To the GoDaddy Brand? — What’s Happening

Will the GoDaddy brand wither as it is institutionalized?

GoDaddy CEO Bob Parsons is one outspoken guy, and he has built a brand around this “edginess”.

He recently took a stab at video blogging on his blog BobParsons.com. He discussed the idea of having former Fresh York Governor Eliot Spitzer’s call girl Ashley Dupre be the next GoDaddy girl (he stated he was open to discussion, which suggests this video was recorded ahead of GoDaddy’s PR team dismissed the idea). He also discussed a recent motorcycle accident and how he’s going to start driving a car. He then relived his fond memories of this year’s Super Bowl commercial.

The big question is: who cares? When Parsons started blogging, he made some insightful commentary on domain names and the internet, which is what his business is regarding. Sure, he made some off-topic commentary regarding torture too, but his message was mostly relevant.

Now it’s too neatly packaged.

Here’s the problem I see with Parsons and his brand. At first it seemed ingenious and uncalculated. A true maverick. The first Super Bowl commercial put the firm on the map with lots of media exposure. The coverage was even better since the firm couldn’t get any ads approved.

But then it became institutionalized. Here’s another year, another GoDaddy commercial, and another “oh gee whiz, they rejected our commercial again!” As further evidence, GoDaddy’s PR team released a “timeline” of the commercial saga. It was all planned out from day one. It was no longer edgy; it became trite.

Parson’s video blog is just another example of this. I’m sure he came up with most of the topics, but it’s too polished. (That is, except for Parsons, who comes across as rather quirky.) And it’s irrelevant. Do I really care what Parsons drives to work?

Stepping outside of whether or not you like GoDaddy as a firm, where do you think the brand is headed?