Usain Bolt has brands such as Puma and Sandals in his camp, he is also a globally trademarked brand and yet his managers missed the US$10 per domain opportunity to register his usainbolt.com brand online? Come on! How coud his handlers be so shortsighted and sloppy to have let this happen.
How could they have missed protecting Usain Bolt’s domain name and also his brand in Facebook (There are 2 Facebook FanPages with a combined fanbase of 180,000, but which one is the Official Fan Page from those who are managing Usain Bolt’s brand?) And the same goes for AsafaPowell, Veronica Campbell and other Jamaican athletes.
In my mind, this is just another example of how we Jamaicans and Caribbean nationals do not take our own Jamaican and Caribbean brands as seriously as we should, unless someone is trying to sell it back to us. This also highlights the general mindset and that particularly of a lot of Jamaican and Caribbean companies, that are yet to take the Internet as a serious communications and marketing tool. Most of them have done little if nothing at all about going online in meaningful and powerful ways.
It is oh so sweet that JIPO is moving to block the sale of the domain name of Jamaican athletes, but again this is us,Jamaica, the Caribbean being reactive, when we should have been proactive. Maybe this issue with JIPO moving to block the sale of the athletes domain by a US-based company will help Jamaican people and Jamaican companies take their domain names, their priceless online real estate more seriously and in tow, Jamaican and Caribbean companies to realize and act on a few important things:
-Brand Jamaica is a powerful global brand and we’re behind in positioning ourselves to maximize on this. Jamaican and Caribbean people at home and in the Diaspora are online BIG TIME and they are pouring on at an alarming speed. They are an amazingly lucrative niche market with loads of untapped potential.
– Jamaican and Caribbean domain names for people, products and brands are super valuable and should be owned by the rightful individuals. So if you fall into that category, go register it at godaddy.com or networksolutions.com and stop procrastinating.
Domain names of past Jamaican Olympians of value too
It’s great that Jamaica’s current crop of Olympians are hot but what of our past Olympic Champions such as Grace Jackson(200m silver medalist, 1988 Seoul Olympics); Merlene Ottey (Dubbed Queen of the Track because among other things Ottey was the first female Caribbean athlete to win an Olympic medal and has won more Olympic medals than any other female athlete in the Western Hemisphere); Juliet Cuthbert(5 time Olympian, Double Silver Medal Winner, executive personal trainer and fitness entrepreneur) and then the legend Herb McKinley/McKenley ( He is still the only athlete to have reached an Olympic track final in all three of the classic sprint events, 100, 200 and 400 metres. His Olympic medal total of one gold and three silver.)
In fact, when I checked godaddy.com, I found that merleneottey.com was registered 3 years ago but no site has been developed as yet; Juliet Cuthbert a good friend of mine I registered her domain for her just last year but no site has been developed as yet. Herbmckinley and herbmckenley.com were available so I registered and will be hand them over to the rightful owners.
The only lesson here: Domain names are Internet real estate gold. Get yours and protect it.
