Thursday work? Email me.
What a great idea. That is excellent exposure for them. A good way to get their domain/brand in front of a national audience.
I guess this is a good method if you are at the “Branding Stage”. But I must say, most of the Geo website owners that I know are not making much money at all and this would be a risky investment considering there is no promise of ROI Conversion. Prior to the Branding Stage website owners need to focus on a more Guarrenteed method of advertising. For example PPC Keywords, where you pay 33 cents a click and you are guarennteed to get 3000 visitors for every $1000 spend. I have been doing this since 1998 with my site AirportService.com We started the “Branding” stage a few years after we became profitable.
@ Tony
Very good point.
So how long before we see “Plinko…brought to you by Burbank.com”?