GoDaddy Grabs Chad Johnson to Catch Collage Audience

[NewsDesk]

Godaddy the Internet Giant, announces their new addition to their advertising team, Chad Johnson.

He's edgy. He's fun. He even admits he can be a "touch inappropriate." By definition, this makes Chad Johnson fully GoDaddy-esque and a great catch for GoDaddy.com.

Go Daddy CEO and Founder Bob Parsons drafted the professional football star to play for the world's dominant domain name registrar - as a GoDaddy.com spokesman. Chad Johnson has already filmed three new commercials for GoDaddy.com. The ads debut Sept. 29 during GoDaddy.com-sponsored coverage of the Saturday night college football game on ESPN2.

"Chad Johnson is an exceptional fit for us. He's fun, he's fast and he's at the top of his game," said Parsons. "If you watched the Monday Night Football debut, you know he's edgy." Johnson drew massive media attention for a touchdown celebration in which he jokingly donned a gold jacket meant to represent a "future" Hall of Fame induction.

The All-Pro wide receiver is also known for being good-natured and generous. During last week's GoDaddy.com commercial shoot at a Wisconsin high school, a young fan asked Johnson to play tennis with him for a few minutes in between scenes. Johnson happily obliged, instead of secluding himself in the comfort of his private quarters.

Johnson was a big hit at Middleton High School, near Madison, Wisconsin, where Go Daddy Productions shot the commercials. Middleton High Athletic Director Luke Francois was all smiles about his Chad Johnson experience. "He is a class-act. He is very professional, very classy," Francois said. Johnson signed autographs and talked to students throughout the full-day event.

A sportswriter recently named Johnson the league's "most fun player to watch."

"Chad's passion is contagious, no doubt about that," said Parsons. "He is the right guy at the right time to talk directly to college football fans who use the Internet."

GoDaddy.com solidified its brand identity in the football arena in 2005, achieving unmatched marketing success with its first Super Bowl commercial. "That spot helped put GoDaddy.com on the mainstream map, but our prices, products and service are what keep us on top," Parsons said.

Parsons still won't say whether he plans to advertise in the 2008 Super Bowl, but GoDaddy.com has already spent millions for its sponsorships of ESPN2's Saturday night college football and IndyCar's most popular driver and Go Daddy Girl Danica Patrick.

Considered the on-ramp to the Internet, www.GoDaddy.com registers more domain names than its three closest competitors combined. Domain names are used as Web site addresses, for personalized email addresses, to reserve a place on the Internet and more. GoDaddy.com is also a leading Web hosting company and offers more than 35 related products, most all of which were developed in-house.

To see a "rough cut" of a GoDaddy.com commercial featuring Chad Johnson, click www.GoDaddy.com/football.
To read Bob Parsons' blog about the new GoDaddy.com spokesman, visit www.BobParsons.com.

About The Go Daddy Group, Inc.
Go Daddy is a leading provider of services that enable individuals and businesses to establish, maintain and evolve an online presence. Go Daddy provides a variety of domain name registration and Web site hosting services, as well as a broad array of on-demand and other services. The Go Daddy Group, Inc. has more than 23 million domain names under management. Go Daddy registers, renews or transfers a domain name every 1.3 seconds. GoDaddy.com is the world's No. 1 domain name registrar according to Name Intelligence, Inc. GoDaddy.com is also rated the world's largest hostname provider according to Netcraft Ltd. During 2006, The Go Daddy Group registered approximately one-third of all domain names registered in the top six generic top-level domains, or gTLDs, including .com, .net, .org, .biz, .info.