I’ve often written about the innovative marketing campaigns Radix has come up with to successfully promote their various new gTLDS (Radix administers .tech, .online, .store, .site, .website, .host, .space, .fun and .press). For each of their end-user targeted campaigns, they have created a novel approach that has caught people’s attention.

One of Radix’s biggest hits was a Break the Code campaign in 2020, tailored for the tech community, that attracted over 100,000 developers who competed for thousands of dollars in prize money by solving puzzles, ciphers and trivia challenges. The campaign was so popular there had to be an encore, and there was—the now completed Break the Code 2 competition that racked up even more eye-popping numbers. Over 110,000 competitors signed up, generating more than 1.3 million visits to BreakTheCode.tech in just three weeks. Overall, the campaign generated over eight million impressions digitally.

When it comes to attracting eyeballs to new TLDs, Radix is clearly doing something right, so we wanted to get more insight into how their process works, thinking there has to be some tips in there that would help all of us who are trying to market our domains and websites. So we connected with Suman Das, Senior Director of Brand Operations at Radix, to get that information. Suman clued us in on the tactics and thought process behind Radix’s marketing of its top-level domains in general and Break The Code 2 in particular.

“At Radix, each TLD is still treated as an individual brand with its respective managers,” Das noted. “We operate in this way because each TLD caters to a very specific target group. So while .Tech Domains focuses on engaging with the tech community through innovative campaigns such as Break The Code; .Store Domains focuses more on campaigns such as #IdeaToStore to enable aspiring store owners to take the first step. Recently, we concluded #FempowerOnline, a campaign for .Online Domains to bring forth women-centric online business ideas by aspiring women entrepreneurs. These are just some of the many examples of how we at Radix are able to create high-impact end-customer campaigns because of our dedicated focus to each TLD.”

Regarding the internal process of creating a campaign like Break the Code and BTC 2, Das said, “Every campaign at Radix is born from the same principle: customer-centricity. Therefore, we start with intensive research about the customer, changing market trends, engagement patterns, customer channel affinity, their preferences, etc. The more we understand our customers, the higher the impact we can create.”

“Talking specifically about Break The Code 2, the most important insight we were working with was that the tech community has a high ad filter and doesn’t appreciate intrusive advertising,” Das noted. “This inspired us to create a campaign in the form of a high-engagement game. We put in months of additional research and planning to make it more air-tight. Once we had the basic structure and theme in place, we spoke to industry heavyweights such as GitHub, Namecheap, Digital Ocean, MLH, Dev.to, and Hackernoon. They immediately loved the concept and came on board as partners. From thereon, we worked towards the actual creation of the game along with planning a comprehensive marketing campaign to promote the game.”

Das added, “The game’s theme was inspired by Windows-98, with a moral conflict ingrained within. We planned for a bunch of easter eggs and cheat codes to be peppered throughout the game. As a final joke and to end the game on a high note, we got Steve Wozniak, Co-founder, Apple Computer Inc, to drop a video where he was revealed to be behind the conflict. It took the community by surprise and left them in awe!,” Suman declared with justifiable pride.

Still, some might wonder, why the Win 98 theme? Das explained, “The nostalgia associated with Windows 98 and the 90’s PC gaming experience immediately struck a chord with our target audience. The challenging nature of the puzzles appealed to even the most hard-to-please techies. What began as a “digital touchpoint” for .Tech Domains quickly morphed into an experience that brought the tech community together and organically transcended to Reddit, Discord, and Twitter.”

Das said, “What’s more, the tech community loved the game so much that we had fan-made browser extensions and NFTs about the game.”

We asked Suman what elements the Radix decision-makers look for that they consider necessary for a campaign like Break The Code to be successful. He said, “For us, the key ingredients for any campaign to be successful are value generation for the end customer, virality, engagement, and earned media potential. We also look at the ROI for which we rely on internal financial models and metrics.”

As to what metrics Radix looks for that increase chances for success in marketing campaigns such as these, Das said, “Our success metrics mainly include sign-ups and website visits. Social proof and post-campaign feedback are also closely tracked.”

Last but not least, on the heels of their success with the second edition of Break the Code, we had to wonder what’s next for .Tech? Suman replied, “Our purpose has always been to help anyone looking to create a positive impact using tech, and our marketing efforts aim to reflect that. In the future, we will continue to drive engagement, build a sense of community, and be a vehicle for those that want to better the world through tech. Keeping that in mind, our team is working on some exciting initiatives at this point, and we will be launching them soon.”