Go Daddy Ad Not Super

My domain names are all registered with Go Daddy. I'm very happy with their customer service, their site, and their overall business philosophy. The CEO even has a blog and posts regularly and intelligently.

Over the past few weeks there has been quite the furor over Go Daddy's decision to buy a Super Bowl TV ad. Is it money well spent? Probably not from an ROI standpoint, but Go Daddy founder Bob Parsons makes a strong case and has reasonable expectations. Given his company's brand awareness "crisis," I understand why he feels a Super Bowl ad is a plus. The Super Bowl is a unique product, which is why it commands such huge ad prices. It also sounds like Parsons is keeping his employees' interests and fiscal responsibility in mind, which the dead dot coms miserably failed to do.

The Super Bowl PR-machine is now in full gear. The media is studying the ads, interviewing the advertisers and analyzing all of the people and companies behind them. Oh, yeah, and there's going to be a football game too. (What other event generates such media coverage about its advertisements?!) Go Daddy is enjoying the lion's share of the attention, which just serves to add value to the decision.

Riding the run-up for all its worth, Go Daddy has released a sneak preview of a version of their ad that Fox rejected. (It's a long story and pretty good reading.) I viewed the ad this morning, and I was unpleasantly surprised. Assuming the ad that they are running is in the same vein as the rejected spot, then what we can expect is a beer commercial minus the beer. The product and the brand are hardly the most memorable things about the ad. Yes, it's somewhat amusing, but the point of advertising is not to amuse. Ultimately, it is to persuade and improve brand awareness. This version does more for breast awareness than brand awareness.

No, the Go Daddy ad is not any worse than much of the other material that will grace the air waves Sunday night. Will it cause the company to crash and burn? Not at all. I just hoped the ad would be as smart as the company. I hoped they would talk about the product or tell a little of the Go Daddy story. Perhaps something that poked fun at Network Solutions or touted the Go Daddy difference. Or even better, stood out compared to the funny but futile efforts of the extinct dot coms. In the end the ad agencies, Fox and the lawyers will all make their money from this ad. Go Daddy will do fine, but they could have done better.