GoDaddy Moves From Upstart to Unlikely Stalwart

With its Super Bowl ads featuring scantily-clad women and what has often been viewed lo-fi production, GoDaddy has long been regarded as something of an upstart. In 2015, making that case will become more difficult as the Web-domain registrar marks the start of its second decade advertising in the Big Game.

“We are in the Super Bowl for our 11th consecutive year,” said Barb Rechterman, the Scottsdale, Arizona company’s chief marketing officer.

The company, which has filed to go public, could take even more of a lead role in the 2015 broadcast of the game. Two of the Super Bowl’s most durable sponsors, PepsiCo and Anheuser-Busch InBev, have taken new paths that threaten to tamp down their Super Bowl presence.

While both are expected to advertise, Pepsi has in the last two years put more effort into its sponsorship of the Super Bowl halftime show than it has ads in the first and second halves of the game. And Anheuser is contemplating a future for its Budweiser that would have it aim most of the advertising for the drink at consumers in their 20s, rather than portraying it as a drink for everyone, according to a new report in The Wall Street Journal.

The Super Bowl’s most durable advertisers are known for clever ads that make people laugh, or at the very least pause for a few seconds to watch the TV screen. But they aren’t known for tweaking the rules of the ad contest that takes place each year behind what has become TV’s most-watched event. GoDaddy has moved against the grain.

Before the advent of social media, most advertisers kept their Super Bowl ad concepts secret from the rest of the world. GoDaddy has long offered sneak peeks and previews, hoping to generate more interest from consumers. These days, nearly all of the ads slated to be in the game turn up on YouTube or elsewhere in the weeks leading up to the event.