The advertising world is buzzing with godaddy.com’s debut on the television advertising scene with their parody of the Janet Jackson wardrobe mishap from last year. Forrester’s Advertising analyst Jim Nail gives it the “Load the Cannon with Gerbils” award:
This ad confirms it: the dotcom bubble is back. An unknown internet company selling a service that 99.9% of the audience doesn’t need spends megabucks to run an ad that has nothing whatsoever to do with the aforementioned service. At least Cyberian Outpost (whose 1998 spot firing gerbils out of a cannon can be credited with much of the dotcom advertising mania) sold computer gear people were buying at the time.
So offended (and afraid of further FCC lawsuits one might add) were the grand pooh-bahs at the NFL and Fox that they pulled the second airing of the commercial that was supposed to run during the two minute warning. The jury’s still out on this but it appears that the media buzz alone surrounding the pulling of the second ad has kicked the media coverage of the ad campaign into high gear and paid off in brand awareness dollars alone.
Bob Garfield of USA Today (which ranks all the Super Bowl ads in its annual Ad Meter story) calls the ad a success,
It branded a business never before branded. It flipped the bird at the FCC and the NFL and it self-mockingly used blatant sexism to get its message across. Plus the lady had a big bosom.
So the message hit home and branded the company but will it bring godaddy.com business? Only time will tell but my guess is yes. Maybe not $2.4 million yes but the bump will be significant. Sport fans are a huge audience that is only starting to be recognized. Ask anyone at mlb.com, DirecTV, XM or Sirius. Sports fans have money to spend on technology.
You can read more about the pre-game media coverage (and view the ad) here.
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