In 2018 auDA proposed reforms to .au domain registration rules, including the introduction of direct second-level registrations under .au. The campaign communicated concerns to Australian businesses and existing domain holders, testing location-focused messaging and platform-specific responses around planned news coverage.
Start with the people who need the message
In 2018, I documented what we were learning while communicating concerns about the proposed .au domain changes. Alongside the advocacy itself, we were checking how the message travelled.
The useful marketing lesson was to identify the audience and the context. The original account described location-focused advertising around planned news coverage, rather than sending the same message everywhere.
Use the platform as a place to communicate
I also described learning from publishing video directly on different platforms and responding where the conversation was happening. That is a practical question for any campaign: are you making people leave the place where they found the discussion before they can understand your point?
Choose the format and response process around that audience. Do not assume a platform that worked for one campaign is automatically right for another.
Separate observation from proof
We were interested in mentions, links and traffic, but simultaneous campaign activity cannot isolate a single cause of a ranking change. Record what happened and keep the limits of the evidence visible.
Historical note (checked 2026-09-10): audience figures, third-party disputes and pending event claims from the 2018 campaign are omitted; this is a historical case study and not current advice about domain registration.
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