I’m pleased to announce “ESPN College Football – Presented by GoDaddy.com.”

I made it known we would consider Super Bowl alternatives.
Last month in my August blog post, I wrote that we were thinking long and hard about whether or not to advertise for our fourth consecutive year on the upcoming Super Bowl. I also wrote we were thinking about advertising instead on other high profile events – similar to Go Daddy’s deal with ABC for the Indianapolis 500 and other Indy Car broadcasts.

Then the deals started showing up.
Among the high profile alternatives that showed up at Go Daddy Headquarters, ESPN brought us one that we just couldn’t resist.

College Football – Go Daddy Style!
Last week Go Daddy inked a multi-million dollar deal with ESPN. Our deal begins with the two college games that air Saturday night September 22nd on ESPN2, and will continue throughout the college football season and into several important bowl games. In addition to being the presenting sponsor for ESPN Saturday Night College Football (on ESPN2), Go Daddy will be airing its GoDaddyEsque television commercials – at least those we can get approved — during regular season games and several important bowl games.

There's a lot to like about college football fans.
College football viewers are the perfect audience for Go Daddy. Their demographics such as age, education, income level, Internet use etc., match Go Daddy's target customer perfectly. As sports fans go, our research has also shown that they are loyal fans and in intensity rank only behind NFL and NASCAR fans.

Advertising on cable is a little easier.
Because ESPN is a cable network, we expect that they will be slightly more liberal – than network TV — when it comes to the type of commercial Go Daddy will get approved. For example, one of the commercials that was rejected for last year’s Super Bowl – and one that I and many others thought SHOULD HAVE BEEN APPROVED — has been given the thumbs up to air during our advertising debut on ESPN2.

ESPN is no pushover.
While ESPN is a bit more liberal in approving our ads – it’s important to understand that Go Daddy is still on a short leash. After ESPN approved the one TV commercial that ABC rejected for last year’s Super Bowl, I got excited. So I sent them our Go Daddy Girl commercial that parodied Basic Instinct. It was rejected immediately.

New commercials and a new spokesman.
Go Daddy Productions – our in-house group that produces all of our commercials – is hard at work shooting new commercials that will air during the College Football Season. To star in some of these commercials we have signed a well known and outspoken NFL football player. I can’t disclose the details here but will do so shortly in an upcoming blog.

So what do you think?
I invite you to comment here on our deal with ESPN. And if you're a college football fan be sure to give your team a shout out.

The 10 million dollar question.
So what impact will our deal with ESPN have on whether or not Go Daddy will advertise during the upcoming 2008 Super Bowl? The ESPN deal certainly put a dent in our advertising war chest. But there are many factors to consider. So, the answer for now is we are still undecided.

Until next time.