When I go out with friends, I am generally a beer drinker, but if I am drinking liquor it’s usually a Ketel One and soda or Ketel and Red Bull. If I am having a “tropical” drink, it will usually be something with Captain Morgan’s Spiced Rum. I want to share what I think are a couple of liquor company domain name follies with you.
Captain Morgan is known for its Spiced Rum. They have other products of course, but if you ask for Captain and Coke, you’ll probably get a Spiced Rum. Smartly, Diago, the maker of Captain Morgan products, owns SpicedRum.com, and when you visit SpicedRum.com, you’ll be forwarded to CaptainYourHalloween.com. I assume this was for a short term promotion, but they never changed it back. To make things worse, CaptainYourHalloween.com is a parked page.
I emailed the Chief Marketing Officer of Diageo back in January of 2009 to let him know of the issue. We exchanged a few emails, and he put me in touch with the Director of Digital Marketing. It’s now over a year later, and the domain name still forwards to the same default parked page. Someone is making money on it, and it’s probably not Diageo.
The second liquor “faux paux” (in my opinion) comes from a company called Wodka Vodka. The have a large billboard on the Henry Hudson Parkway in New York City with a call to action, encouraging drivers to visit WeLoveWodka.com. As you can probably guess, WeLoveVodka.com is owned by another company. It wouldn’t be so bad if the W and V didn’t look so similar, but if you’re passing it at 50mph, chances are good that there will be a lot of people who visit the wrong domain name.
Two liquor companies using domain names poorly and should probably hire a domain consultant.
Wodka may want to get their IDN domain too. that looks like an IDN character over the ‘o’, Russian I would guess. have never heard of that brand before
Elliot –
The company is Diagio (you forgot the “i”).
My wife used to work for one of their subsidiaries. I know the company well, particularly their marketing team (in Connecticut & Rhode Island) and they notoriously “Don’t Get It.”
I have had the opportunity to pitch them on some major domains that would be ideal for their brands and they have passed every time.
I guarantee that Captain Morgan picked up SpicedRum.com BEFORE being acquired by Diagio.
Just don’t ask for a Ketel and Red Bull at PJ Clarke’s…
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/28/dining/28bruni.html?pagewanted=2&ref=general&src=me
(the punch line is in the last paragraph)
You’re both wrong — it’s Diageo.
@ Pat
Wow – sounds like a sweet bar. Sinatra, Holly, the best cheeseburger according to Nat King Cole.
@ Elliot
I just don’t understand how companies just seem to ignore stuff like this. Have they no idea just how powerful of a resource the internet has become.
They get so caught up inside their biz they forget to step outside and look from the consumers point of view or landing page so to speak.
Perhaps they are in the sauce too much themselves as I imagine based on all the print and tv ads I see for spiced rum, they spend millions on ads, but can not fathom spending a few thousand on a domain.
Last call for me..
“Perhaps they are in the sauce too much themselves as I imagine based on all the print and tv ads I see for spiced rum, they spend millions on ads, but can not fathom spending a few thousand on a domain.”
@ Mikey
The sad thing is they DO own the domain name but haven’t made the effort to change the forwarding despite having exchanged emailS with the CMO a year and a half ago.