GoDaddy CEO Bob Parsons wrote in his blog this week that GoDaddy will probably not run an ad in the 2008 Super Bowl. They have advertised for the last 3 years with very edgy and controversial ads.
His reasons:
1. Alternative Ad Opportunities. Go Daddy has become a Indy 500 sponsor and they are happy with the results.
2. Cost. He claims the ad space and creative costs exceed $10 million
3. Risk. The chance that the ads they want to run won't get accepted, or they just fall flat. Bob says his ads have to be "super edgy - or they don't work"
It sounds like they weren't pleased with the response to last year's ad. The scored poorly across a variety of the consumer voting polls on sites like SpotBowl, AOL and USA Today.
Bob does credits the Super Bowl for his company's success. He states that their market share of new domain names grew from 16% to 25% after the '05 game, to 32% after the '06 game, and to 38% after the '07 game. They average 39% today.
It is interesting to see that they've been able to build on their growth from year to year. The question is, will they be able to sustain that growth if they spread their ads across lower profile events that don't offer the buzz and media coverage of Super Bowl?
Check out the reactions (and suggestions) to this decision in the comments section of the blog. GoDaddy has certainly developed a passionate group of fans.
