I had dinner with my sister last night, and we talked about the game for a while, then she mentions Godaddy.com. She asks me do you work with them, and what exactly do they do?
That’s just great.
A very smart, Internet user, can’t figure out after watching 2 commercials, what a company does.
$6 million dollars and the average guy in the street has no idea of Godaddy.com does, why you would use it, or how you would use it, except if they possibly if they heard the line “register your domain here”.
I understand that sex sells.
Believe me I do.
To make themselves a household name, I get the big breast, shock and awe, controversial ad strategy the first time and maybe even the second.
You can’t argue the first couple of SuperBowl ads, put Godaddy on the map.
Now as the world’s biggest registrar, every one’s heard of their name.
But it that enough?
Is that the best and highest use for $6 million dollars, the same old courtroom where a pretty girl shows some cleavage?
Maybe a better use of $6 Million and 60 seconds of broadcast time would be to let the average guy on the street know something about what the company does; Domain registrations, giving companies a web presence, hosting, or how about letting the public know that they are the worlds biggest domain registrar?
Being the biggest in any industry invoked in the public’s mind a degree of trust.
We all know the net is full of scams. Phishing, hacking, viruses, attempts to steal your information, spam, all the bad stuff that all internet users worry about.
Maybe its time Godaddy.com stopped showing breasts and started talking about the serious business of the internet, like security certificates, secure hosting, secure credit card processing.
How about telling people how many domains are registered with godaddy, or how many business have trusted them to host their sites, or how many godaddy security certificates are in use protect sites from hacking customers credit card info?
Wouldn’t the average guy on the street be blown away by those numbers?
Wouldn’t the average guy on the street, be more lightly to trust such a company with their online presence and the important security issues every internet user worries about if they had those numbers.
Isn’t it time Godaddy grows up and get serious, about a serious business?
But are GoDaddy a serious business? Fame seems more important than the business itself and that has shone true lately. No innovation in years, no free whois privacy etc. As mentioned elsewhere Name.com is leading the way for serious domainers.
I saw this article referenced at http://www.OceanfrontDomains.Com and agree that it was rather silly that people who saw the GD commercials still could not say what GD does. They were talking about the ad on the O’Reilly Factor last night and the two blondes he had as his guests just had no clue when he asked them what GD does.
How can you be a serious business with a name like ‘GoDaddy’? Their cheesy marketing started with their own name and has continued ever since.
No one knows what they do who needs to the most, late night comediens were making fun of the spots showing them with Chelsea Handler then asking “does anyone know what they do except to encourage 13 year old boys to start dirty websites”, the online buzz is terrible with many complaints about service as well as the distaste of the spots… and if you think it doesn’t matter- just read adage today:
http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=134279
Rick
Can’t agree with you here.
There are plenty of companies that do serious business with cheesy names.
Apple and Yahoo to name 2.
I would have to agree on this. Seemed like everyone got up and got a beer when the GD commercials came on. My wife even asked me what they did. She is always up in my biz with the domains and she didn’t even know that i use them just about everyday.
Sorry but i was thinking the same thing as Rick. The name is just plain stupid. They could at least use a keyword in the domain name like, GoDomain.com or DomainDaddy.com. This way people would know that they have to do with domains.
They may be serious biz but the name and the owner are just weird. Bob Parsons reminds me of Larry Flint in too many ways.
Ross
And then there is that logo of that creepy guy you wouldn’t want to see you daughter going out with.
I think GD needs to take a page out of Dorito’s book and become MUCH more creative with their ads. Dorito’s had two unemployed brothers create the shattering vending machine ad and they knocked the ball out of the park.
The brothers won lots of media attention after the game. They appeared on many national news outlets, and you know what? They were decked out in Dorito’s shirts and hats … resulting in MORE free advertising.
Its crazy what can happen when you get away from the “sex sells” mentality and open up the doors to honest creativity. A quote in a video I watched yesterday sums this up perfectly. “Even in a downtrodden economy, what delights Super Bowl viewers hasn’t changed at all. Folks simply want to laugh.” The link to the video is http://newsy.com/videos/super_bowl_ads_recession_proof/
@MHB – “Isn’t it time Godaddy grows up and get serious”
I say it’s time. The controverial ads served their purpose, but they have played out. Tired cliche’ now.
After the very first commercial 3-4 years ago, I remember thinking this image of the company will not serve them in the long run. At this point in time, there’s an opportunity to have a real impact on the larger business community.
Honestly, I don’t think Parsons is much concerned with that though. GoDaddy have done so well on the old model, there’s no incentive to move to the next plateau. So GoDaddy will probably just remain the Bunny Ranch playground of Parsons.
Another troubling example of that was Parson’s video blog from a month ago. He trashed .TV pretty badly to pump .me. That creates a credibility loss when you trash a domain extension that thousands of your customers have invested in through the company. People have launched businesses on .TV and actively marketed their .TV companies. And yet their registrar host is on the internet joking it up and telling people the extension is sunk because of the Tuvalu rising tide issue. Not good.
I watched the Chelsea Handler show last night and she was like WHO ARE THEY, and the SKLAR brothers who have an online INTERNET TV SHOW, said I don’t know, its a reason to get guys excited and show big breasts. So they need a change but I think Parsons could careless I think he just wants to hang around with women that if he were poor he could not get anywhere close to.
But I think the domain industry needs to grow up to a little, I mean I read it was Ron Sheridans goal to get a party at the playboy mansion, I see it as fun, but a goal for an industry is a party ? I mean I am sure females in the business must love that. Or maybe it will be next years goal to have a chippendale cruise. Either it is a serious business or not, I am cool either way but pick which way.
Hugh
There is a difference between having a one time party at a trade show and spending $6 million dollars a year on SuperBowl Ads
Who said there wasn’t MHB ? But many domainer conferences have some type of fanfare whether it be Schilling paying the Tab for yahoo at a strip club or bikini clad prize givers, at the end of the day its all moot I am sure Parsons could care less what anyone here thinks he should do with his company. I agree its getting old but I doubt he cares what we think about his business plan.