So since I am a huge racing fan and I also am lucky to work at home, I was able to watch the NASCAR qualifying races yesterday for the Daytona 500 during mid day! Clearly in NASCAR there are sponsors almost everywhere and domain names are often used on the cars, driver suits, pit boxes, pit crew member uniforms, haulers… well, you get my point! Just about any place you look, there are sponsors!
Casey Mears drove for RCR last year which is one of NASCAR’s top 5 teams but was dropped at the end of the year when the team went from 4 cars down to 3 for the 2010 season. This left him without a ride for 2010 but a team put some stuff together about a month before Daytona and Casey was in a mainly white # 90 and had to race his way into the Daytona 500 yesterday!
There was very limited sponsorship on Casey’s car but the rear quarter panels of the car did hold "Something"! The reason I said "Something".. because it was hard as hell to tell what it really was!
I could tell it was a domain name but have you ever seen a car going 195 MPH? Even on TV at 195, the camera has a small amount of shake to it, trying to keep up with the cars as they are cruising around the track. Short words or a familiar logo can easily make a domain name pop on the side of a race car, but the one that was on Casey’s, Keyed-up Motorsports car made me sick, in more ways then one!
75000000.com
TV time in racing comes in short spurts.. a couple seconds here, couple there etc… as they follow the race. Seeing a domain name like 75000000.com in a short spurt for a couple seconds and all those 0000000 bouncing around made me all googly eyed!
I couldn’t tell if it was 5 zero’s, 6 zero’s, 7 zero’s, 8 zero’s…. after 3 zero’s they all started looking like a big group!
Not only is 75000000.com hard to tell "the number" sitting still, being a domain name without comma’s in place but put on a race car that is flying around the race track makes it all that worse!
What an extremely poor choice of domain name to use and it makes it all that worse being on a race car!
People seeing a domain name like this can not easily tell if it is 750,000 or 7,500,000 or 75,000,000. Even font size is going to make this domain look "longer" than it is! The domain name was not descriptive in anyway, telling the visitor what they may find on the site when visiting!
Trying to visit the site this morning after thinking about that ugly domain name I saw on Casey’s car yesterday, the first site I visited was 7500000.com . My thinking was, they "need" $7.5 Million to sponsor the car for the year… Since primary sponsorship is easily $10-20 Million per car for a bigger team, I could see a small team taking $7.5 M for the whole car! Well that was my thought anyway. Visiting 7500000.com didn’t bring me to anything racing related, it forwarded me to AccurateCommunications.com? Was this a sponsor on Casey’s car? I had no clue but didn’t expect I landed on the proper domain.
I tried 750000.com.. nope, Sedo parked page… One last try 75000000.com there is Casey!
So in the end.. the domain name is Seventy-Five-Million-Dot-Com aka 75,000,000 or 75000000.com for how many NASCAR fans. Not only is the domain name really bad, the SEO and look of the site is pretty bad as well. The home page, page title is simply index. Since the site is build with Intuit’s Homestead site builder.. I think this shows that the "developer" would be considered a rookie to boot.
The bad thing for Casey, he didn’t make the race! The good thing for race fans.. you don’t have to watch the 75000000.com car go around the track and make you all googly eyed during the 500!
Valentin
Tell me this is a joke. Unbelievable! I think I saw similar sites like 13 years ago?
steph22
I think it was a great idea. It definitely got people talking. And I am also glad to see Casey Mears didn’t have to go out without a sponsor. I hope 75000000.com does well for Keyed Up Motorsports! Good luck #90 team!
Jamie Zoch
@steph22,
The domain is BAD! Not many people that look at it, can tell it is 75 Million and that is the biggest problem. I wish the Keyed Up Motorsports team the best of luck and I hope Casey has better luck next week in CA. They need to change the domain to something that is easier to read and remember and the site they want people to visit needs a lot of work as well.
steph22
Maybe they should add the comma’s. As for the website, I went to it, and it is in the process of opening for the 500. I’m sure it will be fine. I like the fact that it isn’t your typical sponsor. The races get boring seeing the same ol sponsors going around the track. I know that come Sunday, I will be checking out 75000000.com to see what exactly it is! Also, as for the name, maybe they wanted to target the 75 million fans and this was the only way. Its great to see something for the fans. We are the ones that spend the money! Its almost like we are the sponsors!
mysense2
Well, maybe the domain could be easier to decipher at high speeds. Overall, I think it is a great concept. As far as the site looking like it is done by a “rookie”. What exactly is the complaint? Can you understand what you are looking at? Is it serving its sponsorship purpose? Yeah, so…everything new goes through the tweaking process.
Jamie Zoch
@mysense2,
The site looks a little better than when I first looked at it. If somebody is using Homestead…. it’s clear they are rookie web developer! When your home page title is index… that is another sign! Blog doesn’t line up and overlaps is another sign! If you click blog from the home page… there is no place on the blog to GET BACK to the home page… I guess I could go on and on for hours if you need me to.
steph22
I have no idea what you are talking about Jamie. I just visited the site and everything is lined up perfectly. I hate to say it, but you really need to find something better to do. Let them do something good. If you don’t like it, don’t look at it! Don’t you think it is a good thing for them to do? They are helping animals. And just because they use Homestead, doesn’t mean rookie. They are obviously doing fine. They are on a NASCAR for crying out loud! Just get off their case! Please go find something else to do!
Jamie Zoch
@steph22,
In Firefox it does not line up (the blog). I write about things like this because I care! I suggested several helpful things for the owners that can help them, so no I do not need to find something better to do.
Adam
The domain gets your attention alright and makes you wonder but having to count zeros is silly unless you’ve bought all the other “variations”. They could have nabbed 75MIL.com and the same impact most likely.
As for the site, you were too nice to them, really. Clearly they spent all their money sponsoring the car. I wonder what that costs. I’m very interested in that now ! Justin Allgaier is from around here, maybe I should call up his team . . . would be fun to sponsor the same guy Verizon sponsors
steph22
Oh Adam,
It is amazing how you knock the idea, yet you would be the first to try and figure out how they did it! Again, I think it is a great idea and I support it 100%. Now boys, it is time to be nice and join the cause, not put them down!