State Farm® Insurance has rolled out a "Why you need an insurance agent" advertising campaign and is using the domain name WhyAgent.com in the ads. I watched the commercial and felt a bit lost to tell you the truth. WhyAgent.com didn’t "Pop Out" at me and I scratched my head looking at the domain name. WhyAgent.com? Hmm
It almost feels like the domain name is missing something, like another word or two in it. WhyStateFarm.com may be a better question type domain, and one of the answers could be because you get an Agent!
If the domain used wasn’t questionable, the so/so comedy on the site is a bit odd IMO. Clicking the big flashing WHY? button on the site pops up "Ben Julian" onto the screen with different ramblings and the majority of the things he states are one liner style jokes about why it is good to have an agent. Actually, it comes across that he is struggling to come up with reasons why you need an agent! This is a big deal considering the main message focuses on that very reason.
History of the domain WhyAgent.com
According to whois history records, the domain was first registered around 2002 and has dropped from the registry at least once, with the current creation date going back to 2007. State Farm didn’t own the domain name until what appears to have been a purchase on or around May 18, 2010. The domain remained on the past owners name servers until about October 14, 2010, around the likely time the ad was about to run.
State Farm IMO could have done a better job picking a domain name to use. It wasn’t like they hand registered a domain and WhyAgent.com just sounds and looks a bit wrong, as it feels like it’s missing a word or two. I think the idea behind the site and the comedy is good but they didn’t do the best job at presenting it. As I said, it came across to me as if the actor was having a hard time coming up with a reason you need an agent! Since the ad is all about why it is better to have an insurance agent, they needed to nail that part.
Launching the site just days before running the ad is also a no/no. It doesn’t hurt to allow search engines a little bit of time to get the site indexed, so searchers can easily find it as well.
Donny
I have to agree with you what does it mean?
They should be thinking local like buying up some state-geo insurance names and advertising them in each state.
Or just add a word. Why? seems like they are not even sure why you need an agent?
So confusing but hey whats a million or 2 on advertising and 8 bucks for the domain name. Copmanies will learn in time.