Make Your Voice Heard with a .SUCKS TLD
Last year we saw the launch of the new gTLD - .ROCKS - for those things, ideas, events and that people are crazy, cool and passionate about. Now this year, the pendulum swung the other way, with the launch of .SUCKS, for those things, ideas, and events that people believe to 'just suck.'
The Vox Populi Registry is bringing the new .SUCKS gTLD to market at the end of this month. The value proposition for .SUCKS is simply, "by building an easy-to-locate, 'central town square' available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, dotSucks is designed to help consumers find their voices and allow companies to find the value in criticism. Each dotSucks domain has the potential to become an essential part of every organization’s customer relationship management program." The TLD will be a platform for conversation and debate as well as sharing of opinions, managed by the name holder.
In addition, .SUCKS could be used to promote and bring awareness to social issues or things that effect the public at large. For example, a quick brainstorming session at HEXONET's Vancouver office produced:
- bullying.sucks (to complement anti-bullying campaigns)
- badcredit.sucks (for a debt counselling company's campaign)
- poverty.sucks (for an non-profit organisation whose mission is to eradicate inner-city poverty)
- nycwinters.suck (an edgy and cheeky campaign offered by a travel company targeting those living in the big apple)
- californiadrought.sucks (could be used in a State of California campaign to conserve water)
- traffic.sucks (municipality promoting its new infrastructure improvements or a subway system promoting the use of public transit)
The examples above could also be combined with matching Twitter hashtags and clever video content to help drive viral awareness.
Large corporarations may also want to consider securing the new .SUCKS domain to protect their key brands, trademarks and other digital and intellectual property. The Vox Populi Registry will be offering an option to purchase a 'Block' service on a .SUCKS domain that will prevent anyone from registering it. Effectively, the domain name is reserved. Anyone may purchase a 'Block' and there is no requirement to own or hold a Trademark. A holder of a 'Block' may apply to the Registry to remove the block in the future and have the registry assign domain name to them. Releasing a 'Block' can only be requested if there is only a single 'Block' holder for a domain name. Those with TMCH claims can also ask for a 'Block' to be removed and be available as a Premium Sunrise domain name.
Key Launch Dates:
Sunrise: March 30 - May 29, 2015
General Availability: June 1, 2015