Author name: .SUCKS Registry

A domain registry with a point of view on brand protection and reputation management, marketing, copyright and trademark, intellectual property and (duh) TLDs. Owned and operated by the Vox Populi Registry since November 2014, .SUCKS domains are particularly powerful tools for a brand to have in its belt. When used constructively, .SUCKS can not only protect a brand, but also spark positive conversation and cut through the noise of today’s online world.

Domains 101, Resources

dotSucks at Ad:Tech ’16

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“This is cool. What is it?” That’s what we heard when Vox Populi Registry, the company behind dotSucks internet domain names, made our first visit to an essential expo for advertising technology, Ad:Tech. After spending our first year talking mostly to intellectual property lawyers, Vox Populi Registry turned its attention to others who can make real and effective use of the platform: advertising. But after years of talking to (and being talked at) by people who understand top level domain names as well as we do, it was startling to get such a basic question from an industry thought to be, well, plugged in. The business model for Vox Populi Registry remains the same as the day we filed our application to manage dotSucks. Companies can use the names to better understand the mood of consumers and build loyalty, advocates can use the names to expand their reach of contributors and influence, and advertisers can use the names to get a word in edgewise. Each is easily understood, but it is clearly advertising that was first to see the active value in “sucks” not as a pejorative but a call-to-action. When Taco Bell promoted its hand-held menu under the cover of “Sharing Sucks,” when Jolly Rancher and the NFL agreed that “Being a Rookie Sucks,” and when Snap Kitchen understood the colloquial value of “Healthy Eating Sucks,” it was, as George Harrison said in “A Hard Day’s Night,” an early clue to the new direction. We just didn’t know how new. Our mission at Ad:Tech ’16 was to begin the conversation to convince the advertising industry to overcome its reluctance at speaking commercially the way many of their target audiences talk personally. It worked. By the second day we had to add a kiosk to allow attendees to register names right on the spot. And they did. But as the question above makes clear, there is still a lot of work to be done to explain, defend and promote the new gTLD program overall. There was a general understanding of the existence and value of .com, even .nyc (not strange considering Ad:Tech ’16 was held in New York City’s Javits Center, but not much when it came to any of the hundreds more. We were happy to do our part. Vox Populi Registry’s marketing focus right now on marketing is timely. Advertising is moving from television to digital mobile – digital spending will surpass TV ad sales this year for the first time and mobile is the biggest part of it. And those mobile, digital devices are in the hands of a target audience that is younger, more inclusive, less willing to accept the status quo and comfortable being familiar. An audience that understands when something sucks and aren’t afraid to say so. We think that’s a recipe for expanded dotSucks success. Based on our visit last week to Ad:Tech ’16, so do they.

Customer Engagement, Resources

dotSucks is more about customer loyalty than crisis

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Smartphones and washing machines that explode have driven their manufacturer, Samsung, to “reach out to customers through ‘direct communications, customer service, social media, marketing and in-store communications.’” That’s seems a prudent action in dealing with a crisis and it is likely that Samsung had a prepared crisis plan at the ready in a three-ring binder sitting on the shelf somewhere in its legal department. The list of companies facing similar crises — think Volkswagen, Wells Fargo and United Airlines — likely also had color-coded plans at the ready. But at a time when customers can coalesce to criticize companies’ when even legal actions can be seen as unfair or rise as one when a misstep is actually malicious, a “crisis event” may be the wrong metaphor for protecting corporate reputation and maintaining customer loyalty. Criticism and questions come at companies from every angle, with varying degrees of intensity, every day. Most days, thanks to the distributed and decentralized nature of the Internet, companies that are the subject of the ire may not know either all that is being said or right away. Every day. That is the new metaphor for dealing with the comment and criticism that if left unanswered can, as seismic shaking presages an earthquake, lead to an acute crisis. Sure, restaurants, retailers and dentists can keep an eye on Yelp.com for signs of discontent, but by then what’s been posted is already, by definition, viral. In much the same way, HR departments pay after-the-fact attention to Glassdoor.com. Same with the focus given TravelAdvisor.com by the travel and tourism trade. But in each case, companies are merely waiting for the proverbial other shoe to drop. Why not get out in front of it? Why not solicit the criticism? Why not engage with consumers in a way that lets them know you are willing to admit (and fix) mistakes? According to WhoIs records, Samsung has had control of www.samsung.sucks for about a year-and-a-half. In all that time, it has been on the shelf when it could have been deployed as a way for Samsung to say, “Hey, we know we won’t always get it right. Tell us about it. We’ll fix the problem or correct the record.” And it is not as if there haven’t been early warning signs of customer discontent well before the current “crisis.” As customers, we know the companies we keep are not perfect. But we are not sure they do. This is what adds froth to the criticism when it does come and CEOs, like Wells Fargo’s Stumpf, seek to place the blame elsewhere. When a company is willing to listen, perhaps even cultivate the worst that can be said about it, like Lagunitas Brewing, customer loyalty rises. At the very least, if Samsung had (still can, really) made a commitment to cultivating customer criticism, there would be less need to spend money on preparing a crisis plan to be kept on a shelf until after the fact. When www.samsung.sucks resolves, it will showcase the company’s own resolve to building better products and customer relationships.

.SUCKS in Practice, Success Stories

Trust requires some risk

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A primary value of the dotSucks platform is that the use of the word cuts through the incredible amount of noise we hear everyday. That’s not just our view, but the view of the people who are using a dotSucks domain to express a point-of-view and rally others to it. This is the fuel for sites like www.logging.sucks, www.theinternet.sucks and www.aircanada.sucks. Every day, we see more and more evidence that what used to be considered profanity becoming a point-of-view. This is especially true for those trying to reach a younger, more inclusive, more mobile audience. Every day, we are learning the value of taking a little risk. Last Tuesday was just such a day. In reading an article in Canada’s leading news magazine McLean’s, I was introduced to Indiana University Professor of English Michael Adams. Here is what caught my eye: “Profanity is socially useful because it is socially risky.” He added: “We need linguistic boundaries to transgress in order to register objection, pain and social solidarity, and it’s precisely the transgression, not the words, that matters.” It was clear I needed to talk to Professor Adams. He had just published a new book, “In Praise of Profanity,” an outgrowth of his work as a historian of English. He noted, as do we, that “profanity is expressive speech” and a “sign of familiarity.” For anyone seeking to reach that wider audience, it may be that taking a risk might not be taking much of a risk at all. Not only does “trust require some risk” but Professor Adams noted that while once “profanity might have been forbidden and shocking, it may still be shocking, but not forbidden.” Perhaps it might be that casual business dress introduced in the ’90s might have just been a precursor (pun intended) to more casual business language. Professor Adams, who looked first at slang (he called it a “poetic language”) soon after turned his attention to profanity. As if one were the gateway to the other. Profanity began, he said, as a way to defame God, both directly and eventually in more sanitized versions. I had no idea, for example, that one of my favorite exclamation points, “Geez, Louise,” is just a cleaned up version of such defamation. But soon, profanity became less about the deity and more about the ins-and-outs (nod, nod, wink, wink to all my fellow Monty Python fans) bodily functions. I am sure you can think of one or two that qualify. Of keen interest to me is Adams’ take on the origin of “sucks.” Neither defamation nor excrement, Professor Adams assures it originated in the 19th Century, either as “sucks wind” (debilitating, at the least) or “sucks eggs” (a task of some difficulty). Ultimately, for those of us who seek to use language to teach, advocate, seduce or motivate, profanity may not be vulgar at all. Especially as the demographic of those we seek to reach changes. As Professor Adams wrote in his book: “Were I younger, I might not think to examine the problems of vulgarity at all.” That’s because, I think, profanity is no longer a problem, it may, in fact, be part of the solution.

Advertising & Marketing, News

Criticism is the shortest distance between business and innovation

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Those of us at Vox Populi Registry have long said there is value in criticism. It can’t be dismissed as marketing-speak. One need not look any further than at the new companies and initiatives that have emerged on the dotSucks platform. Criticism also has helped make us – Vox Populi Registry — smarter and better positioned today than we were at launch because we have paid attention to the feedback. Yet some days, promoting the value in criticism can feel a lonely exercise. Even when, at a time when the cost of acquiring a new customer is a lot higher than keeping a current one, any company not listening is deaf. Not only can cultivating criticism keep companies one step ahead of unhappy customers, it can lead to new products and services. It is becoming even clearer that to ignore criticism is like leaving money on the table. Just as marketing executives are warming to “sucks” not as a pejorative, but a call-to-action (just ask Taco Bell and Jolly Rancher), so too is the broader business world now moving to embrace it not just as a way to promote a product from an angle that cuts through the noise, but to design the products themselves. You don’t have to take our word for it. In the Harvard Business Review, Roberto Verganti, a professor of leadership and innovation at Politecnico di Milano, put it this way: “The business world is awash in ideas for new products, services, and business models…Yet many organizations still struggle to identify and capture big opportunities.” The essential missing element is “The Innovative Power of Criticism.” Here are the important bits First: “If companies don’t change the lens through which they assess ideas, they won’t be able to identify the outsiders they should seek, know what questions to ask them, and recognize their most valuable input.” Second: “’Criticism’ comes from the Greek word krino, which means ‘able to judge, value, interpret.’ Criticism need not be negative; in this context it involves surfacing different perspectives, highlighting their contrasts, and synthesizing them into a bold new vision. This is a significant departure from the ideation processes of the past decade, which treat criticism as undesirable—something that stifles creativity.” Third: “Properly applied in discovering new problems and redefining value, criticism is an engine of innovation.” The internet is no stranger to criticism. Just about every company, public official, institution and celebrity hear it daily. The distributed nature of the internet can sometimes make it hard to know exactly what is being said and who is saying it. And trying to run to ground a misrepresentation or unfounded rumor, well, good luck. Some companies have built businesses to ease that problem. Sites like Yelp and Glassdoor and TripAdvisor have proved the concept of the economic value in criticism. Vox Populi Registry gives every company and advocate the opportunity to cultivate, collaborate and engage directly with customers, supporters and critics. Our goal is to make even shorter the distance between business today and innovation tomorrow.

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