Overstock.com Rolls Out O.co Commercials For Valentine’s Day
2011 January 20
Not only has Overstock.com named O.co as its shortcut for its website but today also released a couple of TV commercials to go with the news just in time for Valentine’s Day
In one commercial promoting gifts for Valentine’s Day, Overstock says:
“Looking for a new way to discover the secret of the O?
O.co
Now you can shop the O with our shortcut O.co.
If you shop with us through O.co your whole order ships for free no matter how many items”
In the second commercial they urge you to “visit Overstock through our shortcut O.co”
“shop O.co right now and your order will ship for free”
“Discover the secret of the O;
O.co”
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Hello Mike,
Those in the know, know who will rake in the dough with this latest new channel fleece. Go-Daddy will do fantastically, Domainers and corporate participants NOT so well.
Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)
Frankly, outside of the domaining world, O.com/O.co/Overstock.com’s “big” news was met with little interest. If you do a twitter search for “O.co” you’ll mostly see links to domainer articles about the news.
“by MHB
Not only has Overstock.com named O.com as its shortcut for its website but today also released a couple of TV commercials to go with the news just in time for Valentine’s Day”
You made a typo there. It is O.co isn’t it?
Brad
Mike, you’ve illustrated the problem with this perfectly. If someone like you, an expert in domain names, can’t get the address right, what makes you think the average Joe won’t type in “o.com” instead of “o.co?”
“Not only has Overstock.com named O.com as its shortcut for its website”
This could quite possibly turn out to be one of the most boneheaded moves in branding history. The commercials will probably produce lots of hits for the term “O” as a result of address bar search engine redirects. Overstock might need to buy ads on the search term “O.”
Shoot when I type on the keyboard it goes to O for oprah.
It takes more time aka hesitation just to type oooooooooooo co
Can we please not have the typical “it’s going to die” and “it’s going to be better than .com” comments. You’ve been heard.
Any fresh insights?
It’s extremely rare to see a bubble’s peak so clearly.
If you own any .co’s at GD, get them into the premium BIN listing ASAP. And be sure to adjust for the massive 30% commission. Won’t be a better time to sell than the week after the Superbowl.
What Matt Said.
I Guess Co you gotta Go!
.Co
“The Great Pretender to the Throne”
Here is a mandatory reading for all of you:
http://lostmahbles.com/split-testing-co-vs-com-domain/
but what to do with this O ?
the nth short-URL service?
Exactly what Bfitz said. These taperecorded mudsling-messages are boring and fruitless. It’s been a year now and y’all are sayin still the same things while the juggernaut continues to move on without you. But I understand your grief: Better not to jump on a moving train, so just sit and talk about how terrible it is.
Diversification is always the best channel. Putting all your eggs in one basket is extremely risky business.
@ dot mail
I would like to buy one of these .mail thingeys. When and where can I get one?
@SL
You must have clearer vision than the rest of us, because it appears that things are just getting into full swing.
@Brad & Matt
Come on now, is it so hard to learn how not to include an “m” when typing? Yes we are creatures of habit, but we CAN learn or unlearn….geez.
Hello Mike,
Advertising is nothing but a form of brainwashing that is highly effective in human emotional control. The problem with it is you have to continue it for long periods of time. Where as if you purchase a good memorable domain address with impact,you have in affect set into motion a perpetual advertising machine without having to Feed The Monkey!
Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)
@Em
now I’m only promoting the approval of the .mail TLD by ICANN
someday it could be available and be of very much help to control the emails spam and malware
“Discover the secret of the O;
O.co”
I read this and think of sex, rather tasteless form of marketing imo. Not saying sex doesn’t move product but I think in needs to be used in the right market.
I was also trying to think of how one would spread the word on this… he Patty where’d you get that chair?
I went to O on the internet.
O? Whats that, O what?
You know the O, O.co!
You mean .com Patty.
No its .co…
O, I mean Oh ok so some marketing guy thought making the name non discriptive, sexual and hard to convey a good thing.
to be honest…
When I read this blog last night…. O.com ….. stuck out like a sore thumb.
Now that it has been fixed ….. O.co ……. just looks right.
Just hit me, who owns Oh.co lol
I think it would work if it was an iconic name/company, like Kentucky Fried Chicken etc but when I hear O I think Oprah, Orgasm or Oh. It was not a natural progression, rather it’s being forced on the market. For that reason alone I say it fails or makes little to no impact.
Overstock never had any weight in the north american psychi.
If this works names like Kmart should just become ” K “. hhhmmm
Hello Mike,
We wish you had left original post missspell as original and as an honest behavioral lesson that it was. Now with the correction the honest original post of O.com changed to O.co is covered up. And now domainers will NOT get the original POINT!
Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)
A second-level extension of the Norwegian domain that will be open to all is currently in sunrise and set to launch next month.
Maybe, Overstock could put their site on that next.
O.CO.NO
or perhaps just relocate to Norway
O.NO
Just having a little fun, .CO fans.
“Not only has Overstock.com named O.com as its shortcut for its website but today also released a couple of TV commercials to go with the news just in time for Valentine’s Day”
You made a typo there. It is O.co isn’t it?”
Again!
That’s the difference between Creative Branding & Intuitive Branding at work right there
One takes a ton of dosh to enforce over a longer period of time ….the other is much more of a natural flow.
Needless to say the marketing gurus hope to make more money out of the first one and domainers hope to make more money out of the second one…but what about the actual businesses ???
I remember the first time I saw a business with a .net in 2003. It was an architect we hired and I miss-typed his email as .com dozens of times. But, I learned. This thing will take 5 years to shake out, but .co owners need to make prices reasonable and Godaddy premium will be a big vehicle to move hand reg .co for $XXX. Turn $30 into $400 and send Juan a thank you card while furthering the extension by an end user sale.
.co’s success will raise the tide for all ccTLD’s – I expect, in the aggregate, non-premium .com values to gradually fall over the next few years.
- TBC
the only way to increase the number of registered .CO domains is to reduce its price to the .com level
Here’s what Andrew Miller; someone who’s proven over and over again that he knows what he’s talking about; from Ron’s just published “State of the Industry” article [http://dnjournal.com/cover/2011/january-page3.htm] :
“I am aware my position on “other” TLDs is not a popular one with many domainers, but, I ask all to do a 2011 homework assignment.”
“As you go about your daily routines and travel by plane, train, or automobile, look at advertisements in airports, on highway billboards; read magazines, watch Prime Time television, the Super Bowl, watch the commercials, watch the promotions during the Broadcasts.”
“I bet you will see, as always, 99% .COM, to the tunes of billions of dollars of media. It is part of the branding. So, if someone wants to buy Chocolate.co and actually do something with it, market it, advertise it, go for it as we will get all the traffic at Chocolate.com.”
“You see, .com is just conditioned as part of the brand experience. It is Walmart.com, Target.com, NFL.com, Superbowl.com, AmericanIdol.com, ABC.com, People.com, EBAY.com, Amazon.com, Google.com. And in 2010, it branched out to domains like I discuss above via large corporations.”
That’s Billion’s of dollars; with a “B.”
Whatever millions (that’s millions with a “m”) that Overstock spends to advertise their .co junk extension isn’t even a blip on the radar screen of the advertising world.
’nuff said.
@Steve
Now lets hear from Monte Cahn:
“Another significant event which I think really helped the industry in a different way was the successful rebranding and release of the .CO extension (Colombia’s country code). The .CO folks (Juan Calle, Lori Anne Wardi and crew) did the most outstanding job of international positioning, marketing, and asset value building, (not only as a country code, but as an alternative extension) that I have seen in this business since its inception.”
@em: Monte’s right. But that just addresses marketing, not acceptance.
I could hire the best and brightest to market the hell out of “Pet Turds”. But that doesn’t mean they’ll be flying off the shelves at ToysRus anytime soon.
That reminds me of pet rock!
Anyone remember pet rock? All it was, was a rock in a box. It may or may not have had different accessories glued to it.
Still it flew off the shelves and a fairly high price (for the time that it came out).
I remember the same thing happen with Furbies.
Its amazing what very little marketing that was well done could do.
It may be enough to sway people to go out and buy a pretty packaged ROCK to call a pet.
Just my thoughts
Thanks for bringing back the memories.
Cheers
If .co catches on…
If .co had been used instead of .com (start of the internet)…..would people want to buy .com now
Why is there so much fuss about .co?
If .co came fisrt, would there be a fuss if .com came out?
lots of ifs…
“Anyone remember pet rock? All it was, was a rock in a box. It may or may not have had different accessories glued to it.!”
LOL, that’s cute, a pet rock
– I’m pleased to say I missed out on that one but I did have a chopper when they first came out 
(showing my age now)
Talking about rocks the .com IS the bedROCK of the internet, sure it will lose some ground to the hundreds of new extensions coming but it’s not likely to happen overnight.
What’s safer, Build on Rock…or build on sand?
telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/dubai/8271643/The-World-is-sinking-Dubai-islands-falling-into-the-sea.html
AngelList.com is now Angel.co
I guess angels dont need rock or sand.
Angel.co is a nice domain name. At the same time I don’t think a company with a 3.5M Alexa ranking moving to a much better term in .CO is some blockbuster news.
Brad
Should I have titled it combuster news?
“I guess angels dont need rock or sand.”
LOL, touché
sorry…not really combuster…. just a friendly jab back at you
…and a very good one
“At the same time I don’t think a company with a 3.5M Alexa ranking moving to a much better term in .CO is some blockbuster news.”
That is funny. My Alexa tool bar has this site as 41,916 ranking
That is a far stretch from 3.5 million.
Hmmm…. something is weird here
Cheers
@ Brad
Angel.co has always been Angel.co.
@ Slate
Alexa says 41916 for me too. 9418 in the US.
Also for Angel.co
According to whois:
Compete Rank: #79,245 with 23,720 U.S. visitors per month.
Those are pretty decent stats.
Just my opinion.
Cheers
My stats are for AngelList.com, which is the domain that it was stated Angel.co switched from.
Angel.co has a far more impressive ranking.
Brad
“Here’s what Andrew Miller; someone who’s proven over and over again that he knows what he’s talking about; from Ron’s just published “State of the Industry” article [http://dnjournal.com/cover/2011/january-page3.htm] :”
Well, the problem is that the .com market will be totally saturated one day. And there is a rare case in economics where the total absence of supply leads people to use another good to obtain the same result.
Example : il there is no oil left underground, people won’t pay $150,000 for a barrel, but they would rather explore alternative ways to create energy.
Internet evolves very quickly, and between hand-regging a .co and paying $5,000 for a .com, I think the choice of new businesses will be quick.
Every .co registered and used by an actual company attacks the .com reign, so I find normal that many .com worshippers view from a very bad eye new TLDs.
I do recognize, though, that the .com has a prestige the .co has not.
.com was here since the start, and it is the equivalent of Brooklyn in the real estate business. There will always be a certain historic prestige attached to this TLD.
Alex@
i though the same way you did,why this guys dislike .co so much? I came with this answer in my had:they spend lots of money in to the previos tlds, that now if .co will get more popularity and be a stronger extension they will lose their ass off.Anoter extension was due,the only thing is that they did not see .co coming.
Kind of dumb of them not to register odotco.com, which is unregistered, don’t you think?
P.S. If anyone is thinking of registering the domain, I don’t think that would be wise without consulting an attorney first, to make sure you have a legal right to do so.
P.P.S. I have registered the domain, on behalf of O.co, cause I think they will want it and I also don’t want anyone who read my comment to take it and get in trouble. I’ll forward it to their website and if they contact me, let them have it.