What’s in a name? With nearly 200 million registered domain names worldwide, an increasing number of organizations, companies and individuals are fine-tuning their online marketing campaigns and selecting domain names that will enhance brand value. In fact, with over 8.5 million registrants, .ORG—the world’s third largest generic top-level domain—is quickly becoming the venue of choice for not just non-profits and associations but also for consumer marketing campaigns, education initiatives, corporate giving and corporate crisis communications. Therefore, as part of .ORG’s ongoing efforts to educate users about how choosing the domain name can affect your overall brand, .ORG, The Public Interest Registry (PIR) will kick-off the “WhyIChose.ORG” campaign—an integrated combination of online resources, social media and events.

At the core of the campaign is WhyIChose.ORG—an educational hub for corporations, marketing agencies and associations, aiming to illustrate the benefits of .ORG. The web site also features a series of interactive quizzes, myth-busters and case studies of how entities can maximize .ORG as a portal for consumer information, crisis communications, corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs, and the like. In addition to the online resources, PIR has also partnered with renowned marketing expert David Meerman Scott, best-selling author of The New Rules of Marketing & PR, to emphasize the importance of choosing the right domain name and to explain how real-time marketing and PR would be amiss without a robust domain strategy.

“In the always-on, real-time, social media enabled world of the Web, a .ORG site is an ideal way for organizations of all kinds to communicate quickly, accurately, and with a high degree of transparency,” said Mr. Scott, who discusses the value of the .ORG domain in his upcoming book Real-Time Marketing and PR (November 2010). “Because .ORG has an inherent reputation of trust, integrity, and credibility, the information is deemed highly valuable. However, in my experience, many people incorrectly think only a nonprofit can use a .ORG domain name, so I partnered with PIR to help get the word out to marketers worldwide that any organization can benefit from using this powerful communications tool.”

Together, PIR and Mr. Scott will co-host two key events aimed to enhance marketers and IT professionals’ understanding of online branding. Among the key events:

• A panel discussion in New York City on how choosing the right domain name can affect your overall brand (November 16).
• An online web seminar for registrars, registrants and all those interested in learning about effective online marketing strategies (Fall 2010).

“In today’s world where your online reputation is really becoming a brand driver, it’s all the more critical for marketers, advertisers, and brand managers to understand the value of domain names and how they truly influence your online impressions,” said domain name industry veteran Lauren Price, senior channel manager at .ORG, The Public Interest Registry. “For example, marketers and PR professionals can use a .ORG domain name as a vehicle to educate their communities in times of calm as well as in conflict. It provides a well-recognized, trusted platform to neutralize crises, communicate causes, and inform communities. That’s why we conceived the WhyIChose.ORG campaign—to help people better understand how .ORG and other domain names can enhance inherent brand value.”

For more information on WhyIChose.ORG campaign and/or Mr. Scott, go to www.whyichose.org or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

About David Meerman Scott:
David Meerman Scott’s book The New Rules of Marketing & PR opened people’s eyes to the new realities of marketing and public relations on the Web. Six months on the BusinessWeek bestseller list and published in 26 languages from Bulgarian to Vietnamese, New Rules is now a modern business classic. Scott’s popular blog and hundreds of speaking engagements around the world give him a singular perspective on how businesses are implementing new strategies to reach buyers.