Donuts has launched a promotional campaign in the United States aimed at small business owners with the goal to sell them domain names in new gTLDs, particularly the new gTLDs it operates. The promotional campaign uses the hit Devo song “Freedom of Choice”.The campaign was flagged in an interview conducted with Donuts co-founder and Executive Vice President Dan Schindler back in November.Schindler said that Donuts was focussing on a number of activities including in 2015 boosting the profile even further of the new gTLDs past the early adopters with a massive marketing programme.”Freedom of Choice” is the first advertising campaign led by Donuts Inc., the largest registry of meaningful not-com options such as .COFFEE, .FLORIST and .PHOTOGRAPHY, and is designed to be a driving force in the “not-com revolution.” These new not-com choices give companies and entrepreneurs the ability to create a more memorable, customizable and personal website name – one that is truly reflective of their businesses.”This is an exciting time in Internet naming because for the first time since the launch of dot-coms 30 years ago, there are now hundreds of new options – meaningful domain extensions like .FITNESS, .GURU and .PIZZA,” said Donuts Chief Marketing Officer Jeff Davidoff. “Our new campaign is first and foremost about category awareness. Choice, variety and specialization in Internet naming are the new normal, and it’s our mission to let the world know that there is a better way to name.”The campaign features both a video spot in three different lengths (:15, :30 and :54) and banner ads and is running on digital platforms in the United States only. The spots will appear on a variety of lifestyle and business websites including YouTube, The New York Times, Forbes, Mashable and Fast Company.”As the number of registered website names has soared to more than 225 million names globally, and with more than 500,000 businesses launching every month in the United States alone, the ‘namespace’ on the Internet needed to expand,” said Davidoff. “These not-com options have created a groundswell of support for a ‘not-com revolution’ because they are more descriptive, memorable and available than today’s dot-com options.”The campaign was created by Walton Isaacson. Media planning, buying and placement is being handled by MediaStorm.”Donuts is empowering brands and people, and giving them the ability to be both creative and authentic with their domain names,” said Aaron Walton, co-founder and partner at Walton Isaacson. “I believe that Donuts will fuel the next generation of ideas and excitement on the Internet. It’s a reflection of the future and how we will connect with the brands that we love.”
