The Go Daddy kiss that keeps on giving

This year’s Go Daddy commercial may have been its most effective yet.

One thing Go Daddy founder Bob Parsons figured out a long time ago, before GoDaddy.com was a household name, was that the 30 seconds you buy during a Super Bowl is only part of what you’re buying when you advertise in the big game.

If the only time people see or hear about your advertisement is during that 30 seconds, you got ripped off.

Parsons was the master of getting press before and after the commercial aired.

Early on he played the angle of being a .com advertiser in the Super Bowl after the first round of Super Bowl .com advertisers had all gone bust.

And once that first commercial aired, it was all about how the commercials were controversial.

Every year since then the company has managed to get pre and post game press from its commercials.

While this year’s .co commercial had the smarter message and drove more immediate business, the commercial featuring the infamous kiss between Bar Rafaeli and Jesse Heiman is the one paying long term dividends.

In many ways I think the commercial was better than previous years. This year’s ad was less sexually suggestive. A bit more PG. And it had an added icky factor that was missing from previous years.

The biggest media hit from the commercial came courtesy of Jay Leno:

That minute on Jay Leno, complete with the Go Daddy mention and the Go Daddy logo on Heiman’s shirt, was free.

But that wasn’t it. The commercial was widely talked about on talk shows, comedy shows, etc.

And it keeps on giving.

People will be asking Bar Rafaeli about it for a long time. Jesse Heiman is now synonymous with Go Daddy and it’s geeky side — something the company has been trying to pitch for the past year.

I know some fellow domainers and pundits are still dissing the commercial.

But they haven’t built a billion dollar business, either.