Sex Sells – Go Daddy Girls Help Build Brand Recognition for Godaddy.com

By: Vinayak Ahuja

Candice Michelle, Danica Patrick, and Amanda Beard have all played their roles in establishing brand recognition for Godaddy.com, but is that necessarily right for your brand? Whenever you flash hot breasts and tight ass in front of your product without some foundation to your message, your product will look just as cheap as your ad: it'll get a hell of a lot of attention, but in the end, no body really respects it. It all depends on your goals, and in highly competitive markets, brand recognition is more valuable than brand sensibility (an image or appeal that compliments your product or service).

Here’s a sense of what I mean: I'm assuming many of you've heard of Go Daddy or at least remember their commercials, I want those people to think about what Go Daddy does, and don't cheat by Googling... K, so for those of you who know that they are a hosting site, ask your self why they're better than any other hosting site. What particularly about Godaddy.com makes you want to select their service? You might be drawing a blank around this time, that's probably because a lot of hosting sites are more about security and function rather than about being easy, so sex was a bit off topic (at least the way they portrayed it).

But after a full year of not seeing an ad, they came to mind when I thought about this topic as something to write about. Go Daddy ads were actually too explicit to be seen on TV, their last being a 2007 Super bowl Spot that quite frankly was one of their best ads…actually, it was their only good ad. The video received almost a million views; it was funny, tasteful, and promoted the simplicity of their service. What really caught my eye was the news I read regarding Go Daddy TV while investigating, which unfortunately was even further disappointment that overshadowed my hopes for their branding efforts. The entire site, much like their home page, is way too busy to enjoy as a visitor. On top of which, they lack any content of interest and seem to revolve around Danica Patrick without having any direction for her or the site. Simply a waste of time.

It’s a shame since Go Daddy was on their way of building a sense of charm to their product, similar to Ax Campaigns (it's there, really; you just have to look for it). If you caught the blog I most recently posted before this one were I mentioned building brands via the web, you could consider this an amazing opportunity that's treading water and on the verge of sinking. And, if you had a chance to read my first blog, you'll realize a significant portion of the heat has cooled off as well; this ship may have sunk by now. For Go Daddy's sake, I hope they can work out all the bugs in their marketing and advertising departments and bring stronger direction to this excellent brand building opportunity.