FansChoice.com is a marketing effort between Van Heusen® (clothing maker) and JcPenney® (clothing retailer) connecting with NFL fans around the world, allowing the fans to have there voices heard via voting for the 2010 NFL® Hall Of Fame. What a great choice for a domain name!

I always think it is vital to "connect" with the audience you are trying to reach and make them feel welcome and part of the game! Fans Choice does just that! Over 1.2 Million votes have been cast at time of writing on the site and the voting ends the day before the big game, the Super Bowl®!

Van Heusen clearly uses the site to market several of there clothing products and where to get them but this is expected and isn’t over the top. The site offers video from several stops around the NFL and many other little things that do not leave you with an empty feeling after placing your vote! They nicely connect even further with fans and use social networking with Facebook and Twitter in the "Fan Forum" on the bottom of the site.

Van Heusen is the actual owner of the domain name FansChoice.com and the domain name was first registered in 2001 but they haven’t owned it all that time. It appears Phillips Van Heusen made the purchase of the FansChoice.com domain name around 9-9-2009 from the previous owner and likely made the purchase to match this marketing effort. I was not able to find a price paid for the domain but it was a wise choice and a great purchase IMO!

The Grammy’s® also recently ran a promotion using the domain name WereAllFans.com, which is another make sense domain name that connected directly with the people they were marketing to! The Grammy’s used the domain and site to promote the 52nd Grammy’s that aired last night 1/31/2010.

I didn’t see them promote the site during the Grammy’s as they stuck with there main brand and marketed Grammy.com several times during the show. The Grammy’s are often called just that (plural) and they also own the matching domain Grammys.com which simply forwards to Grammy.com . This is a very smart move and helps prevent traffic lose to a typo and easily allows for brand control.

Van Heusen does not happen to own the singular version (FanChoice.com) and likely loses some traffic to that site. If the budget fit, it would not of been a bad idea to purchase that domain name as well and forward traffic to the main site.

If you are considering running a promotion and want to connect with your customers, I suggest using a make sense domain name that connects with them from the start, just by seeing the domain name! I personally think this grabs the attention of the customer and makes them feel more welcome, which in return, is more likely they will visit!