Yesterday’s Superbowl was full of great ads. Some of them very creative with very limited budgets, like Dorito’s “Crystal Ball”.
But it seems GoDaddy.com’s commercials (there were two of them) have started a backlash of users who are angry at the way that the site markets itself using women in a sleazy way.
The commercials (which I’ve attached at the end of this post) start IndyCar racer Danica Patrick, which has been an ambassador of the site for some time now.
Earlier today, GoDaddy customers organized a virtual picket sign protest on Twitter, hashing their comments with “#NoDaddy” (you can see the most recent posts here), threatening to close their accounts for GoDaddy’s non-conventional marketing.
Twitterer Mark W. Schumann has a valid point: GoDaddy could potentially be alienating half of their customer base; while Twitterer Andrew Hyde announced he had moved all of his domains out.
I asked my followers what they though about it. Bud Gibson said: ”I think the godaddy commercials focus too much on sleazy sex. Very low brow and lacking subtlety. Why does Danica associate?”
Tobias Bray concurred that this will be similar to the: ”Motrin like fallout from mommy bloggers.”
Interestingly, one of my female followers, blogger Dana Willhoit said: ”I think that GoDaddy is genius at marketing and the controversy is planned, and will only help boost sales.”
I’m personally on the fence on this one. While the commercials struck me as sleazy, and with very little creativity, I wouldn’t go ahead and move out my domains from the service because of their marketing.
That, and the fact that Network Solutions is still too expensive for me.
Also, the commericals were partial versions. If you see the full-length versions onGoDaddy’s site, you’ll see there’s a twist on them: women do get some “payback”.
Advertising has always used women as a valuable marketing tool (beer commercials anyone?), but that could be partly because I am the demo GoDaddy is apparently going for.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this one.
Update: Shashi Bellamkonda, Network Solution’s Social Media Guru, sent two great related blog posts my way:
- Mack Collier mentions on his blog post that Network Solutions might see this as an opportunity to get some customers their way.
- Katie Paine is calling for a ”GoMommy” hosting solution.
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DISCLOSURE: I am in charge of marketing for http://www.namecheap.com, a domain registrar. I am writing this on behalf of myself though.
As a former athlete for the University of Texas, I was really bummed Danica did these ads. She is a pioneer in her sport and should not be affiliated with GoDaddy. Personally, I think she could make much more money leveraging higher brow brands as she races in a higher brow sport.
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In the old days we used to say “Any press is good press”. That was before the public could discuss an event and share opinions. I’m not sure what GoDaddy was thinking when they put this together. Was it one of Parson’s rules to live by? You can show the American Public a lot of risky stuff, but don’t mess with their kids. GoDaddy now has to face the inevitable – Businesses that can not afford to be associated with this Brand.
Obviously their market research shows men as dominant users OR they’re clueless about how to market to their women customers. Which is it? I wonder how the women who work at GoDaddy feel when they saw the ads previewed? It reminds me of the 70″s when I handled advertising for Peterbilt and had to go to photo shoots for their calendar – half-naked women lying on Class 8 trucks. Coming from a similar world (race cars), Danica probably is very familiar with this “style” of advertising. It seems out of place within technology though.
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Every year when the Super Bowl ads air, I say I’m going to ditch GoDaddy. This year, I’m making good on the threat. It’s not just the sleazy, demeaning ads–which I’m reminded of every time I sign on to my account–it’s also their impossible to navigate UI and their laborious upselling-till-you-give-in checkout procedure. We all have our “tipping points,” and this was it for me.
What’s also interesting is to see various competitors offering promotional discounts to entice disgruntled GoDaddy customers like me. I’ll be taking one of them up on the offer.
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Not only is GoDaddy potentially alienating half of its audience, but it’s leaving itself wide open to competitive in-roads. Network Solution is offering a coupon for anyone who wants to switch. Which gives them an automatic inroads to that 50% that GoDaddy is alienating.
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GoDaddy.com is one of the worst web sites ever! Every time I take over a domain hosted at GoDaddy, the first thing I do is get an EPP code so I can transfer the domain out. I can live with stupid marketing, but I cannot live with a useless web site, especially one I’m forced to visit all the time to get work done.
I’m one of those who was offended enough to move all my domains off of Godaddy today (12 of them).
You may want to remind your readers that the expensive Network Solutions is not the only other game in town. A good list of alternate registrars, some of which are actually cheaper than GoDaddy, can be found here:
http://nodaddy.com/#alternatives
In my case, I was already hosting my sites on DreamHost, so I transferred there. Fortunately, when you transfer a domain, the expiration date doesn’t change, so although I had to pay a $10 transfer charge to take my business away from GoDaddy, the domains that are set to expire 3 years out are STILL set to expire in 3 years…
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I moved away from GoDaddy a few years ago to a slightly-higher priced registrar because of their business practices which at the time included de-registering domains of websites that offended them with no notice to the owner. I find it somewhat comical that they have gone from content-police to stooping to this kind of advertising. While I don’t find it offensive due to its overt sexuality, I do find it horrendously pandering and insulting. I am glad I am not part of their prospective market.
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They obviously to not know what the demographics are for their own products, IMHO. I am pretty tired of the ads. I left Godaddy a long time ago, for pretty simple reasons.
1.) I was tired of having all their extra marketing shoved at me on the screen when I just wanted to register a domain.
2.) Their terrible customer service.
I switched to Namecheap at the suggestion of a client buying a site from me, and I have never been happier.
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As far as any publicity being good publicity, I’m not sure I agree anymore. People have the ability to amplify their voices in unprecedented ways. My wife also commented that Danica’s involvement may backfire on her. I think that is very possible.
However, as trashy as those ads are, Network Solutions will never be an option for me. Back in the 1990′s you needed a stamp from God to get anything done with your domain registration. It was such a major pain in the a** that I would never use them no matter what coupon they offered.
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GoDaddy meets twitter :)
They focus so much on those commercials that the domain business seems secondary :)
I moved my domains from godaddy a long time ago, not (directly ) because of their ads but because they just suck. Their site is slow , and you have to jump fences to get things done around ( typical for sites built on ASP )
Before I left they needed 12 hours or more to respond to an email, not to mention they responded with messages that seemed automated and not useful at all .
They are even worse as a dedicated server provider.
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FYI, Your links are broken to the Name of people leaving comments.
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ok, so i host 95% of my domains at godaddy. despite the fact that i don’t care for their advertising, i don’t care to switch. I did see however, that some hosting companies are taking advantage of the godaddy ads as seen on this site:
http://www.namecheap.com/
“Not happy with your current registrar or their advertising methods?” is pasted across their site.
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You guys are all kidding right? Lets name some of the other SuperBowl Ads that featured sex as their selling point:
- 1998 and 1999 featured a very sexy women two years in a row
- Britney Spears was featured in multiple Pepsi SB commercials
- “The Twins” multiple SB ads for Coors Light
OK – lets just list female sex symbols that have appeared in an ad:
- Carmen Elektra
- All the Victoria Secrets women
OK – you know what – its not worth it. Do what you want to do – I for one will not be moving off of GoDaddy.com (and spending extra money to do so) – simply because they had a commercial that someone (not me) found offensive.
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I think the mommy bloggers and tweeples tend go overboard with their concern on the GoDaddy commercials. Anyone who joins GoDaddy has got to know that the company rocketed into mainstream awareness after their first superbowl scandalous ad, so it really shouldn’t come as a shock that they’re using the same ole tried and true tactics that gain them new business. It was interesting to see on twitter how a couple of companies were immediately capitalizing on the negative sentiment some people felt from the campaign (and the timing when they may act). check out these tweets:
RT @kdpaine RT @sashib Anyone who wants to move [from godaddy] can email smedia@networksolutions.com & we will take care. #superbowlads
RT @idotz #superbowlads Does your domain register act more like a Porn site? Transfer to register that respects you… #superbowlads
i’m also interested to see how much business they gained or lost….anyone know a way to find that out??? if they gained more than they lost, ten bucks says we’re going to see a similar ad at next year’s superbowl
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I think this will be a lot like the mommy motrin scandal… Enough to irritate people, but not enough to make a dent in the bottom line.
As a woman. I’m turned off… but I have more important things to worry about in my life.
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I think it’s premature to call it a mass backlash at this point, or akin to the mommy motrin “scandal” (it was a twittage, just not a scandal).
my response:
http://yodaddy.ning.com/profiles/blogs/can-we-really-call-it-a
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@David Cooley: Links are fixed, thanks!
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I signed up with GoDaddy when they first started, before they started selling girls. I got totally sick of that and moved all my domains to http://www.name.com. Same good prices, reliable service and no sleazy advertising.
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GoDaddy may get attention, but they lose business. Sure I’ve heard of them and they might be the fastest solution for a website, but seriously, GoDaddy.com is now synonymous with… you know what.
On a side note many NASCAR fans have a poor opinion Danica because her willingness to sell herself this way. There are lot of other women in racing who are better, but Danica gets all the attention because of things like this. Its not helping her.
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