Bootstrap Marketing by CIRA, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority, Canadian Registrars and Canadian ISPs for the dot ca TLD*

(Fifth Draft- CONFIDENTIAL)

(* Contributors: Denis Tangauy, Ron Kawchuk, Paul Anderson, Colin Campbell, Clyde Beattie and Bruce Firestone)

Why does CIRA have to do any marketing at all?

An Ottawa based, undercover police officer made an arrest in August 2001. He asks a witness: "Did you see the events that just transpired?"

The potential witness answers: "Yes, I saw it all. Give me your email address and I'll give you a report on what I saw."

The officer says: "Sure. You can reach me at smith@ottawapolice.com."

Officer Smith (not his real name) gave out his email address incorrectly. Can you spot the error?

Obviously, it should have been a dot ca TLD (Top Level Domain).

This happened to one CIRA Director and obviously he was disappointed and surprised to learn that the Ottawa Police no less was using a dot com TLD.

However, after useless exchanges of truncated emails, he realized his mistake and sent it to dot ca instead.

But if our police officers assume that their addresses are dot coms, what about every other Canadian?

There are currently about 250,000 dot ca's and 30 million dot com's, so it is a pretty good first assumption to make, we can suppose.

Why not just leave it to Registrars or the ISPs to do the Marketing?

Well, there are probably things that CIRA can do together with the Registrars and the ISPs that none of them can do alone. CIRA should definitely not act alone. Read on ...

Guerrilla Marketing 101 for the dot ca TLD

We use the terms bootstrap marketing and guerrilla marketing pretty much interchangeably. Basically, it means that you are substituting brains for dollars. Every time people think about marketing, they think of $1m, 15 second Super Bowl ads. CIRA, the registrars and ISPs have to be way smarter than that.

Click here for some examples of clever guerrilla marketing.

CIRA and the registrars of dot ca's have together formed a successful and world class registry based on a Canadian presence on the internet. However, it is still small not only in comparison with dot com's but also other cc (Country Codes) like de (Germany) and uk (United Kingdom).

There is a kind of reverse panache going on too. Many Canadian companies prefer to use a dot com to hide the fact that they are Canadian; there is a kind of parochialism associated with having a dot ca.

CIRA and the registrars have a responsibility to preserve, protect and enhance the Canadian presence in the Metaverse (as Neal Stephenson refers to cyberspace in his ground breaking piece, Snow Crash).

It is important for our national identity and to our economic and cultural future to preserve the Canadian presence in the Metaverse.

dot ca TLD Advantages

There are some other uniquely Canadian advantages too:

1. Canadians are well liked around the planet.

2. We have a very low cost base for producing goods and services.

3. These can be traded in CDN. currency (i.e., "shop Canadian", especially if you are an American).

4. We have a high penetration of net users amongst the population.

5. We have a high percentage of techies.

6. We have some world class telecommunications companies.

7. We have more broadband and greater dispersal of (and access to) broadband than most of the planet.

In addition, the Registry itself should have certain advantages including: a) speed (Real Time from CIRA DB to Zone File for very fast upload to go live-to-the-web instantly); b) reliability (downtime, virus resistance, ...); c) Canadian Law and ADR (should be much cheaper than the US); d) CPR (appeal to Canadians and Canadian pride); e) make the CIRA Registry user friendly.

Our take on marketing the dot ca TLD is that this is part of CIRA's mandate: to be the best registry in the world and to be seen to be the best. We need a program that provides maximum leverage for minimum dollars. We also need to think about how we combine marketing in the metaverse with RL (Real Life). It has been proven that you need a RL presence for your marketing that links to the net and vice versa for it to be effective.

"Canada's Internet name-space is a valued national resource. We need to showcase the benefits of choosing the dot-ca domain as the domain of choice for Canadian individuals and businesses," Dr. Bruce M. Firestone, CIRA Media Release, Ottawa, August 31, 2001.

What might a CIRA, Canadian Registrars and Canadian ISPs dot ca TLD Guerrilla Marketing Campaign Look Like?

In no particular order, let us look at some candidates for a dot ca TLD guerrilla marketing campaign:

1. The Student Exemption

All students enrolled full time or part time in Canadian high schools and post secondary institutions become eligible for the student exemption- one dot ca per student would be available with an annual $10 off rebate from CIRA for as long as they are enrolled.

Overseas students studying full time in Canada for two or more years would be exempted from CPR and eligible for the Student Exemption.

High schoolers are included here because net savvy kids are our future and we should try to reach them early.

Personal Web Sites For Canadians (PWS)- a multi-generational Program to Develop 30,000,000 PWSs, one for each Canadian Why do Canadians need personal web sites? Canadians have a valuable and perishable resource- the minds and individual knowledge and experience gained by Canadians over their lifetimes. We invest a great deal of resources in training our citizens. They learn their professions and practice what they have learned. They learn by doing and they learn by failing too- sometimes, we learn more from our failures than we do from our successes. The concept of a PWS is that if we host our personal intellectual property (IP) on our PWSs and develop it in a rigorous manner over our entire careers, we will have a way of preserving and sharing our expertise with others that has never been available to any generation that has gone before. This may be the next step in the evolution of the web. There are currently around 3,000,000 young people in high school and post secondary in Canada (this is just a guesstimate). CIRA, the registrar and ISP community should try to get to them early ... convince them of the benefits of a dot ca TLD for their own PWS or, indeed, for some other type of net based activity- early stage startups, interest groups, discussion groups, what have you. CIRA's Student Exemption program could be huge- if we captured all the eyeballs in this group, we would get 3,000,000 new registrations, $60,000,000 (at $20 per domain name in registration fees) in new CIRA annual income (plus a lot more income for the registrars and the ISPs) minus the CIRA rebate program of $30 million per year (presumably, this would scale- if CIRA lowers the registry fee to $15 or $10, the rebate might be $7.50 or $5). There are lots of PR possibilities in a rebate and visionary program of this magnitude. In a generation or two, we could see the addition of 30,000,000 or more (potentially) PWSs- one for every Canadian; we could preserve, enhance and add to the combined IP of our nation. It is the brains of our country that really counts in the 21st Century. Let's lead this particular parade.

2. The dot ca Newsletter

Circulate a newsletter to existing dot ca registrants promoting the dot ca and providing valuable tips, like how to protect their existing brands.

3. Develop a CIRA Charitable Organization Policy

Bell Canada is one of the largest supporters of charitable organizations and the arts in Canada. They support Kids Help Phone, the Governor General's Awards for the Performing Arts, Opera Lyra and much more.

In order for CIRA to be effective, it must be focused on just a few initiatives. This is to conserve cash and to leverage their efforts. Without a clear policy, CIRA will be inundated with requests and ineffective in whatever efforts it mounts.

The CIRA policy should allow for voluntary co-participation by Canadian registrars and ISPs.

It should probably be focused on education, the net, young people and technology.

4. Develop a few Compelling Reasons why People and Businesses Should Choose a dot ca

Take a well thought out and attractively packaged set of ideas and put them everywhere- on every Canadian Registrar's web site, every Canadian ISPs web site, on the CIRA web site, in the newsletter, in every piece of dot ca marketing and promotion including all media releases and PSAs.

5. Develop a dot ca Gift Certificate Program

Encourage Mom and Dad, Grandpa and Grandma to buy a dot ca gift certificate for their high school or college or university kin. The perfect gift so that they can develop their very own Personal Web Site. Roll out the program with the registrars and the ISPs on side together with CIRA.

6. Run a Contest

Organize a national contest. Use something like a net treasure hunt where you have to search for clues on sponsor's web sites. The theme would be focused on the dot ca. Contestants would have to carefully search sponsors' web sites in response to clues posted on CIRA, registrar and ISP web sites.

Prizes would come from sponsors. No one has really done one yet but it could be huge.

7. The 'Piece de la Resistance'

As entrepreneurs, we could do something quite off the wall like, for example, print up to 250,000 lawn signs and try to get every dot ca registrant in Canada to put them up together (all at once) for three weeks next spring (or maybe on Canada Day!) in front of their homes, businesses, etc. They would advertise "... Proudly Part of the Canadian Internet." It would promote CIRA and dot ca's on one side and the registrar, internet service provider and registrant on the other.

Five Dollar Lawn Sign (Side B) (Side A is identical to web logo)

The lawn signs could be printed at a few sign shops in every city and the registrants would have an incentive to go get one (or for an extra charge, priority posted to them) because of: a) their Canadian pride and b) their web address is on it. It is this type of thing that gets on-the-street recognition and drives people to the web. The web is successful when it has a RL component.

Every registrant should be given an opportunity to buy one of these lawn signs* at the time of signup or renewal; the CIRA, registrar or ISP web site simply acts as a portal and order form for automatic ordering sent to the nearest sign shop. Lawn signs only cost five bucks or so but they work wonders for long lived enterprises like College Pro Painters. The registrars, ISPs and CIRA can take a percentage of this if they choose.

(* We could also offer a larger format such as a banner (indoor or outdoor) as an option.)

We should develop a logo for "... Proudly Part of the Canadian Internet." The logo will exist in RL and in cyberspace.

The logo could be downloaded for free by every Canadian registrant, registrar and ISP. The logo would contain a dot ca counter that refreshes periodically- it provides Pavlovian reinforcement: people can see how many dot ca's exist at any one time and judge the rate of increase too. The logo would hyperlink back to the registrant's ISP or registrar's web site. The dot ca counter would hyperlink directly to the CIRA web site.

Web Logo (Also Side A of Lawn Sign)

The dot ca counter would appear inside or alongside the logo and people could ping it from time to time to update their 'doomsday clocks' in RL. That means that they could add a dot ca counter to every pylon sign, billboard or what-have-you: again reinforcing cyberspace promotions with RL ones too.

CIRA could hang a dot ca counter from its Ottawa HQ; that would be picked up by national media just like the Fraser Institute's 'Canada debt Clock' was or the original nuclear Armageddon 'Doomsday Clock' was in its day.

There would probably be other high profile places in other Canadian cities that would put a dot ca counter outside or for that matter inside a high traffic area as a PSA.

Backlit Pylon Sign (or Building Sign) with dot ca Web Counter and 'Web Logo'

8. Give Every dot ca Registrant a Certificate

We should mix with the real world. One very big CC registry sends each new registrant an official certificate, suitable for framing! At the time of resgistration, registrants can go to a password protected web site and for a small charge (or free?) download and print out their certificate.

9. Run a ca only Search Engine

Promote and/or run a .CA only search engine.

10. Create a top level Resource Centre

Top level links to major Canadian resource sites.

11. New Stamp

Ask Canada Post to issue a new stamp with the .CA logo on it.

12. More Suggestions

* Request that every Chamber of Commerce, Business Organizations & Associations, Municipal and government to display the .CA logo (as a link to CIRA where appropriate)
* Get on Canadian Business TV programs eg. ROB TV to promote .CA brand. Possibly engage a well known public personality to be spokesman and/or personification of the .CA brand.
* Promote the notion that every Canadian .COM and .NET should protect it’s domain identity by having the .CA too
* Promote the notion that generic product and service descriptions can be registered and linked to corporate websites in addition to the company name or brand identity.

13. Still More Suggestions

* Create a CIRA Awards program.

* Promote the .CA address as the main address where registrants have both .CAs and .COMs.

* Develop a .CA slogan to go along with the .CA logo- "Proudly Fly Canadian .." or some such slogan- a .CA on a Canadian Flag with the slogan?

* Develop a referral prorgam- give us five third party referrals, get a dot ca free for a year.

* Add bumper stickers to the options for promoting the dot ca. Have a contest for a bumper sticker slogan for the dot ca.

* Get Molson onside with the "I am Canadian" campaign.

THESE ARE A FEW PRELIMINARY THOUGHTS. PLEASE SEND YOUR COMMENTS TO: bmfirestone@hickling.ca

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