• by Wayne Friedman , September 14, 2009

Making its annual marketing/public relations push around the Super Bowl has started early for GoDaddy.

Now a regular, albeit controversial Super Bowl advertiser, the Internet domain selling site, GoDaddy.com, has bought two 30-second spots for next February 7, the date of the Super Bowl broadcast on CBS.

GoDaddy wouldn't say how much money was spent on the commercials -- although it did say "a struggling economy actually creates opportunity because many other advertisers rein in their budgets." GoDaddy does its media buying in-house.

Recent reported deals peg Super Bowl deals in the $2.7 million to $2.8 million range for a 30-second commercial -- a bit lower than what NBC was selling the game at a year ago.

For six years, GoDaddy has made the Super Bowl the center of a major marketing and public relations campaign, in part, by having its creative rejected -- usually many times by the particular TV network -- before being approved.

Busty, scantily clad women are the key draw of its creative, along with many suggestive double-entendres. In the last three years, race car driver Danica Patrick has been added to the mix.

Each creative rejection has typically provided fodder for Go Daddy CEO and founder Bob Parsons to ruminate on in his blog.

Super Bowl pricing this year has been somewhat lower -- and slower moving -- than at this time a year ago, according to some executives. NBC, according to insiders, sold out near 85% of its inventory in '08.

Other media executives now say NBC didn't actually do that well -- nor did it sell out as many $3 million 30-second commercial spots (reported as a dozen or so) as was initially believed.

As the recession took hold in the fall/winter, NBC had a more difficult time selling off its remaining Super Bowl units. It sold one commercial to Cash4Gold, a direct-response advertiser. DR marketers usually buy lower-value TV commercial inventory.

Media executives say about 65% of CBS' Super Bowl has already been sold this year. Other marketers in the upcoming Super Bowl include other long-running game sponsors, like Anheuser-Busch InBev, CareerBuilder, Frito-Lay and Pepsi-Cola.

But there is a question mark around automotive makers, such as General Motors, that have had major exposure in past games. GM did not participate last year, due to major financial problems at the company.

For last year's game -- Super Bowl XLI -- GoDaddy announced its media plans in December.