LOS ANGELES - GoDaddy.com was almost unheard of six years ago.Then it ran the most talked-about ad of Super Bowl XXXIX - a spoofof Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" in which a busty womanappears before a censorship board and a strap breaks on her skimpytop.
The spot was so racy that Fox yanked a second airing scheduledfor later in the game. The other fallout? The Super Bowl ad rolledout each year by GoDaddy, which registers Internet domain names, isnow almost as eagerly awaited as the halftime show.
Fox is charging about $3 million for 30 seconds of ad time thisSunday during Super Bowl XLV. So is the gamble worth it forcompanies?
"It's not a bet," GoDaddy founder Bob Parsons said. "If you knowthe outcome."
Online businesses in particular reap big benefits from pitchingduring the big game. Viewers see the ads, then rush to the Web tosee uncut versions of the commercial or snag freebies - and they endup becoming paying customers.
Take Homeaway.com, which last year hired Chevy Chase and BeverlyD'Angelo to send up the old National Lampoon movies in a Super Bowlad. (A snooty concierge tells Chase he's booked in the "NapoleonSuite," which turns out to have a comically low ceiling.)
The ad, the site's first during a Super Bowl, resulted in a hugeincrease in traffic, which lets vacationers book rental properties.The new business from the Super Bowl ad allowed the site to recoup60 percent to 70 percent of the cost.
"The rest you're attributing to future value," co-founder and CEOBrian Sharples said.
The company is buying time during Sunday's Packers-Steelers gameand will save money on production by not using celebrities. Italready spent $1 million on servers to handle the Internet trafficbump last year and can reuse the equipment.
CareerBuilder's ads helped the job-listing site leapfrog rivalMonster after its first Super Bowl ad in 2005. The amount of moneybilled to companies posting new job listings in the month after theSuper Bowl has risen, on average, by 39 percent above the same monththe previous year.
It's back again this year, despite the tough economy. "What we'vefound year in and year out is that it effectively moves ourbusiness," said chief marketing officer Richard Castellini.
And then there's GoDaddy. After Super Bowl XXXIX, it addedracecar driver Danica Patrick as a "GoDaddy girl," and last yearsigned "The Biggest Loser" trainer Jillian Michaels. It's alreadyencouraging customers to check out this year's Super Bowl for "ourhottest ads yet."
Since the Jackson spoof in 2005, GoDaddy has gone from singledigits to nearly 50 percent of market share in domain-name registry.On average, the site says, it has picked up 5 percentage points ofmarket share within the first 48 hours after a Super Bowl ad. Itposted almost $1 billion in revenue last year.
For other big brands, the link between sales and awareness isharder to measure. Most people knew Budweiser before its helmet-wearing bottles squared off in the first Bud Bowl, and most peoplehad tried McDonald's before Larry Bird and Michael Jordan playedextreme Horse for a Big Mac.
Still, this year, several major companies are returning to thegame after absences to save cash or try different marketingstrategies. General Motors, which was under majority governmentownership this time last year but has since gone public, will try todrum up excitement for its small Chevrolet Cruze. PepsiCo wants toput Pepsi Max back on people's radars as a zero-calorie drink aftera year of focusing on community grants.
The attraction for advertisers is playing to an audience of about100 million people all at once. The 68 spots were sold out by Fox inOctober, an indication that companies are more eager than ever toappeal to the masses. Last year, some spots remained unsold untilsix days before kickoff.
In some cases, the ads can work too well, especially if they'relinked to online giveaways. Dockers, a Levi Strauss & Co. brand,promised free pants in its ad last year and ended up mailing outtwice as many pairs as it expected.
Jen Sey, senior vice president of global marketing, says thestrategy paid off by revitalizing the brand and helping the companyfind new distributors. But this year, it's doing a cheaper pre-gamead and not promising any freebies.
"We're taking those resources and spreading them throughout theyear," said Sey.
And Denny's Corp., whose free Grand Slam breakfast campaigncreated huge lines around the country last year, is staying clear ofthe game. It has a new ad campaign that won't be shown during theSuper Bowl and won't offer anything for free.
AP photo
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