Now that the Super Bowl game’s “Brand Bowl” is finished, the polls and opinions are popping up everywhere. This year there seems to be a lot more reactions and buzz bubbling on the internet, more so than in year’s past, thanks in part to social media sites.
Who had the cleverest ads? Who was the funniest? Facebook, Youtube and Twitter (and maybe even a few old-school water coolers) will be buzzing the rest of today with chatter about both an amazing game and some good and some not so good ads. Youtube’s voting is still going on and you can catch all the ads that you missed. There were some good ones that got a little chuckle from me, but generally speaking the creative wasn’t outstanding. The companies that advertised on the game and matter most in this little “domain world” were Google and Godaddy. . .
On Twitter a lot of people seemed to like the Google ad but like Jeff Jarvis in this article, I wasn’t really super impressed. It was a clever use of story to demonstrate the product and was classically simple, but really does something so simple as using Google need to be demonstrated? Jarvis makes a point about France and Football not being a great matchup. It could have been more audience targeted, but CEO Eric Schmidt admitted that the ad wasn’t created for specifically for the Big Game. Also, doesn’t Google already TOTALLY dominate search ? I get that it’s a great branding opportunity and the ad endeared many to the brand, but Google has a lot of other offerings to showoff to that the average guy on the couch may not have a clue about. Did they just release a phone or something ?
Overall, Google winning the love of most viewers is okay by me and it’s surreal to think that what some are calling the #1 advertisement is for a “new media” brand that has chipped away the base of “traditional media” revenues and completely changed the advertising landscape. To me, Google’s ad running on the Super Bowl gives the idea of Super Bowl advertising more legitimacy.
Most disappointing to me (and to several others) was the Godaddy commercials. Ok, we get it Godaddy. You like to have controversy and you like to have your ads pulled so you can get more PR before the game, but really come on. It’s done. It used to be impressive to me that a domain company had the money and guts to invest in expensive Super Bowl ads, but I’m over it. Godaddy released several ads this year. One ad got cut and two that didn’t get cut made it on air during the game (one posted below). Personally, I would have preferred the cut ad. It does a better job explaining the product and isn’t all about popping open shirts.
While I sat in my comfy chair watching the game and surfing on my phone, my twitter stream filled with negative reactions to Godaddy ads, but suddenly Bob Parson’s chimes in with a “72% surveyed say GoDaddy.com #sb44 ads were hilarious.” tweet. What !? Who are these people taking this survey? Even the 4 person team on twitter @godaddyguy even chimed in saying they were having a hard time keeping up. This is where you earn your keep I guess guys.
Back to the ads. The premise for these ads is basically pretend to show some boobies at the end and leave them hanging with ” See More at GoDaddy.com” . . .and I’m sure MANY went hoping to see more. Like one blogger points out “Not only do these cliffhanger endings generate buzz and capture the audience’s attention, it also gets people to actually visit GoDaddy.com to see what its all about.” Only problem is, like crying wolf, you can only pull this “trick” once. The viewer doesn’t get anything special when they go to the site.
You got the viewer to your site with the same “1 horse trick”. Now what? The viewer thinks “I went to the site and I didn’t get what I wanted”. They now remember you and your brand as being a company that teases them into thinking they were getting a “free porn show” . . . oh and maybe remembers you sell domain names. As Brian Clark from Copyblogger.com said, “Thanks GoDaddy, but your target audience already knows where the best porn on the web is“.
Fear not though, Godaddy is ready to give you the chance to show them how to do it better. In a similar fashion to other brands before them, Godaddy is holding a contest and awarding prizes for the best ads. Hopefully they have judges that aren’t the same 72% that voted in the previously mentioned poll.
If anyone has a camera, a ski boat and a pet shark, I’ve got a good idea for a commercial :)
(c) 2009 DomainNameNews.com
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Internet giant Google.com has lost an arbitration case over the domain name Groovle.com. In a decision released today, The National Arbitration Forum, dismissed Google’s complaint which claimed that it was entitled to the domain name Groovle.com. Google claimed that the domain name is “confusingly similar” to its trademark for “Google”.
The unanimous three person panel ruled that Groovle.com “is not confusingly similar” to Google’s trademark, “Google”. Google has commenced 65 similar domain name disputes and this is only the second time that it has ever lost. Domain name lawyer and Internet law expert, Zak Muscovitch is responsible for successfully defending the “little guy” against the mega-corp Google.
The domain is owned by Canadian entrepreneurs Jacob Fuller and Ryan Fitzgibbon, who launched Groovle.com in 2007. As Fuller explains, “Groovle was created to provide users the ability to upload photos and customize their Internet start page. We thought it would be a cool feature to have a nice photo of friends, family etc., every time you launch your web browser”. Says Fitzgibbon, “since we launched Groovle in 2007, Google, Bing and Ask.com have each come out with something similar”.
The pair are elated with the decision. “We were stunned when Google launched the domain name dispute as we have great respect for Google and have always had a good relationship with them”, said Fitzgibbon. Fuller added that, “Google never had anything to fear from our web site. The arbitrators’ decision that the two domain names are sufficiently different should put Google at ease and we look forward to a renewed positive relationship with Google”.
Muscovitch concluded “Google clearly miscalculated here however my clients are prepared to put this behind them”.
(c) 2009 DomainNameNews.com
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Goodle has now launched it’s own URL shortener under the goo.gl domain in the ccTLD of Greenland. The service is not offered as a standalone service at this point, but is instead embedded into Google Toolbar and Feedburner. The new product also automatically checks to detect sites that may be malicious and will warn users.
Official Google Blog: Making URLs shorter for Google Toolbar and FeedBurner.
(c) 2009 DomainNameNews.com
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