“Great advertising can inspire like no internal memo can.”
Scott Bedbury
former Sr. VP of Marketing at Starbucks (1995 to 1998)
I was reminded of this quote* after reading comments from a few Go Daddy employees emphatically defending their company’s decision to advertise during the Super Bowl.
Of the 95+ million viewers who’ll watch this year’s Super Bowl, 616 of them will be Go Daddy employees. These 616 Go Daddy employees will proudly watch their company get the attention they think it so richly deserves.
If Bedbury is right, no internal memo issued from Go Daddy CEO Bob Parsons has the potential to motivate his employees more than this one Super Bowl ad.
Increasing employee morale … that is the hidden value of a Super Bowl ad.
*My recollection of this quote may be slightly different from what Scott Bedbury originally wrote in a presentation deck.
$2.4 million / 616 employees...
I don't know about where you work, but if my employer suddenly walked in the door and said "Rob, you've been doing a fantastic job and we appreciate all that you've done for us so far" and then handed me a cheque for $3000, my morale would be greatly increased.
Or what about identifying the most stressful, aggrivating issue for your employees and then spending $2.4 million to make that problem go away?
Posted by: Rob Clark | January 12, 2005 at 12:06 AM
Rob ... I hear ya ... but isn't emotional pride different than financial reward?
Is the $3,900 CPE (cost per employee) spendy? YES!
Is the $60,000 CPP (cost per point) spendy? YES!
Do I think there are better ways to spend $2.4MM to achieve Go Daddy's marketing and business objectives? OH YES!
However, I believe that Bob Parson's 616 Go Daddy employees will get a huge kick watching the Super Bowl with their friends and family and proudly pointing to the TV and telling everyone, "I work for Go Daddy. That's my company."
Now let's hope the Go Daddy commercial doesn't shoot gerbils out of a cannon or shows Dr. Ruth Westheimer’s bare ass.
Posted by: johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy) | January 12, 2005 at 12:33 AM
I think that many of GoDaddy's customers will feel that same pride when watching the commercials.
Posted by: sirshannon | January 12, 2005 at 05:31 AM
Great post. Who said Americans can't do irony? I hope sirshannon's being ironic too!
Posted by: Johnnie Moore | January 12, 2005 at 10:16 AM
Johnnie,
It's scary, but it's not irony. ;)
Posted by: Tom Asacker | January 12, 2005 at 03:09 PM
Superbowl ads can increase morale, I suppose.
30-second Morale boosting exercises is fleeting stuff, if the Oomph-factor isn't there in the substrata.
Posted by: hugh macleod | January 13, 2005 at 06:51 PM
30-second morale boost? It reminds me of Steve Martin's character's morale boost when he read his name for the first time in the phone book: "I'm somebody!" Wasn't the title of that film, "The Jerk?"
Posted by: Tom Asacker | January 16, 2005 at 11:10 AM
Oh my ... after watching the Go Daddy commercial, I wish I could take this post back.
I still believe in Bedbury's assertion that great advertising can inspire employees more than any internal memo can. However, if I was one of the 616 Go Daddy employees watching that commercial at a Super Bowl party with my circle of friends ... I would want to hide my face in the cheese dip.
Why oh why did Parsons and Go Daddy succumb to advertising's BOOBY TRAP of when it doubt, let the breasts hang out … why???
Posted by: johnmoore (from brandautopsy) | February 06, 2005 at 09:17 PM
I am one of the 616 employees,I have never worked for a company who not only makes money, but takes care of its employees as bob parsons and the managment team @ godaddy does.The ad was great there was no nudity and there was no offensive language, It was just a god old fashioned super bowl type commercial directed at the majority of the crowd that was watching the game.
And unlike just about any other .com company this one, is very successful and will continue to be long into the future.
Posted by: mike | February 06, 2005 at 11:16 PM
I have been using GoDaddy for a while and have been recommending their services to my clients. I certainly will not be doing so after seeing that ad. It's not that I'm a prude, but how can I risk using a now-notorious company?
Posted by: Nick Short | February 07, 2005 at 12:54 PM
How surprised was I when I saw the ad?!?!
I really thought it was very funny, sexy and a great attention grabber for Go Daddy! All of which I think are great things.
i have used Go Daddy to register my fledgling company's domain names for the past couple years and i think it is great!
Posted by: Dennis | February 07, 2005 at 07:34 PM
loved the ad. keep up the good work.
Posted by: Jim smith | February 08, 2005 at 04:47 PM
I never even heard of Godaddy before and I think they hit a homerun with this commercial. The second commercial did not air so there is presumably no bill. The controversy which I think is ridiculous is a marketers dream.
I thought is was great
T McKay
Posted by: T McKay | February 08, 2005 at 06:44 PM
Well, I *thought* the Go Daddy CEO was pretty nuts-o before, but now I know for sure:
http://www.bobparsons.com/CloseGitmoNowayThinkourinterrogationmethodsaretoughPrisonersintheMiddleEasttalkquickHereswhyt.html
Are they this un-savvy or is this just another ploy to get attention for a non-differeniatable, commoditized product offering.
Posted by: Elle | June 20, 2005 at 09:36 PM
GoDaddy has gotten their commercial approved! Go to http://collegeguru.blogspot.com to check it out and the racy versions the FCC banned!
Posted by: JohnnyVal02 | February 04, 2006 at 01:03 PM
"It's tough to beat GoDaddy.com for low pricing on domain registration, Web hosting and SSL secure certificates."
- Small Business Computing
I saw this interesting little quote on the gocrappy.com website.Whoever wrote it must of gotten paid off.
Has this person actually used the cheap service, cheap quality, cheap web applications, completely crappy cheap tech support.... etc.
Let's spend a little less on super bowl commercials and a little more on your CHEAP services/support.
Just an example, they farm out certificate services to this company STARFIELD TECHNOLOGIES INC... have fun bouncing from one half/hour wait time to the next -from godaddy to starfield because there cheap webapps don't communicate.... (oh yea, kiss anything you ever knew about customer service GOODBYE ) you finally get to argue with joey justgotoutofhighschool about your problem ON YOUR DIME ( and oh yes there is going to be a problem ) because you know for a fact just "deleting cookies" doesn't solve the problem.
The best thing about their resolution to my particular problem was to UPGRADE my certificate. That way, I could avoid the investigation process of the SSL validation and the domain certificate I renewed 3 weeks prior would work immediately. Apparently the certificate I used with them for a year was not validated correctly( the one they validated, investigated, approved and issued for a year ). I didn't supply the company name or some jibberish to get me off the phone.... unbelievable.
The FAX service has major probs.. I dropped that awhile ago. Oh and have fun with there DNS manager...
ENJOY godaddy.com IT'S CHEAP ! should be your quote. I doubt it would sit well with anyone at godaddy. The truth usually hurts to much to even admit your wrong.
Old wize man say....
YOU GET EXACTLY WHAT YOU PAY FOR. ( buy a domain name, sure... worth it. Any other services and your rollin the dice my friend. Trust me )
Godaddy sucks period.
The thing is , I've been with them from the beginning. Godaddy.com used to be a good company. That's why I did so much business with them through the years and recommended the service. Over the last 2 years the company has gone down the tubes ...
I never thought I'd live to say I miss the Network Solutions monopoly on domain names....
1. They are selling web services like your ordering a big mac at mcdonalds. Running a web site and providing the services you say you can is a little more complicated Mr. Parsons. `Time to invest in your bunk software and stop blogging so much...
2. They count on your "web ignorance" to make excuses for poorly written windows applications that are so buggy and unsupported it's rediculous.
3. One of various tech support kids I talked to today.... "didn't know what a cookie was really" - "but that's what we usually say and it seems to fix any problems" .... huh?
4. The only industry that ... you can buy a product, do everything to apply this product strictly by the directions provided(by the KILLER web app)... PAY FOR THE PRODUCT ... and when it does not work as advertised or instructed they BLAME YOU ... and this seems to be an okay business practice. The web is so new, people are so uneducated about how to use it and there is so much bull^&* involved... I think these mega-morons are getting away with too much ....
Posted by: Wiley | February 08, 2006 at 07:15 PM