GoDaddy.com's Super Bowl ad showing supermodel Bar Rafaeli lengthily and noisily kissing a nerdy fat guy was roundly slammed as gross and sexist and wound up finishing dead list in USA Today's "Ad Meter" survey of all the ads from the game.
But guess what? GoDaddy senior executive vice president and chief marketing officer Barb Rechterman says "Whether you loved it or hated it, it's a memorable spot, and that spot, by the way, helped us achieve our best sales day ever, the Monday after the Super Bowl. We've been in business since 1997, and we've done nine years of Super Bowl ads, so for us to have our best sales day ever, that's saying a lot."
Rechterman laid out what the goal of advertising actually is: "The point of the spots is to make sure that we get our message heard and talked about, so that we can expand the brand and expose people to what we do." By that measure, GoDaddy.com's much-reviled ad was a rousing success.
We can all learn from this company and ad.
Just because people don't think you should be or do something – if you truly believe it can connect with your audience go for it. Sometimes you'll fail and sometimes you'll win – but you'll never know which until your stick your neck out and give it a shot.
Thanks for the business lesson GoDaddy!
Wayne
