GoDaddy, Danica back in Super Bowl

GoDaddy, once the Super Bowl's raciest advertiser, will be back in the Big Game with an unlikely icon: a puppy.

The Internet domain-naming and Web-hosting specialist today will announce that it will be back in the Feb. 1 contest, along with a cameo appearance from longtime spokes-driver Danica Patrick. The commercial's real star won't be Patrick — but a yet-to-be-cast puppy.

For GoDaddy, it's all about evolving away from a brand that just wanted its name to be recognized — even if it meant linking its image entirely with sexy babes wearing little clothing — to a brand now focused on simply getting small-business owners to understand what it does. The Scottsdale, Ariz.-based company, now in the midst of an IPO, posted revenue in excess of $1 billion last year.

But it's the Super Bowl that has been GoDaddy's shortcut to fame and fortune. Now, for the 11th consecutive year, it's back in the game, but this time offering a new twist on one of the Super Bowl's most successful advertising platforms — the puppy.

"People love puppies," explains Barb Rechterman, GoDaddy's chief marketing officer, in a phone interview. "But our ad will have a surprise ending that's not traditionally warm and fuzzy."

While it's the first time GoDaddy will feature a puppy in a Super Bowl spot, it's following a tried-and-true formula that's been wildly successful at the Super Bowl for years. Last year's USA TODAY Ad Meter winner for the best Super Bowl commercial was a Budweiser ad featuring a puppy and a pony. Back in 2012, the top three Ad Meter winners all featured dogs. And in 2011, the top two spots also starred dogs.

"There is solid research evidence that ads that contain dogs are more likable than other ads," said Charles Taylor, professor of marketing at Villanova School of Business. Beyond all the research, he adds, "almost everyone likes puppies."

But this puppy — which will star in a spot about a puppy trying to get back home — has yet to even be selected, says Rechterman. She declined to give any more details about the commercial, "Journey Home," but social media will play a strong role between the puppy and the commercial, she says.

The creative guru behind the ad had some serious Super Bowl cred. Gerry Graf, now chief creative officer at the New York ad agency Barton F. Graf 9000, helped create the famous E-Trade Monkey Super Bowl commercial back in 2000, while at Goodby Silverstein & Partners. That ad showed a monkey dancing while two oddballs clap their hands for 30 seconds before this message flashes on the TV screen at the end of the ad: "Well, we just wasted $2 million. What are you doing with your money?"

Two years ago, a GoDaddy Super Bowl spot that featured gorgeous model Bar Refaeli passionately kissing a nerdy-looking guy for about 30 painful seconds was widely ridiculed. Last year, GoDaddy aired two Super Bowl spots. One starred a muscle-bound special-effects version of Patrick and the other featured a real woman who actually informed her boss, in the Super Bowl spot, that she was quitting her job. And this go-round, it's puppies — and Patrick.

For Patrick, it's icing on her personal Super Bowl record.

This will be the NASCAR star's 14th Super Bowl commercial over a nine-year period — by far the most of any celebrity. Her first Super Bowl spot was in 2007.

Patrick was unavailable for comment. But in a statement, she said, of her canine co-star, "I'm pretty sure this little GoDaddy puppy is going to steal the show."