Marketing Evaluations Exec VP Henry Schafer said that NASCAR driver Danica Patrick "has not lost her fastball," and that she "remains one of the most known and liked figures in sports," according to Brant James of ESPNW.com. Patrick's Q Score, which measures awareness and likeability in sports figures, has "slipped from its peak of 29 in 2010 to 19 this year." Schafer said, "She's maintaining her awareness out there. I mean, she was really high a couple years ago, so despite some erosion in her appeal, she's still above average. The unique thing about her, as a spokesperson particularly in the sports world, is she was and still is able to maintain a good balance of appeal between male and female consumers, which I believe is an important ingredient to her profile for representing GoDaddy. So that part of it would be hard to replace, to find another female sports spokesperson -- if that's what they want to do -- with that kind of balanced appeal." James noted Patrick's awareness score of 76 "dwarfed the group average of 40 among female athletes assessed by the company this year." Patrick's "overall score of 19" was even with, and one point better than, the scores of tennis players Venus and Serena Williams, respectively. Schafer said Patrick is "right up there with Dale Earnhardt (Jr.), Jeff Gordon, in terms of awareness and in terms of likability, she's pretty much where they are at this point" (ESPNW.com, 10/26).
