LELAND HARDY: MASTER MARKETER MAXIMIZES DOMAIN MOXIE

Boxer, businessman, Advertising Age Marketing 100 award winner, pioneering net-preneur – Leland Hardy’s vision established him as a ground-breaking domainer long before others knew what the Web was. Fluent in Chinese two decades before the country became a global powerhouse, he is a graduate of the inaugural class of the Wharton School’s Lauder program. This master trend-spotter bought New York.com in 1994, setting a trend for geodomains and generics as powerful domain properties. His domain savvy is matched by his guerrilla marketing moxie. Hardy donned a NYC sanitation uniform to get a police escort to hang a NewYork.com banner beneath the MTV sign in Times Square. He placed NewYork.com cards in seats at O’Hare International Airport gates where New York-bound flights would board. He signed NewYork.com as the official concierge for the city’s renowned Jacob Javits Center. He signed Aretha Franklin to headline a New York.com “Tribute to the Troops” event. In this Gratitude conference call with New York photographer Brady Dillsworth, Hardy admits he’s only begun to scratch the surface of the site’s monetization promise. “It’s increasingly important to establish relationships with advertisers, as well as figure out ways to drive traffic directly to your property,” he said. “There’s a tremendous amount of opportunity, if you get out there and hustle.”

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Recorded on December 3, 2008