The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences chooses the Oscar for the "Best Picture" each year based on a host of subjective criteria, including (I'm guessing) the quality of cinematography, the brilliance of the screenplay, and ethereal performances delivered by outstanding actors. Great stories beautifully told get Oscar nods.


This works for the Oscars. It doesn't work for advertising. And yet, many marketing pundits seem to think that good advertising .... or good marketing, for that matter .... should be equally urbane, witty and thought provoking. Thankfully, GoDaddy.com gives us a yearly education on what advertising is and does.
Do you like their Super Bowl ads? If you're voting on the basis of artistic content, perhaps you find them sophomoric. If you're voting on the basis of personal moral views, depending on your starting point you may look down upon them or find them offensive. But if you're a marketer, you love them. Why? They work, and that's why marketers spend money on advertising. Let's look at 2009's results:

• GoDaddy.com reports that sales of new domains are up 110% over last year's Super Bowl campaign.


• Tivo reports that the GoDaddy.com "Baseball" ad was the most re-watched commercial of the game.


• GoDaddy.com reports that 70% of male and two thirds of female visitors to their website viewed the ads as entertaining

.
If you're a CEO and your marketing chief comes to you with these figures, are you happy with the expense? If you're a CMO and you get these results, are you going back to the well next year? Yes and yes. I have yet to work with a client who is interested in spending marketing dollars to create buzz. Every CEO I've worked with wants the same thing: turning marketing investments into revenue.
GoDaddy.com is a favorite brand of mine for several reasons. They created a fun, edgy brand in a category as exciting as a long, tall glass of sawdust. Their customer service experience is the best of any company I have ever used, particularly in a category rife with sleazy players. CEO and founder Bob Parsons has taken upon himself the role of industry steward on Capitol Hill, a role that would dumbfound many of his critics. And they have created a brand image that says, "Owning your own business is fun .... it's not just for IT guys."
If you find their ads offensive, I'd challenge you to actually view them and ask yourself in the privacy of your own home whether they are actually as offensive as you first assumed them to be. They're actually far tamer than the crowd of Twittering pitchfork-and-torch crowd assumes. Compare them to the average "erectile dysfunction" ads that likely sandwich each commercial break during an NFL game. Which would you rather have to explain to your 10 year old? Once you've crossed this threshold, ask yourself what you, as a marketer, are charged with doing day in and day out.
Ads and marketing in general are meant to do one thing and one thing only: sell more stuff. They may sell more stuff right now or they may prepare the ground for you to sell more stuff later. They may do a breakthrough job of raising brand awareness, they may create positive word of mouth, they may create a discussion where one didn't exist before, but in each case they push your audience towards the inevitable purchase of whatever it is you sell. If your ads don't sell more stuff, they fail .... and you with them.
Regards.