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GoDaddy has been a regular advertiser at the Super Bowl with its racy TV spots. Here's why the brand is sitting it out this year.
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GoDaddy has been a regular advertiser at the Super Bowl with its racy TV spots. Here's why the brand is sitting it out this year.

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GoDaddy

  • Longtime Super Bowl advertiser GoDaddy will not return to TV screens during the big game this year.
  • "It's a monolithic approach that may have worked well for us 10 years ago, but today it feels like standing on top of a mountain and shouting into a megaphone," GoDaddy's chief brand officer Cameron Scott told Business Insider.
  • Instead, the company is running a targeted digital campaign that will use micro-influencers aimed at small-business owners and entrepreneurs.

Longtime Super Bowl advertiser GoDaddy will not be returning to TV screens during the big game this year.

Instead, the web domain company is running a targeted digital campaign that will use micro-influencers aimed at small-business owners and entrepreneurs.

"It's a monolithic approach that may have worked well for us 10 years ago, but today it feels like standing on top of a mountain and shouting into a megaphone," GoDaddy's chief brand officer Cameron Scott told Business Insider. "It may still work if you're selling beer or chips, but we want to say something of substance and have a dialogue."

GoDaddy ran a string of risqué ads during the big game between 2005 and 2014 - including several memorable spots with Nascar driver Danica Patrick and supermodel Bar Refaeli. That approach worked since it was aiming for brand awareness, but no longer makes sense, said Scott.

"As we have grown and matured as a company, we need to make that shift towards making people understand who we are, what we do and who we do it for," said Scott. "And we have a passion for helping everyday entrepreneurs."

To that end, the company is launching "Make the World You Want" on Feb. 8, a campaign centered on six real-life entrepreneurs who are using GoDaddy to grow their businesses.

It includes cookbook author and TV personality Ayesha Curry, fashion designer Lyn Slater, singer Elohim, sports commentator Dan Peterson, eco-products designer Tyson Toussant, and architect and landscaper Poloma.

The campaign is primarily running on social and OTT video platforms, with support from traditional media like TV. The company will also involve events relevant to its influencers. Slater, for example, will be featured in online and TV ads during Fashion Week.

"It wasn't an easy choice to sit out the Super Bowl, but we believe that influencers are the future of marketing," said Scott. "People are more likely to act on recommendations from people they know and trust in their communities and that's why we let the influencers lead the conversation - very different from how Super Bowl advertising has been done so far."

This is not the first time that the company has chosen to stay away from the Super Bowl.

GoDaddy took a break in 2016, after it received flak for spoofing Budweiser's popular "Puppy Love" Super Bowl commercials with an ad that showed a puppy falling off a truck and being sold to a new owner. It also sat out in 2018, instead reuniting with driver Danica Patrick to sponsor her final races at the Daytona 500 and Indianapolis 500 before her retirement.

GoDaddy began moving away from its raunchier marketing roots in 2013. In the 2014 Super Bowl, for example, its "Bodybuilder" ad featured Patrick in a muscle suit. Patrick is not part of the current campaign.

While the company is trying to engage with audiences more deeply, don't expect it to go down the Gilette route anytime soon, said Scott.

Read More: Gillette knew that its new #MeToo ad would prompt backlash. Here's why the company still went ahead with it.

"The world really is buzzing with change in terms of movements, protests and causes, and there is a growing distrust of the big guys and a resurgence of communities," said Scott. "Gillette wanted to trigger debate. But we are not trying to stir a debate; we want to have conversations that will resonate with very different communities."