Many companies like to use memorable and catchy domain names to market a new product launch, a promotional event, or anything else really.
In this post, we are going to highlight such a marketing campaign by Chipotle, the ever ubiquitous Mexican grill chain.
Sometime in mid-2016, Chipotle decided to start a BOGO (buy one, get one) promotion. They created a browser game where you match identical ingredients — hidden as face-down cards — to each other. If you finished the puzzle in under 1 minute, you would get your own personalized BOGO code.
They decided to host the game at www.alovestorygame.com. And on that domain, you were greeted with a video depicting a story of two food enthusiasts who eventually fall in love. This created a cute and unique backdrop for the campaign.
Chipotle chose a simple phrase that is easy to remember and share. They were also able to create a related and brandable story. The domain name itself (i.e. the message it conveyed) created an expectation that was fulfilled once the visitor got to the page. Of course, Chipotle could have used a domain like www.chipotlebogodeal.com, but they would not have been able to create the same marketing materials that they did.
Now let’s look at some traffic data. According to SimilarWeb (at the time of this writing — circa October 2016), www.alovestorygame.com received 22.16% of its traffic directly. This means that people typed the domain into the address bar and hit enter. Although people can just as easily run a Google search for “Chipotle bogo” and still find the page, it is one extra unnecessary step when you can use a memorable domain name instead.
In this way, domain names can be an integral and unique part of creative marketing strategies. Firstly, they provide an address that is more memorable than something more generic. Secondly and most importantly, they provide a message or story upon which marketing content can be built.
This is just one example of many companies that are using domain names for creative marketing. The next time you or your company decides to start an online marketing campaign, you must consider using a creative domain name to tell your story.
