Brand Channel published an article today about Quiksilver, the largest surfwear brand in the world, adding a .surf into the mix. The company released a press release that they were going to use the new gtld for social media (they have millions of followers) and to differentiate their business segments. This is how I have envisioned new gtlds being used, the .com or cctld being the hub and then using new gtlds as satellites for campaigns or certain business segments. Roxy is a sister brand of Quiksilver and that domain has been secured as well in the .surf extension.
From the article:
The world’s biggest surf wear brand is finally getting into web-surfing—by using gTLDs to shore up its brand online.
Quiksilver is adopting the .surf domain name to differentiate its businesses, including wetsuits.surf, camp.surf, boardshorts.surf and events.surf.
According to a press release, the quik.surf URL will also help “redirect their millions of followers on their social media channels.”
“At Quiksilver, we appreciate how important digital is for the worldwide surfing community,” stated Nicolas Foulet, Global Head of Ecommerce and Digital Marketing.
“By creating these brand new quiksilver.surf websites, we can point our fans to really cool, new content they can use and the short, generic names make it really easy to remember and get to very specific information quickly.”
While the apparel-based .surf domains drive to the relevant channels on quiksilver.com, events.surf will be used for its marketing as the sponsor of the World Surf League (formerly ASP), driving surfing fans to information on events, event results and much more.
The camp.surf URL will serve as Quiksilver’s new front door for their numerous surf camps around the world.
Read the full article on Brand Channel
Well aligned with my expectation too, with .com being the anchor (in the corporate world anyway).