GoDaddy, one of the largest web hosting providers in the world, is leaving NASCAR at the end of the 2015 season, as the company looks to diversify its marketing investment across more channels and regions. GoDaddy will reallocate portions of its marketing spend internationally to places where the brand is not as well-known.Â
While the web hosting provider is not renewing its primary sponsorship of the No. 10 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team of Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) and driver Danica Patrick, the company is negotiating to keep Patrick as a GoDaddy spokeswoman under a personal services agreement.
“We love Danica and all she does to empower and inspire people, especially women, which is why we are working to keep her in the GoDaddy family,” said GoDaddy Chief Marketing Officer Phil Bienert. “We have the utmost respect for Stewart-Haas Racing, and they’ve been phenomenal partners. In fact, NASCAR has been a tremendous domestic platform to help us achieve an 81 percent aided brand awareness domestically, but at this stage, we need a range of marketing assets that reach a more globally-diverse set of customers. The fact Danica is having a record-setting season makes it tough to leave this motorsports sponsorship, without a doubt.”
Bright Green Color
Patrick signed with web hosting provider GoDaddy for the 2007 IndyCar season where, in 2008, she became the first woman to win an IndyCar race. GoDaddy later helped transition Patrick into NASCAR, as her primary sponsor, starting with the Xfinity Series and then moving into Sprint Cup full-time in 2013. She is one of 14 elite drivers who have led laps at both the Daytona 500 and the Indianapolis 500.
“GoDaddy has been an incredible partner for a very long time, almost nine years, and as I’ve said before, our brands have really grown up together,” said Danica Patrick. “It’s pretty cool, from a marketing perspective, that we helped GoDaddy build such strong brand awareness here in the U.S. I’m excited to work with GoDaddy on a personal level moving forward, but will miss having their bright green color on my racecar next year.”
In less than two years, the web hosting provider has grown to serve 37 countries in 17 languages and is positioning to fortify its presence in Asia by the end of this year. GoDaddy currently has more than 13 million customers worldwide and more than 59 million domain names under management.
