GoDaddy to Return to Super Bowl Advertising in 2017

A slew of regular Super Bowl advertisers has opted to leave the event in recent years. Gone for now (and, perhaps, for later) are former Super Bowl stalwarts like FedEx and General Motors. In 2017, Toyota and Doritos will not step on the playing field.

One of the departed, however, is ready to make a comeback.

GoDaddy, the web-services provider with the upstart attitude, is making a return to Super Bowl advertising after sitting out Super Bowl 50 this year. The company plans to run a single 30-second commercial in the first half of the game, said Barb Rechterman, GoDaddy’s chief marketing officer, in an interview. “We finalized the deal within the last month or so,” she said. “We are fast and furious on the creative side.”

The Scottsdale, Arizona, company took to the Super Bowl sidelines as it used 2016 to develop a bigger name for itself overseas, Rechterman explained. In 2017, however, it wants to unveil a new product about which she declined to offer specific details. GoDaddy started running ads in the Super Bowl in 2005, and its absence in 2016 was its first in more than a decade.

Viewers will not see most of the elements that helped build GoDaddy’s name. The ads will feature no women clad in skimpy halter tops and professional racer Danica Patrick is no longer affiliated with the company. Rechterman instead vowed to use the Super Bowl to kick off a new campaign that talks about the power of the internet. The ad, crafted by the Bullish agency, will use “iconic images,” she said.

The company’s decision highlights the importance of having a clear goal when deciding to take part in Super Bowl advertising.