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TheDomains.com

Overstock.com Rolls Out O.co Commercials For Valentine’s Day

January 20, 2011 by Michael Berkens

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”

Filed Under: .CO

About Michael Berkens

Michael Berkens, Esq. is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of TheDomains.com. Michael is also the co-founder of Worldwide Media Inc. which sold around 70K domain to Godaddy.com in December 2015 and now owns around 8K domain names . Michael was also one of the 5 Judges selected for the the Verisign 30th Anniversary .Com contest.

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Comments

  1. jeff schneider says

    January 20, 2011 at 11:00 pm

    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)

  2. Rusty says

    January 20, 2011 at 11:01 pm

    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.

  3. Brad says

    January 20, 2011 at 11:02 pm

    “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

  4. matt says

    January 20, 2011 at 11:17 pm

    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”

  5. Rusty says

    January 20, 2011 at 11:26 pm

    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.”

  6. BullS says

    January 20, 2011 at 11:34 pm

    Shoot when I type on the keyboard it goes to O for oprah.

    It takes more time aka hesitation just to type oooooooooooo co

  7. BFitz says

    January 21, 2011 at 12:04 am

    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?

  8. SL says

    January 21, 2011 at 12:11 am

    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.

  9. Dean says

    January 21, 2011 at 1:55 am

    What Matt Said.

    🙂

  10. Landon White says

    January 21, 2011 at 3:37 am

    I Guess Co you gotta Go!

  11. Landon White says

    January 21, 2011 at 3:51 am

    .Co

    “The Great Pretender to the Throne”

  12. Robert Cline says

    January 21, 2011 at 4:51 am

    Here is a mandatory reading for all of you:

    http://lostmahbles.com/split-testing-co-vs-com-domain/

  13. DOT mail TLD - a business many times bigger than .CO says

    January 21, 2011 at 6:10 am

    but what to do with this O ?

    the nth short-URL service?

  14. Em says

    January 21, 2011 at 6:12 am

    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.

  15. Em says

    January 21, 2011 at 6:16 am

    @ 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.

  16. Em says

    January 21, 2011 at 6:38 am

    @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.

  17. jeff schneider says

    January 21, 2011 at 7:31 am

    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)

  18. DOT mail TLD - a business many times bigger than .CO says

    January 21, 2011 at 7:33 am

    @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

  19. Josh says

    January 21, 2011 at 7:43 am

    “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.

  20. cm says

    January 21, 2011 at 8:32 am

    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.

  21. Josh says

    January 21, 2011 at 8:36 am

    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

  22. jeff schneider says

    January 21, 2011 at 8:59 am

    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)

  23. Rusty says

    January 21, 2011 at 9:01 am

    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.

  24. Gazzip says

    January 21, 2011 at 9:12 am

    “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 ???

  25. BFitz says

    January 21, 2011 at 9:35 am

    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.

  26. coBOOKS.co says

    January 21, 2011 at 10:23 am

    .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

  27. DOT mail TLD - a business many times bigger than .CO says

    January 21, 2011 at 10:28 am

    the only way to increase the number of registered .CO domains is to reduce its price to the .com level

  28. Steve M says

    January 21, 2011 at 10:54 am

    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.

  29. em says

    January 21, 2011 at 11:08 am

    @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.”

  30. SL says

    January 21, 2011 at 11:31 am

    @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.

  31. Slate says

    January 21, 2011 at 12:05 pm

    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

  32. cm says

    January 21, 2011 at 12:06 pm

    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…

  33. Gazzip says

    January 21, 2011 at 12:49 pm

    “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

  34. cm says

    January 21, 2011 at 1:04 pm

    AngelList.com is now Angel.co

    I guess angels dont need rock or sand.

  35. Brad says

    January 21, 2011 at 1:24 pm

    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

  36. cm says

    January 21, 2011 at 1:33 pm

    Should I have titled it combuster news?

  37. Gazzip says

    January 21, 2011 at 1:34 pm

    “I guess angels dont need rock or sand.”

    LOL, touché 🙂

  38. cm says

    January 21, 2011 at 1:35 pm

    sorry…not really combuster…. just a friendly jab back at you

  39. Gazzip says

    January 21, 2011 at 1:37 pm

    …and a very good one 😉

  40. Slate says

    January 21, 2011 at 1:47 pm

    “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

  41. em says

    January 21, 2011 at 1:48 pm

    @ Brad

    Angel.co has always been Angel.co.

  42. em says

    January 21, 2011 at 1:50 pm

    @ Slate

    Alexa says 41916 for me too. 9418 in the US.

  43. Slate says

    January 21, 2011 at 1:51 pm

    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

  44. Brad says

    January 21, 2011 at 2:07 pm

    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

  45. Alex says

    January 21, 2011 at 3:37 pm

    “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.

  46. Alex says

    January 21, 2011 at 3:41 pm

    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.

  47. Rich says

    January 21, 2011 at 5:55 pm

    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.

  48. Jon Schultz says

    January 22, 2011 at 6:15 pm

    Kind of dumb of them not to register odotco.com, which is unregistered, don’t you think?

  49. Jon Schultz says

    January 22, 2011 at 7:12 pm

    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.

  50. Jon Schultz says

    January 22, 2011 at 8:09 pm

    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.

  51. Slate says

    January 28, 2011 at 10:41 am

    Did anyone else read this:

    “Extra Security for .CO Domain Registration Now Offered by Network Solutions.
    Network Solutions® is now offering extra protection for those who register a .CO domain name via a private registration service for registrants of new and existing .CO domain names. Network Solutions’ private registration service provides alternate contact information for the domain listing in the public WHOIS database for as little as $9.99 per year per domain.”

    Does anyone know if Network Solutions does this for every extension?
    I have can NOT seem to find information on whether they do or not.
    Either way, this is a step in the right direction.

    Cheers

  52. Dave says

    February 5, 2011 at 3:21 pm

    That blonde is smokin hot….

    ….foot. 🙂


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