Jennifer Wolfe – Keynote Speaker.
Greetings from Vegas and NamesCon. This is the first official break we took from the numerous sessions on day one.
After a spectacular party sponsored by .XYZ last night, where drinks flowed freely and domain industry crowds got to know each other and exchange ideas casually, it is clear that the NamesCon participants are professionals eager to succeed.
Armed with a big breakfast, we were greeted by Jothan Frakes, organizer of the event panels, who announced that more than 575 people showed up – a record for a new domain conference.
Jennie Marie Larsen, CEO of Domain Diction, a marketing and PR firm specializing in strategic branding, opened the session with a bold prediction about the future of gTLDs:
“There is no way that the gTLDs will fail.”
She acknowledged that while companies around the world are looking for more information to a series of questions related to the new Internet reality, the process of providing answers and solutions will gain momentum in 2014.
Jennifer Wolfe, branding executive consultant and author, was the first keynote speaker, presenting a comprehensive layout of the expanding namespace.
Ms. Wolfe outlined several points regarding the changes, including:
- What drives consumer behavior to brand awareness
- Opportunity is a factor that will drive growth
- Budget: a common denominator in the questions asked by different corporate levels of management
- Trademarks: the future in protecting marks and re-enforcing brands
- Social media and the future: Apparent absence will be followed by a change in the approach
To the skeptics and cynics asking “why change?”, Ms. Wolfe provided the following answer – “Why not?” – from a speech by John F. Kennedy:
“Change is the law of life and those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.”
Ms. Wolfe pointed out that half of the world’s biggest brands have applied for gTLDs representing brands or products, with others to follow.
Digital strategies will be required, in order to offer specific user experiences that do not replicate the current, existing content on the .com. The introduction of gTLDs and brands will revolutionize how users interact with products and content.
Ms. Wolfe shared examples of future user experiences, such as Major League Baseball introducing a portal for news, updates and interaction with social media under Now.MLB; also Sony building an experience dedicated to Star Wars at StarWars.Sony.
Ms. Wolfe ended her speech stating that the new gTLDs will accomplish their goal in an effective way, and will do so particularly well.
