Saturday, December 1, 2007

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??? URL

Alright, I'm gonna need to call in some backup on this one. Is the peacock regonizable enough that people will easily equate it with NBC? And, if so, will it "click" that the URL is NBC.com? I'm leaning towards no but am a bit biased (grew up without cable so CBS, NBC, and ABC are ingrained in my mind.) What do you all think? Please drop a comment and we'll go with majority rules on this one...

UPDATE 12/8: So far the ayes have it... 6 to 5 in favor of Good URL. Will wait another week or so before crowning, er... labeling it.

UPDATE 12/16: OK, the people have spoken... 22 for and 15 against with 2 sitting on the fence saying it depends on their target audience. Looks like this is a Good URL.

45 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would vote the majority of people would understand this one. There's really no other television station with a simliar logo.. maybe Univision.com? But I'm sure a few people will type in Peacock.com too (mostly out of curiousity, not confusion). Oh look at that.. Peacock.com has a similar logo to NBC :)

Anonymous said...

i vote good URL. pictures are good. good start a new trend of using logos and/or taglines in a branded look and feel followed by .com. Easily works with movies and tv shows...

Anonymous said...

I've thought about this one quite a bit, even before seeing it here...and from my perspective, I think this works for NBC. Might just be because I'm an NBC watcher and as I sit here and watch NBC this morning I naturally associate the Peacock with NBC...but that visual association took many years/dollars to accomplish...many brands don't have this luxury!

I'll be curious to see who does this next...

Anonymous said...

"I'll be curious to see who does this next..."

Check out the Raiders logo on the top left at Raiders.com

Here's more info on this topic:

http://www.alledia.com/blog/domain-names/linking-famous-logos-and-premium-domain-names/

Anonymous said...

It would work much better with the a logo like ABC's or Warner Brothers', since the proper domain name letters are actually in the logo. To answer your query on the NBC usage, I wouldn't done it unless I also owned peacock.com.

Anonymous said...

sure it is.

Anonymous said...

Didn't Prince do something similar? :)

Anonymous said...

Re: Raiders.com

The difference there is that the logo actually contains the word "Raiders," so there's no confusion.

Still, I think the peacock is recognizable enough for NBC to pull this off.

Anonymous said...

I vote good, in this particular situation. The article Edwin referenced is dully noted- only a super famous brand can pull it off. I further say a brand with a short brand name like NBC would have better chances than a longer name.

But I think there's potential in reaching out to the visually adept consumer: those of us that respond better to images than words. Kind of like a left-brain vs right-brain deal. My eyes might glaze over when I see letters and words, but a picture can spark an “oooo, shiny…” moment.

What’s the value in that, however, I don’t know, especially in NBC’s case. To maximize reach, commercials could show a picture URL on screen, then voice over with “Visit NBC.com”. Tell them to go to your site verbally and visually.

Anonymous said...

Well, at least they didn't air the three chimes only to follow it with ".com" -- that would be hilarious.

Anonymous said...

Most people are idiots. I vote bad URL.

Anonymous said...

I dunno about this. I can never remember which station is the peacock, the eyeball, or the other thing...

I have a friend who watches network tv religiously. I don't. Most of my friends don't. Once you've spent 5-6 years on cable stations, you forget what you know about the old ones. At least I do.

Jeremy said...

I agree with Jan. In today's world, where network TV is becoming less and less a part of many people's everyday lives, I think NBC would help themselves out if they put NBC.com underneath the peacock. Many people will understand if you simply put the peacock logo then a ".com", but more will get it if you include NBC in there somewhere

Anonymous said...

If the target is to be people that know NBC I guess this is really nice.
If the goal is to get people to the nbc-website that don't know NBC this is a bad idea.
Or was it a clickable link directing to the NBC-page? In that case people are actually getting trained in seeing the peacock as a symbol for NBC, so that's like..really well done.

I'm not american, I don't see the symbol as a peacock that refers to a broadcasting network. (not without the help of comments of people that do know what it's about) Where I live the rainbowcolors represent the gay community and tolerance of sexual diversity.

Leah said...

Clever, but not handled well. I agree with others that "NBC" should be in there somewhere in small print. Redundancy be damned, never underestimate human stupidity. I can see type-ins going to peacock.com, channelX.com, etc. Maybe even nbclogo.com. :P

Anonymous said...

I think this is a good URL.
Not only because most people will know this means NBC.com but also because most people searching for the website of NBC will try NBC.com first.

Anonymous said...

check another bad URL:

http://krikor.info/?p=45

Anonymous said...

It's risky, but I got it after a beat, and I bet most people would. Not that I think NBC needs to advertise their URL -- if it's anything but NBC.com, they'd be fools, so why promote it when we can all assume what it'll be?

P. F. Anderson said...

No, no, no. Pretty is fine, but totally not enough. At least not yet. Someday perhaps literacy will be back to pictograms. Now, if we could actually enter a glyph and the computer will map it to the appropriate location, that would be a different matter.

So, if someone does NOT know (or remember) what that logo means, what are they supposed to do? Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a single specific image online? Yikes! Try searching "rainbow peacock" in Google Image search. Look at the results imagining that you do *not* know the answer. How many pages in do you have to go to find this specific image?

You might say who would not know the rainbow peacock logo. OK. People new to the US, perhaps. People who don't watch TV much (like me). People who are very tired and their brain is foggy (why make me work harder?). People with selected types of brain injuries or neuro issues.

Now as an accessibility person, I do not want to hear anyone say, "Well, we don't need any of those people anyway." Can we at least *try* to communicate at the same time we're being cute?

Anonymous said...

Bad URL. If at least one person does not get it they're losing one potential visitor. Not worth it.

Unknown said...

Oh, please--y'all sound like you don't have the 'Peacock' key on your keyboards!

</sarcasm>

Anonymous said...

5/5 for BAD

BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD

JB said...

Who's going to see this? People already watching NBC. Why would they go to the website? To watch episodes online, get showtimes for the next shows, read actors' bios or characters' blogs. In other words, NBC fans are the target market. If you can't recognize the NBC logo, you probably don't need anything on their site. For the fans, its a little easter egg. "Hey, I know what that picture means!"

Good URL. Definitely.

Anonymous said...

Good effort. I'm not sure, but it's worth a shot.

Ben Griffiths said...

I actually heard the NBC chimes when I saw this. Good URL.

Noel Green said...

I would even argue at this point, for NBC, they don't even need the ".com"... the Peacock says it all. If you COULDN'T go to NBC.com then that would be ridiculous... but, of course, people know that surely that's their URL.

Anonymous said...

Means nothing to me -- here in the UK that symbol is meaningless.

Matt Dick said...

Great URL for Americans. No one doesn't know it, except folks who have no reason to go. Are they worried about losing all those people who don't own TVs, or who are out of the NBC service area?

wktfkbf

Anonymous said...

No. Thumbs down on this one.

Alex said...

I say it's a good URL. I personally find it obvious it's "nbc.com" and have no doubt about it... and putting it that way (and being able to pull it off) they're throwing their good positioning upon our face.

Stephen said...

I don't live in America and don't watch NBC, or any American network, but...

I got it instantly. It's not rocket science. Don't over-think it people.

Great URL.

Alex said...

Oh and I forgot to say that I'm mexican, living in Mexico, and even for me it's really obvious.

Plus, I couldn't agree more with "Jolly Bloger", the target for this are the NBC viewers themselves, who'd obviously recognize the logo.

I say brilliant.

Eric Riback said...

It's the context of use. Since the peacock is their screen bug, if this is shown on screen it works. Worst case is you have to think for a second, but then you'll figure it out and it becomes more memorable.

Unknown said...

Its all about branding in this case. NBC has a strong brand and so it defintely works.

Anonymous said...

Peacock = NBC. Works for me. Got it before I read your comments. But I'm probably part of their target group - Boomers that watch network TV

Ian Conrad said...

I think it's super-cool, but i don't watch a lot of TV so i actually didn't know it was NBC. But it probably is recognizable to most of their target. But as dusty said, most people are idiots...so i'm torn, sorry for no help!

Unknown said...

Bad URL in my opinion... the whole point of advertising is to get the word out and the targert audience of that advertising will not know that the rainbow peacock stands for nbc

Anonymous said...

I grew up on this too, but i have to admit that it doesn't automatically click that the peacock is NBC. I know it's not CBS but I might confuse it with ABC and head there instead...

Anonymous said...

I think this reminds those of us who grew up pre-cable that NBC is online and not just on TV. Looks like a calculated push for us over-30's.
I got it immediately. Savvy.

Nick Jones said...

Speaking as a Limey, even I get this one! ;)

I vote good.

Anonymous said...

Bad URL. Would those who prefer digital watchfaces also prefer "NBC.COM" ?

Anonymous said...

bad url

Michael Daehn said...

Nay

If you have to ask, it's bad.

Anonymous said...

I've lived in the States for 13 years and am no big fan of TV, but I'd say this is a good URL. Different, but understandable. I think everyone in their target audience would get this.

Anonymous said...

i vote bad. i think it's a good idea, if you're on the site, but i honestly forgot which station it was when I looked at it. My first thought was ABC, I guess I was wrong :P