How Bob Parsons Doubled Godaddy’s Market Share In 2.5 Years
It’s true.
At the start of 2005 Godaddy had a market share of 16% of the domain registration market. As of August 2007, Godaddy has 36% of the Domain registration market.
So how in the world did Bob Parsons manage to pull this off - in such a competitive industry?
Two Words:
S-U-P-E-R B-O-W-L
Or more accurately, Bobs ability to get attention during the super bowl.
He used a masterful combination of strategies that was much more than the sum of its parts.
Anyone can do a T&A commercial… but Bob turned his commercials into EVENTS.
People would say: “I wonder what Godaddy is going to do THIS YEAR?”
He engaged people who knew about his commercials ahead of time, and “dealt them in” on his dialog with the inevitable censorship battles with the FCC. “Insiders” could talk to their friends about it, “oh, you should have seen what they WOULD HAVE DONE.. if they had been allowed.”
It became an “us v.s. them” theme, the fun loving Godaddy Domain Registration Company (which lets face it, services one of the most boring industries you can think of) taking on the uptight FCC, and all in the name of having fun during the half time show.
Domain registration became part of an American Cultural Event. And Godaddy made itself The Place to register domain names. After all, what could be more American than engaging in capitalism while taking on a backward thinking regulatory body and having a lot of fun in the process?
The result was Godaddy occupying the part of the brain that means “Domain Registration” - in a critical mass of people’s minds.
And so this year, Godaddy won’t be working on a Super Bowl commercial for 2008, they have accomplished their mission already.
It’s time to look to greener pastures in solidifying Godaddy in the minds of smaller markets… with bigger wallets… more service… and higher price points.
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