Last we left the company, former CEO and Danica Patrick fan Bob Parsons had been moved upstairs after selling Go Daddy to a group of investors. A man named Warren Adelman had been named CEO and quickly began dropping hints that his agenda was to change the public perception of the company.
The first step was to switch advertising agencies. Deutsch New York was chosen to create a new series of TV commercials that were going to air during the London Olympics. The twist is that Deutsch is run by a very powerful woman named Val DiFebo.
She was asked by the New York Times about the many years of Go Daddy's risque and sexually provocative advertising campaigns. "As a woman, is it my favorite work?” she asked rhetorically, then replied, “No.” That was not a good sign for Patrick and her female team of Go Daddy girls.
When asked about the new campaign, DiFebo suggested a change of course. "The ads will tell more of a story about GoDaddy’s technology rather than entice consumers with appeals like to see more skin, click here,'" she added.
Well, the Olympics are around the corner and a preview of the ads has just been released. True to her word, DiFebo takes a nice big swipe at the Go Daddy girls while sending the message that the company is ultimately about technology and service. How this is done is an eye-opener.
Click here for Danica Patrick's tasteless "beaver" commercial that was part of the advertising campaign surrounding the 2008 Super Bowl. This commercial was supposedly rejected by TV and could only be seen at the Go Daddy website. Of course, the entire thing was a marketing effort to direct TV viewers online.
Click here for the first of the three new Olympic ads. "Charlene" represents the Go Daddy girls but without a company logo or even body paint. The line is "Charlene is how Go Daddy attracts domain name customers." The new character of Karl represents the part of the company never before mentioned. He keeps the customers.
Halfway through the ad, Charlene is said to have forced three state senators into early retirement while she stands on-camera petting her otter. Go Daddy was infamous for putting Parsons' contempt of the Federal Government on display in ads ranging from the "Enhancement Panel" to the classic "Broadcast Censorship Hearings."
Click here to see the original 2005 Super Bowl ad where the C-SPAN logo was changed to G-SPIN.
So what exactly is the point of these new ads and spending millions to run them in the Olympics? Gone are the familiar "Go Daddy Girl" faces the company worked so hard to develop. Gone is the teenage sexual innuendo. Instead, a generic sexy girl with an otter and a reputation is upstaged by a nerd named Karl.
"I felt it would be disingenuous not to acknowledge our past and do it in a tongue-in-cheek way, but really point to the future," Go Daddy CEO Adelman told the Huffington Post on Monday. This may be the strongest statement yet that what Adelman and DiFebo have in mind does not involve the Go Daddy Girls.
Patrick is finishing a full-time season in the Nationwide Series while running a limited schedule in the Sprint Cup Series. Her primary NASCAR sponsor is Go Daddy. Now, that company heads into the Olympics without her.
Love it or hate it, the upside in Patrick's Go Daddy TV ad exposure was that she was now firmly tied to NASCAR. Her pursuit of a win in the Nationwide Series continues, but 2013 was supposed to see her running for Rookie of the Year honors in the Sprint Cup Series with Stewart-Haas Racing. That would be huge for the entire sport.
Patrick has been coy on confirming her plans for next season in the media, but things are said to be in place. Even the Indy 500 and Coke 600 double-dip has been put on the table as possible for next year. What has yet to unfold is just how she fits into the company's advertising future as Adelman shifts the Go Daddy emphasis from sex to technology.
Click here to see the current Go Daddy homepage. The company's IndyCar driver James HinchCliffe continues to be featured as a result of the most recently completed ad campaign. Patrick is nowhere to be found.
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15 comments:
Wow, and these ads are supposed to be an improvement? Less semi-naked girls, but still ... If they really wanted to be tongue in cheek, the animal would be a beaver, not an otter.
The new ads may not show as much skin as the older ones but they are not an improvement. I think they need a new ad agency.
I think we can see more #27 GoDaddy Chevrolet INDYCAR driver James Hinchliffe ads with a takeoff of his Mayor of Hinchtown gimmick as Mayor of Go Daddy Town, pushing technology representatives into his city!
...target audience probably 16-30 year old males. They're not going to suddenly ignore the demographic; whether it offends others or not.
For me, this falls into the Who Cares Department!
JR
Anon,
SHR is counting on a full time Sprint Cup Series effort from Patrick in 2013 funded by Go Daddy.
If the ad campaigns pass her by, the issue of what becomes of her ride and NASCAR career will move to the front burner quickly.
Unlike others who have used their driving ability to get sponsorship, Patrick has brought strong sponsors who allowed her to start literally from scratch and gain NASCAR experience.
Next season should be very interesting.
JD
unlike, say, kids with rich daddies who can attract sponsors because they have a larger organization on which to base a team; so they've always driven the best cars starting with go carts and had the opportunity to learn more at a younger age. So it would be totally wrong to bring your own sponsor instead. She may not have used driving ability to get the sponsor, but she has it now. No reason to think other companies wouldn't see the value in her brand. Of course, they *have* a contract in place anyway.
Anon,
Family-funded rides in all forms of motorsports are now the norm. I did not exclude any other drivers who have family backing, just spoke specifically about Patrick.
In the current economy that has seen drivers like Jeff Gordon and Matt Kenseth struggle for sponsors, it will be interesting to see what company will step-up if Go Daddy moves on.
JD
I recently turned to Godaddy when my web person let my domain name expire without telling me. I have to say, the people on the phone at Godaddy are helpful, knowledgeable, and a step above. Why did I turn to Godaddy? Because they're in Nascar. Why will I stay? Outstanding customer service. And I'm wwaayyyy out of their targer demographic.
I hope they stick around in Nascar.
In the interest of full disclosure let me state for the record I voted for Hinch.
On a larger note, as @Tracy D said GoDaddy is not at all a poor service provider. In fact they are quite good.
Now, yes, their ads have been annoying; some would say sexist, etc., etc., etc. but darn if they do not work. I mean, like, what are they selling here? The answer is something that is not all that interesting ... soooo ... what can you do to get attention in our overly cluttered world?
OK. Cheap answer is sell sex. They sell tires with sex for god's sake. They sell everything they can think of with sex. And they sell stuff with cute animals -- Cats especially work for me.
I could belabour this, but point is people know what GoDaddy is and people pretty much know what GoDaddy does. You may go 364 days 17 hours and 10 minutes without ever thinking about acquiring a domain, but if during the 11th minute you do which, quick now, company do you think of?
Yeah. Thought so.:)
Val DiFebo is a woman of enormous talent and charm and she and her team run a top-drawer creative shop, but as is my habit (and annoying personal quirk) I gotta wunner aloud if to radicallly depart from what has worked is a sound idea. I mean, ya know, just where or what is the larger audience / customer base you are seeking? Huh?
Dance with him what brung you. If It ain't broke don't fix it. Oh, golly, I sound really Ancient now :)
That is all
J.D.,
GoDaddy is my domain registrar and I'm very pleased with the customer service. I'm a small-time web designer and while I know more than most people (in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king) I'm by no means as tech-savvy as a full-time pro.
I originally resisted going with GoDaddy because of the moronic name. As a straight, red-blooded American male, I enjoyed the commercials, but saw them as cheap pandering. I wondered if a company which chose to use a moronic name and salacious marketing could possibly be competent.
A designer friend told me to get over myself. Once I tried them, I liked them. They have 24/7 tech support from Americans in Arizona and the wait time is always less than 5 minutes. Their staff is very well-trained and they are not in any time pressure so they have a chance to make related comments and not just stick to the script, and laugh when I make a joke. They offer helpful suggestions which go beyond upselling, although their constant upselling is bothersome.
I've gotten beyond my original mindset of their moronic marketing. Now my main objection -- and it's not a dealbreaker -- is their services dashboard seems to be different every time I use it, mostly because I only log in about once a year because I don't need to make any changes all the time.
WCK
@Gina good point, if they were going for the joke, they ruined it by chickening out. I thought it was wimpy, although at first wondered if they were going to show a different angle and we'd see the tell-tale tail.
J.D.,
GoDaddy is my domain registrar and I'm very pleased with the customer service. Just today I got a voicemail from them reminding me that my domains are expiring. (They have a service which let me pro-rate renewals so I could renew all of them at once.)
I'm a small-time web designer and while I know more than most people (in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king) I'm by no means as tech-savvy as a full-time pro.
I originally resisted going with GoDaddy because of the moronic name. As a straight, red-blooded American male, I enjoyed the commercials, but saw them as cheap pandering. I wondered if a company which chose to use a moronic name and salacious marketing could possibly be competent.
A designer friend told me to get over myself. Once I tried them, I liked them. **They have 24/7 tech support from Americans in Arizona** and the wait time is always less than 5 minutes. Every single question has been resolved on the first call.
Their staff is very well-trained (they must have an excellent set of help screens in front of them) and they are not in any time pressure so they have a chance to make related comments and not just stick to the script, and laugh when I make a joke. (And smart enough to laugh when it's feeble too.) They offer helpful suggestions which go beyond upselling, although their constant upselling is bothersome.
I've gotten beyond my original mindset focused on their moronic name and salacious marketing. Now my main objection -- and it's not a dealbreaker -- is their services dashboard seems to be different every time I use it, mostly because I only log in about once a year because I don't need to make any changes all the time. But I've come to rely on their phone support, if for no other reason than if enough people stopped calling, they'd cut back on it.
WCK
@Gina,
I too wondered by they chickened out. I thought we'd see the director cut to a new angle and we'd see the tell-tale tail.
WCK (who couldn't resist the pun)
WCKenny, LOL, exactly, I'm glad you saw the joke Hey if you're going to go for it, go big or go home!
And I loved your pun!
Maybe there is more here than GoDaddy not using Danica. Perhaps it has something to do with world of sports and NASCAR. The majority of people in the sports world, undoubtedly consider the games during the Olympics to be sports. However, NASCAR is regarded by several in the sporting world to not be a sport or to be "less" of a sport.
I have long considered NASCAR to have failed in crossing the barrier to be considered a true sport by the sporting world. Just watch an episode of SportsCenter. NASCAR gets very little mention and might as well not exist in the off season. However, the NFL, NBA and MLB all get extensive off season and during season coverage.
BZF's move to the Chase was to draw attention to the sport during the start up of the NFL season. The Chase was supposed to expose NASCAR to more sporting programs. I have noticed a decrease in NASCAR mentions sense the inception of the Chase. Shows like Jim Romes, PTI, Around the Horn essentially never mention NASCAR unless a tragedy has occurred. Now we have seen sponsors leaving the series left and right. Big name drivers cannot maintain a consistent sponsor.
And now the princess of NASCAR, the driver who was made by marketing and moderate talent will not even be used during one of the biggest sporting events that exists. I consider this to be dark times for NASCAR.
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