Less than a month ago, it was being questioned as to whether GoDaddy would continue with Danica Patrick as their lead spokesperson or not. That speculation was fueled partly due to a change by GoDaddy’s ad agency. But not to worry as GoDaddy founder Bob Parsons stated (source – ESPN) that Patrick will be in two new commercials which will debut on Super Bowl Sunday next February.
Surprised
Even Patrick was taken aback by the announcement saying: “I definitely thought there was a chance I wouldn’t be in them. It was a pleasant surprise that he announced I would be in both of them. I was thinking one. To hear two, it did surprise me a little bit.”
Patrick has done 22 commercials for the web hosting and internet domain supplier. But the spot she did for the last Super Bowl performed very poorly – so that along with the new agency, fueled conjecture and rumors (including from yours truly) that Patrick was no longer GoDaddy’s girl. Patrick has appeared in more Super Bowl ads than any other celebrity.
GoDaddy is the largest domain registrar in the world. GoDaddy has been working on toning down their image and it was speculated that nixing Patrick was part of the plan.
Ploy?
Now, one has to wonder whether the announcement last month was just a ploy for free PR. Was she ever truly gone as GoDaddy’s spokesperson? When Deutsch took the reins as GoDaddy’s ad agency, was there actually going to be a change or was this a strategy for extra public relations? GoDaddy loves to maneuver around the marketing world and will use almost any tactic for more free pub.
GoDaddy has funded Danica Patrick’s motorsports pursuits for five years now and will be bumping their investment in her next season when she goes full-time NASCAR Sprint Cup racing. They originally backed her some years ago when Patrick was driving for Michael Andretti in IndyCar and then in Nationwide. The cost of funding a sponsorship in IndyCar is significantly smaller than NASCAR.
The Super Bowl game is slated for New Orleans on February 3rd 2013.
Sources – DanicaRacing.com
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Daryle has been involved in motorsports most of his life and has three decades of experience inside racemarketing, plus for several years has blogged about every type of racing.
