On February 19, 2013, TV personality and restarenteur Guy Fieri became the poster child of the importance of securing your domain name. According to GuyFieri.com, the launch of Guy’s American Kitchen & Bar in New York City was supposed to make the headlines for “a wide-ranging menu full of the big, bold flavors Fieri is known for, as well as three full bars, a California-centric wine list, and an extensive draft beer program featuring signature beers craft brewed for Fieri”. Instead the restaurant made the headlines for its Honky-Tonky Double Barrel Meat Loaded Blast and Guy’s Big Balls.
Wait a second. Does Fieri really have a dish named “Guy’s Big Balls”?
He doesn’t.
However, New York City programmer, Bryan Mytko thought that Fieri should promote that dish and be more careful about securing the domain containing the name of his newest restaurant.
Guy Fieri didn’t register his restaurant’s domain name, so I picked it up. I think this new menu look greatguysamericankitchenandbar.com
— Bryan Mytko (@BryanMytko) February 19, 2013
Domain name registration is a critical step in any marketing campaign and Guy Fieri’s team should have been more careful in making sure to secure not only guysamericankitchenandbar.com but also at the very least these variations:
- guysamericankitchenandbar.net
- guysamericankitchenandbar.biz
- guysamericankitchenandbar.org
- guysamericankitchenandbar.info
Fieri’s actual domain for his New York Times Square located restaurant is http://guysamerican.com.
Just like he invested in prime NYC real estate, he should have an equally important investment in Internet real estate and avoid falling prey of a techie prankster.
Here is the full menu, which includes Guy’s Big Balls:
