Presented by the Brand Registry Group (BRG)
Speakers: Martin Sutton and Peter LaMantia
Martin Sutton
Welcome to our second webinar in the 2020 Dot Brand Vision Series, brought to you by the Brand Registry Group, or BRG for short. My name is Martin Sutton, Executive Director of the BRG, a trade association for brands that operate their own top-level domain or plan to apply at the next opportunity.
For many brands—those that already have their own top-level domain and those considering it—developing a business case can be complex and daunting. In today’s webinar, we’ll explore how to approach this challenge and share insights on modeling return on investment across digital marketing, brand protection, and security.
I’m extremely pleased to introduce today’s speaker, Peter Lamantia, CEO of Authentic Web. Peter has been an active BRG member, representing a dotBrand operator and leading our Registry Operations and Best Practices Committee over the past year.
Peter will present a high-level overview today, and we’ll have time at the end for questions. You can enter your questions in the panel during the session, and we’ll address them once Peter finishes.
With that, I’ll hand over to Peter.
Peter LaMantia
Thanks, Martin. And thanks to everyone for joining.
Today, I want to put some real structure behind the business case model that supports adopting and investing in a brand TLD strategy. At its core, this is a numbers-based case showing how your organization can reduce its cost base and drive top-line contribution margin. It’s a financial roadmap for top-performing businesses to “jump the curve” and anchor all digital activities on the trust and authority of their own brand top-level domain.
If you enjoy business model math, you’ll find this session interesting. My goal is to give you a methodology to help communicate your case and gain executive approval from your leadership team.
When we talk about “jumping the curve,” you’ve probably heard the concept before. As Forbes describes it, innovation isn’t only about new products—it’s about adapting to change, improving processes, or adopting new technologies.
In our context—domains, DNS, TLS certificates, and brand protection—the first generation of management was manual: silos, ticketing systems, and email requests. The second generation introduced automation with workflows, change controls, audits, policy-based provisioning, and role-based access. These improvements drove better scalability, compliance, and performance.
However, even with automation, companies continue to accumulate more domains, manage more DNS entries, purchase more certificates, and spend more on brand protection. These costs keep rising, and complexity keeps growing.
Now, we’re entering a third evolution with brand top-level domains—secure, controlled, trusted, and scalable digital platforms that offer a foundation for innovation and brand trust.
In the early 1990s, there was simplicity: one website, one registrar, one IT resource. There was little to no digital piracy. But over the past twenty years, the environment has changed drastically. Many organizations now manage thousands of domains across multiple registrars and DNS providers. Every department—from marketing to legal—is a stakeholder, and most of those domains are defensive registrations rather than revenue drivers.
Brand protection has also become costly and complex. According to Verified Market Research, the cost of this vendor ecosystem will double between 2018 and 2026.
Let’s take a quick audience poll, thanks to Martin.
Martin Sutton
Yes, the poll is now live. We’d like everyone to think about their current status quo: are your costs increasing due to more domains, more vendors, and greater DNS complexity? And how do you see this evolving five years from now?
We’ll give everyone a few seconds to respond.
Okay, results are in—56% predict a 10–25% increase in costs, and 40% predict up to a 100% increase. Pretty clear consensus—costs are going up.
Peter, back to you.
Peter LaMantia
Thanks, Martin. Let’s do a quick follow-up poll. How effective do you believe these added efforts and costs will be five years from now? Will they improve your position, or remain the same, or get worse?
Alright, looking at the results: about 30% said “about the same,” 31% said “a little better,” and roughly 30% said “less effective.”
So, most agree that costs will rise while effectiveness stays flat or declines. That’s the growing gap the brand TLD strategy aims to solve. Do we want to continue this trajectory—spending more for the same return—or rethink how we operate?
A brand TLD offers a new path: a trusted, secure, and proprietary domain space that enables innovation and control.
Let’s visualize it. The current cost curve—our “status quo”—keeps rising with minimal benefit. By investing in your brand TLD and educating the market that your dotBrand domain is your trusted space, you can gradually reduce these costs. Over five years, you end up with stronger brand control, better engagement, and lower operational expenses.
Now, what’s the business case behind this?
There are three areas of value:
- Reduced total cost of ownership (domains, DNS, TLS, and brand protection)
- Improved consumer trust
- Increased differentiation and revenue potential
We built an ROI calculator to model these impacts. It’s a simple but powerful tool. It examines three major cost zones:
- Domains, DNS, and TLS
- Brand protection
- Brand TLD ownership and operations
It incorporates vendor fees, internal resource costs, and growth assumptions over a five-year span. We factor in expected price increases—dot-com domains, for instance, are already approved for 7% annual hikes—and project the impact under both “status quo” and “brand TLD” scenarios.
The model also calculates brand protection costs: UDRP filings, domain acquisitions, and human resource time. Then, it adds the capital expenditure for your brand TLD, along with annual operating costs for activation and ongoing management.
When combined, we can see dramatic cost differences over time. Under the status quo, a company might spend 2 million dollars more over five years, versus potentially saving that amount—while gaining stronger brand control—under a brand TLD strategy.
Beyond cost, there’s revenue impact. Marketing and communication programs run on your brand TLD can achieve higher engagement through improved trust and authenticity. Even small increases—like a 10% bump in response rate—can yield significant margins on large campaigns.
Channel programs, social engagement, and digital branding all benefit from simplified, secure, memorable URLs within your own domain namespace.
To show how it works, we ran sample scenarios for a brand with 2,000 domains. Under current practices, costs rise steadily every year. By consolidating within a brand TLD and decommissioning unnecessary domains, costs can fall sharply by year five. The same pattern holds for brand protection—still essential, but far more efficient under a dotBrand structure.
The combined effect? Lower total ownership cost, higher ROI, and long-term scalability.
Looking forward, brand TLDs also unlock innovation opportunities—things like:
- customer.brand portals that improve loyalty and service efficiency
- agent.brand for secure partner or reseller networks
- service.brand for authenticated service delivery
- Future integrations with supply chains, IoT, and remote workforce systems
The possibilities depend on your business goals, but the strategic principle applies broadly: a secure, unified namespace enhances trust and control for any digital initiative.
To summarize, here’s the path forward:
- Understand your current costs and challenges.
- Identify the potential for cost reduction and growth.
- Use a brand TLD to consolidate, secure, and innovate across your digital ecosystem.
We’ll explore this further in our next session on July 23rd—focused on developing your brand TLD strategy and introducing a structured rollout framework.
Thank you for listening, and I hope this gives you some practical insight into building your own business case. I’ll be happy to answer questions.
Martin Sutton
Thank you so much, Peter. That gave a great overview and helps illustrate the complexity and flexibility needed for these models.
We’ve got some questions coming in.
First one: If we want to create our own business case ROI, how can we do that?
Peter LaMantia
If you’d like to build your own model, you can reach out to me directly at peter@authenticweb.com, or through Martin and the BRG. We can review your conditions and help you develop a tailored ROI summary. There’s no obligation—just a way to explore what fits your organization.
Martin Sutton
Thanks. Another question: Won’t response rates decline initially if a URL doesn’t end in .com?
Peter LaMantia
Good question. Yes, it’s true the public will need some education about dotBrand domains, but awareness will grow quickly. We’ve adapted to every digital change before—social media, mobile apps, new TLDs—and users will learn to trust brand-owned namespaces even faster.
I’d recommend starting with small-scale tests and A/B comparisons between existing and dotBrand campaigns. That provides data before committing major spend. Over time, recognition will grow, especially as more large brands adopt it.
Martin Sutton
And regarding our next webinar—you mentioned brand strategies. Will that session include examples of business objectives, and what have you seen companies achieve through domain names and their dotBrand spaces?
Peter LaMantia
Yes, that’s exactly what we’ll cover. I’ve developed a structured program called the Brand Registry Introduction Path—a step-by-step model for launching and scaling dotBrand initiatives. We’ll include real examples to make it practical and relatable.
Martin Sutton
Next question: What are the biggest cost drivers in the domains, DNS, and SSL total cost of ownership?
Peter LaMantia
The biggest factor is the number of domains you own. Each one adds recurring fees and management overhead. Every touchpoint—DNS edits, security reviews, renewals—consumes team time. The more you hold, the more resources are required. That extends beyond vendor costs into internal labor.
Martin Sutton
One final question: Does the brand TLD strategy apply universally to all businesses?
Peter LaMantia
Every business is different, of course, but any company that relies on digital identity can benefit. Consumer trust is now fundamental. Being able to provide a controlled, verified space removes uncertainty for customers and partners. Whether in retail, finance, technology, or services, that principle applies broadly.
Martin Sutton
Excellent—thank you, Peter. I think that wraps up our questions for today.
Thank you to everyone who joined us. Please watch for details on our upcoming webinars throughout July. We hope you’ll join us again soon.
Peter LaMantia
Thanks, Martin, and thanks everyone for taking the time today.
