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Envisioning Your .BRAND New WorldA Field Guide for Brand Builders

Means to Succeed in a .BRAND New World

On June 20, 2011, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) unleashed a new

era of competition, designed to expand the possibilities of Internet domain names and create a more

global and innovative Internet.

During the next few months, anyone with the necessary resources and qualifications can begin the

process of applying to own a unique Top-Level Domain (TLD). A TLD is the suffix that is “right of the last

dot” in an Internet address, as in www.Apple.com, www.ICANN.org or www.Afilias.info.

Afilias created this guide to help brand builders like you understand the issues, opportunities and

challenges to apply, win and secure your own TLD … and to help you envision building next-generation

brand models, platforms and applications to control your .BRAND space.

So long, dot.com. Hello, dot.BRAND!

Afilias is one of the world’s most experienced

registry services provider. We are the largest provider

of diverse domain registry services, supporting 20

million registrations across 15 different TLDs.

We’ve already helped launched more new TLDs

than any other provider, and our new TLDs are more

successful than other new TLDs.

We are already operating a registry solution that

complies with ICANN requirements and will

complement your new TLD. This means that we

are uniquely qualified to help you to apply, win and

secure your new .BRAND TLD, and then successfully

launch and manage your new .BRAND space.

Over the last five years, Afilias has built the capacity

to serve the large influx of new TLD applicants and

customers expected now that ICANN has launched

its new TLD process.

M any New TLD Experiences. One World- Class Exper t ise.

The standard ICANN application for a new TLD

can take more than two months to complete.

The application must contain a well-thought-out

business plan and demonstrate that your new TLD:

• Has the required technical, operational and

financial requirements

• Complies with international standards for TLDs

• Is supported with due regards to stability and

security

During the summer months of 2011, organizations

will be assembling their .BRAND TLD application

teams, which may include the CMO, the CIO/

CTO, trademark lawyers, brand consultancies, ad

agencies, and a registry services partner -- like

Afilias. ICANN guidelines favor serious organizations

who partner with experienced, proven players.

The application and ownership of a new .BRAND

TLD is expensive. Firms can expect to invest over

US$500,000 during the first year, then US$50,000

or more, annually after the first year, depending on

usage and other factors.

The biggest cost to your firm, however, could be

the opportunity costs of failing to secure your new

.BRAND TLD. When the three month application

window closes, the next ICANN application

window for new TLDs may not open again for

several years or perhaps a decade.

Given the high-stakes, the short timeframe to put

together a strong team, and the work required to

build a winning proposal, the time to act is now.

Afilias can help you tame the complexities of the

ICANN application process in a timely manner that

is neither expensive nor difficult.

The ICANN Application Process is Challenging

Why I nvest in a .BR AND TLD?

According to eMarketer, 99% of online retailers currently deploy or plan to deploy a Facebook page to

promote their brand. If you are working to leverage outlets like Facebook and Twitter, consider how

much time and money you are now spending in driving your customers away from your website to

these outlets.

Two years ago, Toys “R” Us spent $5 million to secure toys.com to promote their brand. What if they could

have secured .TOYS instead? They could have had millions of exclusive names like www.christmas.toys or

www.train.toys to use for less than 10% of the $5 million that they spent.

For a more direct, personal way to interact with consumers, what is better than an entire piece of the

Internet devoted only to your brand? That is exactly what your organization will have with a .BRAND TLD.

The bottom line: a .BRAND TLD lets you control your own brand destiny and brand space.

Benefits of a New .BRAND TLDC o n t r o lRegardless if your website is on a .com, .net or other domain, you are captive

to registry rules that you don’t control. These rules tell you who, when and how

to register your website, how you can — and can’t — protect your intellectual

property, and what else you can do with the Domain Name System (DNS). You

can also fall victim to criminal attacks. If a TLD goes down because of a denial-of-

service attack, so do you. With your own .BRAND TLD, you control the policies and

who can get a .BRAND name.

Want to block spam? You can authorize which emails will be allowed in your TLD.

Want to prevent “phishing”? You can require verification of registrations before

they are allowed to get to an address in your .BRAND TLD. Better protection for

you; better protection for your customers. It’s all up to you.

P e r s o n a l i z a t i o nA new .BRAND TLD gives you the opportunity to reinforce your brand with every

Web address, whether you decide the address is only for your organization to use

or whether you’d like to open it up to your customers and the public. Imagine

the viral possibilities of an army of fans with blogs, email addresses or websites, all

promoting your .BRAND.

B r a n d e d C o n t e n tAre you a new media organization or newspaper still evolving your

Web and advertising strategy? A new TLD is a great addition to

ensure the visibility of your media brand and for intuitive navigation.

Customized address like technology.nyt or financial.wsj provide for

easier searching and indexing of content for subscribers.

S o c i a l M e d i aDoes your social media network allow corporate profiles? How do you

manage multiple account contacts? Intellectual property disputes?

Transferring ownership of account names? All of these processes are built

into domain management.

Using a TLD as a custom address for social media accounts can provide a

premium service as well as a more intuitive and proven process. And as

more corporations use Facebook and Twitter to share links, what could

be better than a private URL shortener that communicates your brand

with every tweet? Instead of bit.ly/123 you could use my .BRAND/123 to

reinforce your brand with every retweet.

I n n o v a t i o n

Don’t be limited by the standard uses of the Internet for websites or email. The DNS can be

used for new and valuable applications. Technology-specific applications may make great

domains, for instance a .mail, a .skype, or a .aim. By adding verification to domain owners, you

could offer a more secure online payment system.

If ING owned .ing and controlled every address registered, it could own a banking Web space

free from phishing. Luxury brands like BMW could launch new services tying a .bmw email

address to a new vehicle purchase and communicating service updates directly to the car.

I d e n t i f y i n g A G r o u pAffinity groups, professional associations or reseller networks — what ICANN calls “communities

of interest” — can also use a .BRAND TLD for a private, verified Web space to conduct business or

to show affiliation. Such organizations could also sell personalized, branded addresses to verified

members. Distributors could issue domains to their authorized reseller networks (for example,

reseller1.ibm) to ensure consumers know that they are doing business with approved vendors and

add confidence online purchases of their products.

S e c u r i t yWith customized registration rules, you can protect your TLD from

phishing or “man-in-the-middle” attacks. You can use your .BRAND TLD

for internal communications like private email systems or intranets

to increase your security. Advanced solutions like Domain Name

System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) should be deployed to improve

the security of your Web space and because ICANN will be requiring

DNSSEC capabilities on all new TLDs.

N e w R e v e n u eThe most traditional use of a TLD has been second-level domain name registrations (the name

that is “left of the dot.”). If you want to own TLD for a “generic” category like .car, .sport, .coupon,

you will want to apply early.

If your business has a fan base, you can look at the revenue opportunity of selling personalized

pages (such as .nfl for football fans). Organizations with distributors could sell unique addresses

as a preferred status for sellers (like mystore.ebay), or launch new advertising channels with

monthly ad placement for premium names like games.ebay or movies.hulu.

Envisioning Your .BRAND New WorldOnly Brand Builders, who secure their own .BRAND TLD in the next few months - and who

actively invest in partnering with visionary strategic partners and their most progressive

customers - will be in a position to imagine, build and benefit from new and never-before-

possible .BRAND models, platforms and applications.

Imagining new and innovative .BRAND applications today can be difficult. Few firms have

the foresight to define and control these new .BRAND spaces. Firms that own valued

brands will be in an enviable position to engage their customers in new innovations and

create one-of-a-kind, brand-centered communities.

To paraphrase Albert Einstein, imagination is more important than knowledge. And in

that same way, envisioning and building your new .BRAND space will require imagination,

perseverance and a customer-centric worldview.

Your journey to a better, more profitable .BRAND new world begins with your first step.

And for that first step, contact Afilias.

About AfiliasAfilias has already created a registry solution built to exceed the most

demanding technical standards, comply with ICANN requirements and

complement your new TLD. We also have extensive experience in applying for

and winning a new TLD, and can help you navigate the ICANN process. We can

guide you on ways to research, envision and build your .BRAND new world.

Afilias’ expertise is based on actual experience supporting registries for some of

the world’s largest TLD managers, like PIR (.ORG), dotMobi(.mobi), and DotAsia

(.asia). We also support the managers of 10 country code TLDs, such as India

(.in) and Montenegro (.me), representing a wide range of policy, technical and

operational challenges.

Further, Afilias has helped successfully launch more TLDs than any other

provider. This multi-faceted background makes Afilias the best possible choice

for a registry services partner for your new .BRAND TLD.

Maximize your chances for a successful application and launch by selecting Afilias as your registry services partner.

Afilias’ proven offerings include:

• Turnkey, “ready to go” registry system with a 100% reliable DNS infrastructure with state-of-the-art security against attack and abuse

• Advanced ICANN-compliant, IPv6 ready technology that is flexible, reliable, secure and scalable that enables your .BRAND TLD to be available within minutes of registration

• Internationally known expertise in IDNs (“internationalized” domain names in scripts like Cyrillic and Chinese), DNSSEC, Internet security, TLD applications, domain launches, and more

• Immediate access to global domain name distribution channels to help make your new TLD a success

Contact us for more information:www.afilias.info/[email protected]

Trademarks used for illustrative fair use purposes only, and not intended to indicate that trademark owner’s interest in filing a potential TLD application.