Opera Tv rebrands, spends more on “cover” domain than brand domain.
Opera TV has rebranded and is now Vewd, which they also acquired the exact match domain name Vewd.com for the new brand name.
I’m not a fan that Vewd sounds like “Viewed” but I guess that is branding. This is “OK” to do if you cover your bases though.
The domain name Vewd.com has been registered since 2001 and was for sale for $7,999. The domain appears to have been acquired in June 2017 by Opera TV AS from its past owner, Namerific.com.
Did Vewd cover its bases, since Vewd doesn’t pass the radio test? I did mention recently in a Domain Movers article that Viewed.com did sell out of GoDaddy’s NameFind portfolio and it turns out the buyers were Vewd, so they did cover the “sounds like” problem!
Viewed.com redirects to Vewd.com.
The last time I checked the price on Viewed.com, it was $30,000. So Opera TV likely paid much more for Viewed.com than they did for the actual brand name Vewd.com. That is OK and just part of the branding process.
I personally do not like Vewd, but they clearly did and did a nice job acquiring Viewed.com and Vewd.com for the rebrand. Vewd is a bit awkward to type, as during this article I kept typing vwed instead of vewd. I also typed viewd. Another potential typo would be veiwed, which is actually available to register.
Lessons learned:
- Always acquire the “sounds like” domain name to your brand, even if it cost more than your brand name domain.
- Don’t just buy the “cover” domain, use it! A minimum is a 301 redirect to your brand. Server side redirect is often better.
- Don’t stop at the redirect, it’s also important to cover “Email”. So [email protected] should also include [email protected]
- If it makes sense, it’s ok to spend more on a cover domain name than your actual brand domain name.
Very well explained. A must learn lesson for those who don’t bother buying the right domain for their company. But still most don’t get it.
Gutted! I remember Viewed.com being on sale on Ebay for $3k, I passed on the auction and it had no bids. Was gonna contact the seller but got beaten to it by another shark who turned out to be Mike Berkens on the whois. Damn!