GoDaddy looks like a winner!

GoDaddy.com, the Internet domain registrar that used tasteless humor to promote itself during the Super Bowl, actually has a good idea, a profitable company, a great brand and savvy owner. Too bad the advertising failed to mention any of it.

I was really down on GoDaddy after its Super Bowl performance. While it got people talking about the racy ads, not too many people were discussing the service. I figured it was another start-up blowing its wad with no solid brand behind the madness.

But I was dead wrong. GoDaddy is a great brand that blew a wad of solid profits on a silly Super Bowl ad. All GoDaddy really needed was a PR campaign to get the word out on its brand. They have the story, the sales and the status.

Just look at the excellent article in today’s USA Today which profiles the company and its founder Bob Parsons. While the article gives credit to the advertising for raising the company’s profile, I actually think it is only because of the company’s tremendous overall PR potential that the paper decided to cover the story almost a month after the game. A story the media would have covered without the Super Bowl stunt.

What is interesting about GoDaddy is not the silly advertising but the company itself. And that is why USA Today, many other media outlets and consumers have picked up on company.

With more than 6 million names GoDaddy is a close second to Network Solutions in world-wide domain name management. Wow! A close second, who knew? They are a well-positioned No. 2 brand because they are the exact opposite of Network Solutions. While Network Solutions might be the real thing, they are the older, complex and more expensive registrar. GoDaddy is hip, simple and cheap. The name is strange and has no relevance to the category. But again shocking and unique names work exceeding well on the Internet (Google, Yahoo!, Amazon) and it is the opposite of the stogy Network Solutions name. And GoDaddy avoids being the worst kind of brand name, a generic name like LowCostDomains.com.

I was so taken by the GoDaddy brand today that I even transferred one of my domains to test them out. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was and now plan on spreading the word about the company to my friends and colleagues. So if you have a website check out GoDaddy today!

Comments

[Jimme Chroche]

I girlfriend just worked in a GoDaddy TV spot shot in Miami and that will come out soon. She had five other girls all on South Beach and on a boat and they were all from a new DotCom line of Bikinis from a Company called JoeBikini, I think. She brought one home that was cool it just said HEHEHE on the each boob and Bottom. She also said that the Guy was in the Spot the Bikini guy JoeBikini. I wonder if the folks with give Godaddy such a hard time over this spot as it has 5 or 6 hot girls and this time in BIKINIS not a tank top, hope the networks will let Godaddy run the Bikini spots, because I want everyone to see my girl.

[Chris De La Rosa]

Customer service... I've used other hosting companies to host my sites and though they also offer good customer service, nothing so far cna beat the live support you get from Godaddy. Not to mention their low prices.

[Bram Pitoyo]

Yes, the ad was indeed brilliant. But there is two things that was wrong with it:

1. It's both "sticky"/memorable and relevant to what the current situation was, but it lacked IMPACT (did they generate enough sales to cover up the cost of the SuperBowl spot?)

2. I humbly think that the ad also lacked a sense of morality--in using sex to an excessive manner to sell a product. Right, I know that this a matter of personal belief and standard. But don't you think that every advertising should adhere to some kind of moral guidelines?

After all, advertising is about telling the truth, not the lie, right?

Laura, what do you think? (also about my first comment :)

[Lionel Matecha]

Is it a coincidence that GoDaddy has added a lot of confusing "extra choices" throughout their online forms? I've used GoDaddy for a number of years now for domain management, hosting, etc. and have been very happy with the service, but the addition of extra choices is confusing and irksome. I guess they have to pay for the Superbowl ad.

[Joe Archer]

Oh come on now, that ad was brilliant.

It makes fun of the "wardobe malfunction" you heard about (Jackson), it makes fun of easily offended people (such as yourselves, but was the old guys in the ad), air-headed blondes with big boobs, and companies that are stupid enough to use sex to sell their stuff (which was a joke on themselves too for doing exactly that).

[Craig Wilson]

I just want to know when Laura will be back. I enjoy checking in each day for your latest comemnts but, alas, we have seen nothing for weeks now.

[Bram Pitoyo]

"While the article gives credit to the advertising for raising the company’s profile, I actually think it is only because of the company’s tremendous overall PR potential that the paper decided to cover the story almost a month after the game. A story the media would have covered without the Super Bowl stunt."

On the contrary, I think that without the SuperBowl ads running in the first place, GoDaddy.com would not get any PR coverage. Remember Al's 22 Immutable Laws of marketing where being first is always better than being better? Such is the case for GoDaddy with them being 'unique' and 'attention capturing' (to define it in a rather positive tone)

So I'd say that Advertising and PR must work with each other to both build and maintain the brand, not under another (PR to build and advertising to maintain the brand)

[Paul]

Maybe this wil help. It's an excerpt from Al's Ad Age column: "Mainstream vs. Secondary," July 2004...

Marketing is not a science, it’s an art. A scientific law applies everywhere without exception. The speed of light in a vacuum is approximately 186,000 miles per second and is often denoted by the universal constant “c.” If you could demonstrate that there are places where the speed of light in a vacuum deviates from “c,” you would shake up the world of science in a most profound way. You might also win a Nobel Prize.

            A marketing law is different. A marketing law is a generalization of what is likely to happen if certain actions are taken. There are no exceptions to a scientific law. There are always exceptions to a marketing law.

            It’s like a river with secondary channels. It’s not always easy to tell the mainstream from a secondary channel. That’s why a marketing law can be helpful in keeping your brand in the mainstream. (Unless, of course, you have a secondary brand that might be happy to exist on the fringes.)

[cory]

thanks jason.

mmmm... i give the paragraph a thought, maybe what it means is something like this. for an example, some people are not likely to get themself a digital camera, but they are likely to buy a phone with camera function.

anyway, is there some other blogs we can discuss, its not very nice for me 2 keep on posting on laura blogs.

i am still learning about positioning and stategy. and i am very passionate and exited about this. i think it make more sense than the branding advertising agency claims.

[Jason Carruthers]

To Cory

You are asking about 100% guarantees. Business success is always somewhere between 1% and 99%. I read your link to Dan Herman and I think the Rieses would see his assertions as easy to refute. Besides, I couldn't even understand his statement on convergence:

"It works when the compromise which the breed demands in the benefits of the different components is smaller than the benefit offered by them combined."
-Dan Herman, PhD

Would you like to see a company that was founded entirely on the Ries laws? Here's the world's first women's optical (established using PR only).

www.ladyeyes.ca

Jason Carruthers

[cory]

just a question, i have come across a lot of al ries and trout book this few weeks. great books, but just one doubt, is every single project consultancy manage by them is successful?

is it 100% true that advertising dont build brands?

look what i found in the internet? i found what dan says on combining handphone with other features does great job, and so is harry potter.

http://www.themanager.org/Marketing/Al_Ries.htm

[Laura]

Yes, Kris (http://www.kriskrug.com/) you definately made some great points and I admit I didn't give the GoDaddy.com brand the chance it obviously deserves in my Super Bowl Ad review. So while I stand by my comments on the advertising, the brand and company are indeed fabulous! I think with a great brand an offbeat name sounds a lot better to the ear. And my re-evaluation of the situation is reflective of that!

Here is what I said for anyone who missed it:

"GoDaddy.com, please go away. A totally tasteless ad showing a girl with big boobs, a tight shirt and a malfunctioning strap. No brand message, a name that has nothing to do with the category (website registration) and a whole lot of money down the drain. ($2.4 million, to be exact.)"

Here is what Kris' comment said:

"The one thing I think you may be wrong on is godaddy.com. Their ads were memorable, and lots of folks are talking about them. I had never heard of them before, but domain registration is a commoditized market and just a couple weeks ago I emailed friend and asked him who he's been using. I’m sure I’ll remember godaddy.com next time it comes to register a domain.

It may have offended your personal sensibilities... I can see why, it was definitely pushing the edge and not the type of ad you are used to seeing on network TV, but as far as i can tell it was super effective establishing themselves as a player in that space and distinguishing their brand from a stodgy competitor like network solutions.

I actually think that your advice that their name should be a more literal reference the business might not be right in this case. There are tons of other companies in this space with descriptive names and they would probably be foolish to spend ad dollars on branding a name like DomainRegGuys.com or something.

Wow, this comment got long. You definitely know more about all this than I do, but there's my 2 pennies. Thx again for the post!"

[Gordon]

Couldn't agree more!

I've used Godaddy for a couple of years and have managed to strip my Internet costs to the bone AND my site has NEVER been down.

They also take out some of the pretense in business.

[kris]

hey laura. :) pardon me while i strut a bit. *strut* you coulda linked to lowly ole me though in your uber-famous posting, just for the fun of it. and probably your original post about godaddy.com too for context. anyway, another good one. thx.

ps. i tried to link to it here, but no HTML in comments it seems.