It's a little-known fact that I used to be a movie critic in the early 80's. You see, I've had a lifelong obsession with movies. In fact, I studied filmmaking in university, worked in the feature film industry for many years, and still watch several movies every week.
As many readers of my blog know, I also have a thing for domain names, so I guess it was inevitable that I would find a way to combine two of my favourite obsessions.
Today, I am thrilled to unveil my latest creation, Hollywoozy (www.hollywoozy.com), the first Website devoted to reviewing movie domain names. That's right, I'm critiquing the domain names used to market movies.
I don't know about you, but over the last five years I started to notice that just about every movie trailer (another obsession of mine, by the way) ended with the display of the official movie Website's address. Many times, the domain name that would be featured in the trailer and other marketing collateral for the movie was laughably bad, at least to my marketer's eye. At first, I found this amusing. Then it became something of a game for me and my wife, as we would patiently wait for the end of the trailer to see how good, or bad, the URL would be.
I soon discovered that I wasn't the only one puzzled by the domain name choices the movie marketers made. A number of my Internet marketing colleagues were equally amused by what appeared to be Hollywood's inability to grasp the importance of having a good domain name when trying to market a multi-million dollar movie. After all, the producers and studios decide years in advance what the title of the movie will be, so there's no excuse for not researching (and securing) the availability of the appropriate movie domain name ahead of time. Yes, even if that - heaven forbid - means buying the domain name from someone who already owns it. If you're spending tens of millions of dollars marketing a movie, spending $10,000 to get the best domain name for the movie is well worth it.
While all of this was rattling around in my head, I was also itching to find a way to return somehow to my film roots. At first I thought I'd start reviewing movies again, perhaps for a publication or Website, but then I realized that the Internet is awash with movie review Websites and blogs, and besides, I had already been there, done that.
Then it hit me ... what about a Website where I reviewed movie domain names? And that's how Hollywoozy was born, although it took me months to come up with the right name for the thing. Naming, yet another one of my obsessions!
Unlike my other online ventures (see sidebar), Hollywoozy is a little less serious, although at its core it is meant to be educational. Hollywoozy also gives me a chance to roll up my sleeves and try my hand at some new (and not so new) Internet marketing techniques. In the coming months, I will be sharing excerpts from my Hollywoozy "Marketing Diary" with you so that you can learn about the techniques I am using to promote the Website and, perhaps more importantly, find out what works and what doesn't.
Before I wrap up, I'd like to thank the gang at Mouth Media for creating the official Hollywoozy logo. They helped turn my crazy idea into a reality.
I hope you enjoy it!
