Verisign paying to include .com in GoDaddy ad.
I was watching the Cardinals game last night when I noticed ads for GoDaddy.com behind the batter.
This is nothing new. GoDaddy frequently advertises on baseball broadcasts. But something about the ad looked different. Take a look.
Can’t see the difference? Here’s a close-up.
We already know that GoDaddy is rebranding by dropping .com from its name. But this ad not only drops the .com from the original GoDaddy.com logo – it adds it back as an advertisement supported by Verisign.
Think about it. Previously, Verisign got a bit of free marketing from this same exact ad shown during baseball games. It just read “GoDaddy.com”. Now Verisign is paying GoDaddy to include (and highlight) .com on the ads.
That’s a pretty big shift.
Verisign won’t be the only company paying for promotion like this going forward. A number of the hundreds of coming top level domains will pay for their TLD to be included in GoDaddy ads.
We might even see GoDaddy.baseball during ballgames.
Michael Cyger says
Great catch, Andrew. This is why I read your blog daily. Keep up the great work.
Andrew Allemann says
Thanks Michael. Good seeing you last week.
Joe says
I agree with Mike, great post as always, Andrew. Doesn’t the .com logo look oddly similar to the .co one?
Joe says
Anyway it looks like Verisign fears .com could no longer be the “de facto” TLD for domain names in the future and so is starting to promote it like any other TLD (it has done the same for .net). If someone had said this 3 years, they would have been laughed at.
Jason says
Looks like Verisign is learning a thing or two from .CO
Reade Rohn says
Andrew-
I saw the very same thing last night watching the game. My question is did you stay up for all 14 innings?
Andrew Allemann says
I went to be after 12 innings. Smart decision on my part 🙂
1808 says
Nice find.
Why not put the heat on while the new TLDs are launched? It just means the new TLD’s will need to spend so much more to brand.
Verisign is probably ramping up for this.
rob sequin says
Brilliant ad and rebranding campaign.
Win/win
I wonder who’s idea it was to drop the .com. Maybe it’s not so much a “rebranding” effort as it is to capitalize on getting sponsors for new extensions.
Of course GoDaddy will buy every new extension so this ad campaign will work forever.
Congrats to Godaddy. Very cool.
Chip says
This is more of a play for Verisign to promote it’s back-end management services to tlds and infrastructure heft to those applicants looking for an infrastructure partner. Affilias, Neustar and even Enom have been positioning themselves as a provider and Verisign is looking for some contracts.
Andrew Allemann says
@ Chip – all applicants are already tied to an “infrastructure” partner.
Nic says
Very, very cute. Impressive on the part of godaddy. If I worked at GoDaddy and thought of doing this I would be very proud of myself. Gorgeous.
Now, can we get rid of the silly Daddy caricature and cars and girls marketing strategy?