GoDaddy "will not run an ad" during CBS' broadcast of Super Bowl 50, the "first time it will be absent from the ranks of the game’s sponsors" since '05, according to Brian Steinberg of VARIETY. GoDaddy CMO Phil Bienert said, "We are at the point where we don’t need to grow brand awareness domestically any more. A platform like the Super Bowl is really not something that’s necessary for us. ... We have ways of reaching that part of the Super Bowl audience that we want to really focus on through other channels and other platforms." Steinberg noted with GoDaddy absent, the Super Bowl "will be missing a rogue from its advertising gallery." Despite running ads that in some years "skirted the bounds of propriety and featured decidedly lo-fi production values, GoDaddy defied convention." The company "offered a precursor to a trend that has now become the norm: releasing Super Bowl ads through social media in the weeks leading up to the game to generate interest and viral pass-along." GoDaddy also "helped race-car driver Danica Patrick become better known" (VARIETY.com, 12/17). ADWEEK's Lauren Johnson noted GoDaddy last year "pulled its ad featuring a golden retriever puppy that falls off a truck and is sold to a new owner, spoofing Budweiser's popular 'Puppy Love' Super Bowl commercials." The spot "was removed from YouTube after critics panned it for making light of puppy mills" (ADWEEK.com, 12/17). The move came one day after the company "named WPP's MEC its first-ever global media planning and buying agency of record, and a month after the web domain registrar tapped Omnicom's TBWA to spearhead its worldwide marketing strategy" (ADAGE.com, 12/17).
