Jeremy Mayfield on STARS Radio Monday July 7th
Stock Car Racing History
Why give him a forum?
Forum Activity for @dave-fulton
Danica a GoneDaddy?
Current NASCAR
The New York Times has reported this week that GoDaddy has hired a new advertising agency, ordered to dispense with the sexy ads that have characterized the company previously.
Don't know how racing might or might not fit GoDaddy's desire to change its image, but it sounds doubtful that we'll see Danica Patrick strutting around in green swimsuits and high heels promoting the brand.
GoDaddy Tries to Move Further From Innuendo
The New York Times
JULY 1, 2014
By STUART ELLIOTT
TWO years after GoDaddy began moving away from sexually provocative advertising that sharply divided consumers, the company is seeking to help accelerate the shift with a change in creative agencies.
Executives of GoDaddy, the Internet services company, are to announce on Wednesday that they have hired the New York firm Barton F. Graf 9000 as their United States advertising agency of record. The company had been working since June 2012 with Deutsch New York on efforts to leave behind a brand image that was centered on suggestive Super Bowl commercials replete with double entendres and featuring scantily clad women known as GoDaddy Girls.
The desire to alter brand perceptions was prompted by factors that included changes in ownership and the executive ranks at GoDaddy, a growing backlash to the sexy ads and a realization that more women were becoming part of the companys target audience of small-business owners. That led to at least four rounds of work from Deutsch New York that tried to cultivate a more grown-up, professional persona for GoDaddy, which handles online tasks like web hosting, registering domain names and designing websites.
Among those makeover efforts were commercials that adopted a theme of Smart meets sexy, which included a Super Bowl spot in 2013 centered on a kiss between a nerd and a supermodel; commercials with Jean-Claude Van Damme, who was meant to embody a new brand personality of enabling entrepreneurs to meet whatever challenges they face; and commercials during the most recent Super Bowl in February that featured a woman who owns a small business and a woman who wanted to own one. Deutsch did a great job for us, said Barb Rechterman, chief marketing officer of GoDaddy in Scottsdale, Ariz. They really have done a ton of work.
However, she added, as we started looking post-Super Bowl at ways to evolve the brand, the company felt it should begin a review. That process started with several agencies not including Deutsch New York and ended with the selection of Barton F. Graf 9000.
The agency is so much like our customer, starting from scratch, bootstrapping it, Ms. Rechterman said of Barton F. Graf 9000, and as a result, it understands this customer much better.
Gerry Graf, who opened his agency in 2010, described himself as a satisfied GoDaddy customer.
Although there are some negative parts of the GoDaddy image, Mr. Graf acknowledged, when you look at what GoDaddy actually does, it helps millions of people. I know. I was a one-person business three years ago, and I used GoDaddy. (The agency now has 30 to 35 employees.)
Its easy to change an image; its hard to change reality, Mr. Graf said, and the reality is that customers appreciate GoDaddys services. Barton F. Graf 9000 has also worked for marketers and brands that include Axe, Finlandia cheese, Little Caesars, Rag and Supercell, a company that creates mobile games like Hay Day.
Mr. Graf and Ms. Rechterman said it was too soon to discuss in detail the creative tack that new ads would take. Even so, Ms. Rechterman said emphatically that GoDaddy would not be going back to the former approach.
We are for the entrepreneur, we are for women, we are for women entrepreneurs, she said. We dont need to be risqu to do this.
At the same time, Ms. Rechterman said, GoDaddy would not be embracing a creative tone of warm, fuzzy, Hallmark-card moments that she described as pervasive in advertising aimed at small businesses.
The new ads will aim to tell entrepreneurs in a humorous, confident way something along the lines of weve got this, weve got them and got their back, she added, and with GoDaddy they can simply pick up the phone and call us.
As for the previous GoDaddy penchant for stirring controversy, Mr. Graf said, theres enough drama in running a small business that when creating ads, you dont have to make that much up.
Deutsch New York is part of the Deutsch unit of the Interpublic Group of Companies. We were engaged at a critical time to reposition GoDaddy from more than just a domain provider to a robust web service company for small-business owners, said Vonda LePage, a spokeswoman at Deutsch New York.
We completed our last assignment with two Super Bowl spots, successfully poising them for their next chapter, she added. We wish them well.
GoDaddy spent $22.9 million last year on advertising in major media, according to the Kantar Media division of WPP, compared with $34.6 million in 2012, $35.2 million in 2011, $31.4 million in 2010 and $22.3 million in 2009. The company has not decided whether it will buy commercial time during the next Super Bowl, Ms. Rechterman said.
Variety.com has reported that NBC, which will broadcast Super Bowl XLIX on Feb. 1, 2015, wants as much as $4.5 million for 30 seconds of commercial time during the game, compared with an estimated $4 million that Fox Broadcasting asked for each 30-second spot during Super Bowl XLVIII on Feb. 2, 2014.
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:04:08PM
TNT's COUNT DOWN TO GREEN INTERVIEWED RETIRING MRN RADIO BARNEY HALL FOR TOTAL TIME: 4MIN.30SEC. (Cut Short for commercial)
Current NASCAR
You could always find Barney seated at a motel room poker table with Bud Moore and Tom Higgins on race weekends.
We came close to losing Barney some years ago following a race at Richmond. Barney, Jim Phillips and a couple of other MRN crew had parked their rental car directly across Laburnum Ave. from the Richmond Fairgrounds main entrance. Attempting to quickly get to the rental car, Barney ran across Laburnum Ave. - and not realizing Henrico County Police had reversed the traffic flow on the 4-lane divided roadway - Barney ran in front of and was hit by a motorhome.
While hospitalized at the old Richmond Memorial Hospital, Barney got a telephone call from Dale Earnhardt, which Barney recalled many years later:
TNT's COUNT DOWN TO GREEN INTERVIEWED RETIRING MRN RADIO BARNEY HALL FOR TOTAL TIME: 4MIN.30SEC. (Cut Short for commercial)
Current NASCAR
I'm sorry I missed any interview with Barney Hall. He is a treasure. I first met Barney in person in 1981 when we hired him to do our Wrangler Racing / Dale Earnhardt radio commercials. Here's just a partial clip:
OK, TMC CHASE, TIME FOR YOU TO GO TO WORK
Administrative
"HOW DO YOU KFC???" - NASCAR / ISC Photos of the Daytona Garage Area picnic with President Reagan July 4, 1984
OK, TMC CHASE, TIME FOR YOU TO GO TO WORK
Administrative
Tim, I was there at Daytona 30 years ago on July 4, 1984 and had been invited to President Reagan's picnic following that other deal that happened a little earlier. I had shipped all these huge dark blue banners with white lettering from Dallas to Daytona that read "7-Eleven Welcomes President Reagan." Jim Foster of International Speedway Corp. had my banners strung all along the inside of the "Sportsman Garage" that had been sealed off and hidden from view with dark fabric placed all along the chain link fencing. I "think" I had the only banners there welcoming the President. I wasn't smart enough, though, to make banners congratulating that other fellow on his accomplishment that day!
Ironically, my future brother-in-law was aboard Air Force One that day serving in the Air Force security aboard the President's plane.
Two extremely memorable things happened at that private picnic besides old adversaries Richard & Bobby sharing KFC while the snipers on the roof of the Daytona grandstands and the roof of the dog track looked down at us from their perches:
1) Bill France, Senior introduced President Reagan from the podium and asked, "Ronnie, what is all this old man s***??!!"
2) A band began to play the famed Tammy Wynette tune "Stand by Your Man." Suddenly, the curtain parted and Tammy herself walked out, embraced the President, and personally sung her great tune to Reagan as he beamed that famous smile of his from ear to ear! It brought down the house!
I felt so fortunate that my wife, Joyce had accompanied me to Daytona that year. It was the most memorable day we ever experienced in auto racing.
I shall leave TMC-Chase to fill in on those other happenings at the Daytona track 30 years ago today!
PAUL REVERE 250 7-4-1968
Stock Car Racing History
For so many years I wanted Lloyd Ruby to bring home an Indy 500 checkers. Nice to read of his success with Bud's Cougar in the Paul Revere.
HOME PAGE STORY ON FIREBALL ROBERTS
Stock Car Racing History
A nice piece. We sure do retain the memorable events from our boyhood. So nice that you have established a relationship with the grandson of Fireball Roberts.
Historic Race Cars in Pa. Over Weekend at Latimore Valley Fair Dirt Track / Eastern Museum of Motor Racing- Photos
Stock Car Racing History
My old friend and many time racing companion, Frank Buhrman was asked to announce activities for the historic cars appearing this past weekend in York Springs, Pennsylvania at the Latimore Valley Fair on the track adjacent to the Eastern Museum of Motor Racing.
That must be quite a sight and sound when they crank up those historic machines and turn laps on the dirt. Sure looks exciting!
Here's his brief report and a few photos he snapped as he handled announcing chores:
Great time over the weekend. Those are some of the nicest people.
There weren't as many of the antique racers as I'd remembered years
ago, but I think that's in part because they only have those cars
Saturday, then go to a "cruise-in" classics-and-hot rods show Sunday,
plus dragsters. It brings in a different crowd, which is good for the
bottom line, but I was sorry there weren't more old stocks & sprinters
out on the track. They've asked me back for next year.
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:00:58PM
Tri-City Speedway in High Point, NC - 1948 Aerial
Historic Speedways and Ghost Tracks
Really terrific photos. Sounds like Bill McPeek is ready to go play!